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Comment by SpicyLemonZest | Hacker News Reader

I guess Esquire didn't read far enough into the Wired article to discover that this is a tech industry version of similar gatherings like Bilderberg or various WEF side events that have long been known to exist. They're not generally called "cabals" (you'll note Wired did not use this term) because, as far as we know, they don't seem to be much more than glorified social clubs.

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Yeah I probably should have linked the Wired article instead if it hasn't already been here. I spotted it a couple days ago but didn't get around to reading it.

Author is primarily a sports blogger and political pundit. Esquire’s lead political blogger since 2011.

Charles P Pierce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Pierce

Bilderberg, the World Economic Forum, and Bohemian Grove are also cabals of elite crazies trying to run the world.

Plus the Carlyle Group, Temple Emanu-El in NYC, the Rothchilds...

If any of them are running the world, we're not seeing the results. The current level of competence at world-running is very low. Putin, Trump, Netanyahu, Xi, and whomever is running the UK this month are all worse than average for their job.

> The current level of competence at world-running is very low.

Yes? If by "running competently" you mean the prosperity of the general population and peace, sure, it's not that competent. But why'd you think that'd be their goal? If anything, Orwell's "1984" shows the mindset perfectly: keep the general public in misery, while skimming whatever cream there is; no need to try and grow the pie, there is enough for them, and the rest of the world can go buck itself.

If you read "1984", then you'll note that the elites there were barely better off than the middle class now. While living in constant fear of purges.

Russian "elites" are now getting the political-science-101 education. In 2000-s, they traded their political rights in exchange for the right to skim off the state income. They were thinking that their personal connections and money would always get them out of trouble, so why bother fixing corrupt courts and the rubber-stamping parliament?

Well, now their assets are just fodder for the new generation of the "elites" from the FSB and a few of Putin's closest friends. And the former all-powerful elites can't do anything but wait in fear.

Somehow, people like Thiel and never understand that until it's too late.

I think the incompetence is the point. I imagine what "running the world" really looks like is making bank off international loans and reconsutruction projects after one useful idiot bombs the country of another.

I don't follow the logic - because incompetent people are running the show, some other group of incompetent people can't be running the show?

It’s even weirder I think? Because the people in power are clearly incompetent AND making the average persons life shitty, they clearly can’t be in power due to a conspiracy.

When if anything, that seems to support it being the result of shenanigans?

They can be effective at acquiring power and bad at wielding it.

But it seems to me like they're enriching themselves just fine.

My point is ‘bad’ at using power is relative

Peter Principle strikes again!

The logic is that the world we see is chaotic in a way that’s difficult to reconcile with the idea that it’s all being masterminded behind the scenes. There does not seem to be any one group of people who always win every political dispute they engage in.

Yet there is a group that reliably loses in the United States: average citizens. From "Testing Theories of American Politics" (Gilens & Page 2014)[1]:

"These results suggest that reality is best captured by mixed theories in which both individual economic elites and organized interest groups (including corporations, largely owned and controlled by wealthy elites) play a substantial part in affecting public policy, but the general public has little or no independent influence."

1. https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_th...

I guess this result doesn't seem surprising to me? A majority of the general public can't even identify how long Senate terms are (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/07/what-amer...); they simply don't have the required knowledge to meaningfully influence politics without mediation through interest groups. (Anecdotally, it’s a truism in political circles that you will drive yourself insane trying to understand the median voter’s theories of politics.)

Isn’t the point to be in charge regardless of competence or popularity? That is real power.

Those things are far more necessary for an Employee than an Owner.

Yes. To be clear they think they are running the world because all the ass kissers around them told them they are.

Reality is a lot less forgiving of their delusions.

All the rich guys who aligned themselves with MAGA/Trump are even richer now, so I’d say they’re quite successful. Their goal isn’t creating a stable, pleasant world. It’s solidifying their power, largely through acquisition of obscene wealth.

The carlyle group is a publicly traded company that mainly invests pension funds.

We are seeing results. The rich have it better than ever. That's the results.

If they are "running the world" they are certainly not doing so for your benefit.

(There is also a great deal of distance between "running the world" and "influencing some events for the benefit of a select few, no matter what the costs to the rest of the world". Personally, I find the latter far more likely, but also undesireable.)

Plus just about any kind of invitation-only meeting of people who can Get Shit Done. Many years ago I was at one of these and one of the discussions was how you'd shut down all network comms in a country in a manner where it'd take weeks if not months to restart things, by people who were in a position to actually do it. Was this a cabal? Yes, if you report it as such, but no if you report it as a threat-modelling exercise by the defenders.

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