'When the American empire finally collapses, historians won't be stunned by the greed of the elite'

[Joinfortmill]

Link to tweet

?lang=en

'When the American empire finally collapses, historians won't be stunned by the greed of the elite; they'll be stunned by the loyalty of the poor. The working class didn't just vote against their own interests. They worshipped the billionaires robbing them. They slashed their own benefits, gutted their own healthcare, and cheered while the rich wrote off private jets as tax deductions. Not because it helped them. But because they were told it would hurt someone else. And that, right there, is how you rig a democracy without even breaking a single law.'

My words: The first thing I thought when my daughter sent me this was, shame on us. The second thing I thought was, not on my goddamn watch. No way. No how. Fight these stupid fucks. Just fight them any way you can.

[Lovie777]

1. Not this poor working class.............

we tend to survive. It will be extremely tough, but one thing about us that the rich always seems to ignore..............

We believe in mankind and the precious mother earth.

[UpInArms]

2. Well said, Shawn Ryan

It is so true

We must fight the oligarchy

[Intractable]

3. It is a basic premise of hegemony theory that the upper class creates the values and norms ...

for the middle and lower classes.

They own the media and venues. They own a lot of the free speech.

Most of us cannot even see how to level-up, so to speak.

[twodogsbarking]

4. Patriotism is used for shame.

[twodogsbarking]

5. I hope Greenland takes over the United States of Anarchy.

[LymphocyteLover]

14. their weather is attacking us right now

[twodogsbarking]

28. Colder than a witch's back porch.

fooled ya

[Crowman2009]

6. Or worse yet, those poor people think they are going to be that rich someday as well.

As if life's lottery will trickle down on them.

[Dr. T]

17. Faux News convinced a former coworker that he was rich.

He wasn't. I know this because he was on my same pay scale. Solid middle class, but rich? Not even close. He was typical Repuglican base, too stupid for critical thinking.

[haele]

33. Well, he is "rich" compared to 1950's simple rural working class

Last edited Sat Jan 24, 2026, 04:08 PM - Edit history (1)

You know, the non-union workers who struggled to pay the annual property tax for grandpappy's homestead, couldn't help pay for auntie's breast cancer treatment (but could help with her funeral) or little Julie's asthma, lived off canned meats and veggies from the bargain bin and ate PB and homemade jam for most meals.
The type of worker or tradesman that Johnson's "War on Poverty" gave better lives to.
Yeah, the average Republican is making a bit more money than their grandparents did (for less physical work), but they've got twice as much debt and fewer opportunities to show for it. And the Boss and Investor classes got richer at a higher rate than any paycheck worker could dream.

[Chemical Bill]

7. Or the elite got rid of the votes against them.... n/t

[questionseverything]

38. Since they manufacture the machines that count the votes, it's not difficult

[yellow dahlia]

48. Yup.

[tulipsandroses]

8. I'm glad he is seeing the light; He was after all part of the problem

One of the podcast bros supporting trump

[KS Toronado]

9. Our message for the mid-terms needs to have a poor vs rich theme

that and how Rs protect rich pedophiles.

[Blues Heron]

10. Trump said Elon hacked the vote counting.

[yellow dahlia]

47. Yup!

And they are going to do it again.

[SocialDemocrat61]

11. All great empires in history fell

due to rot and corruption from within.

[OldBaldy1701E]

12. I think I would say that all great empires fell due to a lack of oversight by the masses.

Of course, most of these empires did not allow such oversight. The difference in our case is the fact that what was going to happen was obvious. We just decided to be delusional about it.

And, now we are paying the price. Corruption, greed, ego, biases... they were here to begin with and have never been removed(or even addressed in most cases, since being selfish and selectively delusional is all but an American Virtue) from our society.

So, why are we so shocked at what is happening now? We knew this was coming. And, if one didn't... well.. see the above paragraph about why this happened.

[LymphocyteLover]

13. that's what FoxNews has done a brilliant job of-- working class fascist propaganda

[live love laugh]

45. Propaganda plus illiteracy is a lethal combination as we're seeing.

[lastlib]

15. Shakespeare amended:

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the billionaires."

[bdamomma]

42. Well

that may happen, if they, the rich keep on showing us disrespect, and we must show them the same disrespect. Like fucking pay your wealth tax or they can choke on it!!!!!

[AllaN01Bear]

16. let it go down. llet i all go down and then they will whine and pine on how good they had it. my late mom.

that is all.

[talking-liberally]

18. J P Morgan building x 100

The new JP Morgan building in NY City cost $5 billion. That's a lot of money. It holds 10,000 people.

Elan Musk could build 100 of those. He could rebuild the NY skyline and own it and still have billions left over.

That helped me understand how much he is worth.


"If we return to return to the racism of the 50's, shouldn't we return to the tax rates as well?"

[Callie1979]

19. Well, Shawn, YOU helped put him in office. Not ME.

[tulipsandroses]

32. Exactly!! I do find him more genuine in his disgust for trump

though than Rogan and some of the others. He has been speaking to Dem politicians on his show recently. It still boggles the mind that so many people take these pod cast bros seriously. 😳
So many stupid and or hateful people.

