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Comment by ElProlactin | Hacker News Reader

A large swath of American society today sees a movie like Scarface as an inspirational biopic, not a modern Shakespearean tragedy.

Lots of especially younger people see unbridled ambition and rule-breaking as a virtue. Everything is about making money and if you're not the one getting it, or worse, you're the person being victimized, you're dumb and weak.

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I dont know if I would blame young people as much. Those are values of the generation before them. Literally represented by over 40 years old like Vance, Musk and well, the whole conservative establishement.

Young people are more open in expressing it (like with Tate), but underlying ideas are not new.

isn't that what society rewards though? everyone is supposed to be an entrepreneur and have a side hustle

Being enterprising has always been a virtue in the US, but historically, there have been limits to how far you would go to make a buck, and people that pushed past those limits would be scorned by the majority. So at the very least, people tried to pretend that they were honest and did "good business" even when they were shysters.

I'd argue it's different today. Social media in particular has convinced a whole generation of people that if you don't have a garage full of supercars by the age of 23, you're a loser, and that there's almost no activity too shameful to engage in publicly in pursuit of wealth.

‘It’s different today.’ Buddy, the Me Decade was 50 years ago.

That's exactly the problem. Any ideal/virtue can be violated as long as they are getting that bag.

> dumb and weak

Like, "losers and suckers"?

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