General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThey don't want democracy. They want to own the world.
And who are "they?" No, they're not the Republican Party, or the MAGA voters, or Cotton, or Hawley, or Cruz, or DeSantis, or even TFG, who are all tools who have been bought and paid for. The reality is that all of these people and organizations follow orders (whether they know it or not). They are all owned.
We know the Koch family is perhaps one of the largest owners all of these shits. But there are others. They're all billionaires in the fossil fuel business, or other industries of a past era, that made them disgustingly wealthy. And they're going to keep these industries going, (and destroying our environment), until all of our natural resources run out. They are going to squeeze the last cent out of oil, natural gas, coal, timber, and everything else from which they built their fortunes and their empires.These are the people who finance Republicans and demand that their orders be followed. These are the people who fund wing-nut "think tanks." And they also fund The Federalist Society that invents the issues that generate and spread ignorance, hatred, bigotry, and, of course, keep feeding the racism that built America.
And let's not forget Rupert Murdoch and all the others who run the biggest propaganda machine in the history of the world.
Some reading this might not understand that the disease called the Republican Party is a front for some of the worst people on this planet. But it really ain't that deep. These are people who want to own everything that they don't already own. And, yeah, that includes us.
They are very close to making our votes meaningless. They are on the verge of grabbing what every other would-be conqueror of the world wanted. They are on he verge of winning and ruling. And, other than the Koch family, most of us don't even know the names of those who may soon own the whole fucking world. And they're licking their chops.
intrepidity
(7,241 posts)like water and food scarcity--these Owners of Earth intend to survive and thrive, whilst the rest of us perish.
I do believe that is what's driving their reckless quest to accumulate as much wealth as possible while the gettin's good.
Kid Berwyn
(14,651 posts)How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse
The Event was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, virus, or hack that takes everything down.
Illustration: Matt Huynh
Silicon Valleys elite are hatching plans to escape disaster and when it comes, theyll leave the rest of us behind
Douglas Rushkoff for Medium via The Guardian
Tue 24 Jul 2018
Last year, I got invited to a super-deluxe private resort to deliver a keynote speech to what I assumed would be a hundred or so investment bankers. It was by far the largest fee I had ever been offered for a talk about half my annual professors salary all to deliver some insight on the subject of the future of technology.
Ive never liked talking about the future. The Q&A sessions always end up more like parlor games, where Im asked to opine on the latest technology buzzwords as if they were ticker symbols for potential investments: blockchain, 3D printing, Crispr. The audiences are rarely interested in learning about these technologies or their potential impacts beyond the binary choice of whether or not to invest in them. But money talks, so I took the gig.
Snip
Which region will be less affected by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked: How do I maintain authority over my security force after the Event?
The Event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, unstoppable virus, or Mr Robot hack that takes everything down.
Continues
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/23/tech-industry-wealth-futurism-transhumanism-singularity
Mr. Kyle, your Agonizer, please!
2naSalit
(86,071 posts)And that is it.
Cyrano
(15,023 posts)an orange haired asshole, his followers and the wannabees who want to be next in the White House.
2naSalit
(86,071 posts)I hope things change by fall. Don't know what it will take but something has to give.
Wounded Bear
(58,440 posts)walkingman
(7,512 posts)ymetca
(1,182 posts)to believe our venerated Constitution provides a way out of this mess. It doesn't.
The problem is global. The nation/state way of organizing human behavior is obsolete. And a global direct democracy is antithetical to global capitalism AND global communism. All our old "isms" are dead.
Hopefully, future generations will concoct a better, global, democratic political system more attuned to the needs of the many over the greed of the few.
After all, freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
Cyrano
(15,023 posts)We're all stranded on this little ball whirling through space. And many ignorant fools are clueless that their personal goals will lead to the destruction of us all.
Your hope is that future generations can overcome greed and create a better world. My hope is that future generations will even exist, given that short-sighted, mindless pricks are quickly destroying the only habitat we currently have.