[Callie1979]

34. And I'm glad to see that too. You should read comments under some of those.

The cult does NOT like him telling to Khanna or Hunter Biden etc
They really go after him.

I'd just like to see ONE of these big names finally say "I was wrong> This was a mistake"

[WestMichRad]

20. It will be the leading example of...

… how effective propaganda and control of the media can be.

[sop]

21. Your post brought to mind something Aldous Huxley said:

"There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution." The quote is from a 1962 speech ('The Ultimate Revolution') at the University of California, Berkeley.

Huxley believed that future dictatorships would not rely on brute force, but on psychological manipulation, propaganda, and "pharmacological" methods, like the drug "soma" in his novel ('Brave New World'), to create a society that is distracted, comfortable, and willingly subservient. At this point in history I would substitute "technical" (social media) for "pharmacological."

[soldierant]

43. Despite the truth of that,

Dictators will not be interested in a pharmacological method of creating contentment in servitude - even though it would be far, FAR easier to rule a population like that than one which contains rational humans who will constantly be attempting to rebel. Apparently the cruelty really is the point.

By the way, Huxley used far more than just soma to maintain that contentment. Remember the sound loops in the embryo factory? "I'm so glad I'm an Alpha. I'm glad I'm not a Beta..." and so on and so on. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

[SouthBayDem]

22. Shawn Ryan is a right wing podcaster

See wikipedia; not to be confused with the TV writer who created police dramas The Shield and SWAT.

[Joinfortmill]

26. In this case he's right. Go figure.

[irisblue]

23. Further down thread

Americans don't vote to join the rich. They vote to punish someone poorer. The whole system runs on finding someone below you to kick. Making $15/hour? Better cut welfare. On food stamps? At least you're not an immigrant. The genius is keeping everyone focused downward while getting robbed from above.

Link to tweet

American exceptionalism seems to be hate

[Mr.Bee]

24. com·pla·cen·cy

a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements.
"I'm voting for trump and there are no grounds for complacency"!'

[barbtries]

25. My children and grandchildren will know

that I did, and that I did it for THEM.

[ancianita]

27. Even after it happens, IF it does, only a slim majority of the 74,000,000 will know who caused that collapse.

And it's because they didn't do their homework on the felon to start with, that by the time they learn the hard way, it's too late.

Why those who learn the hard way don't change is their laziness, and their forgetfulness and stupidity about the facts, law, and history.

YET AGAIN. May they suffer accordingly.

[Bristlecone]

29. The only disagreement I have with this is that laws are often broken

They are just willing ignored by the rich and powerful, like the greed mentioned here. And like all of the rest, they are cheered on.

[GreenWave]

30. At long last the BS of calling us a nation, not an Empire, s exposed.

[MenloParque]

31. The noticing

Is occurring with the kids. We live in Silicon Valley. The kids are not seeing the blue collar working class man who don't share their own social views as their enemy. The Billionaire Tech Bros and ultra wealthy are their enemies in these young kids eyes. Can't blame them!!

[Glaisne]

35. The legacy of Rush Limbaugh

and monopoly right wing talk radio that brainwashed the poor for decades.

[BadgerMom]

36. Hasn't this same explanation been given for the confederacy?

Plantation owners were uberwealthy in comparison to the quite poor white sharecroppers who went off to fight to make sure an even less privileged enslaved population continued to exist as a permanent underclass? And the mindset never died?

[live love laugh]

37. De-education is the root cause beginning with underpaid teachers having to buy their own supplies.

Now many students don’t even use textbooks, can’t tell time on analog clocks or even cursive write. Forget reading comprehension and critical thinking skills altogether. Education is critical for a free society.

[OMGWTF]

39. When the autopsy on the US is written, the whore media will be found as the cause of death.

Democracy depends on an informed populous, and they have failed.

[gfarber]

40. Loyalty Of The Poor

There once was an empire so grand,
That fell not by some foreign hand.
The ledgers would say
(When the dust blew away):
It was poor folks who took their stand.

There once was a voter quite poor,
Who bowed to a tycoon next door.
He cheered every theft,
Clapped while being left
With less than he’d started before.

They voted to cut their own aid,
And grinned as the safety nets frayed.
“It’s freedom,” they cried,
As healthcare all died,
While jets were tax-deductible made.

Not gain, but the spite was the trick—
If others got hurt, terrific!
They’d lose what they had
Just to see someone sad,
A pleasure both pure and specific.

No statutes were broken or bent,
No coup in the dark ever meant.
Just stories well-spun
Till the damage was done,
And ballots did all that was meant.

So scholars will gape at the sight,
Not greed—but devotion outright.
A system stays neatly rigged
By myths that keep minds tightly jigged,
Till crowds cheer the dimming of light.

[Quanto Magnus]

41. a percentage of that mystifying set of 'poor'

continues to support those billionaires.

[eppur_se_muova]

44. Americans worship money too much. In this society, money is the measure of all things. nt

[Aussie105]

49. Yep.

Trump has enough money to be able to buy himself a very heavy gold coffin.

But he will still end up in it.

Where he is going money has no value.

[JI7]

46. They didn't vote against their interest. For some racism, misogyny

and similar things are their interests.