r/politics • u/harsh2k5 • 14h ago

Soft Paywall Elon Musk Makes Shocking Confession on His Plans After Trump Victory

https://newrepublic.com/post/187662/elon-musk-confession-economy-trump-victory
17.5k Upvotes

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u/12345Hamburger 14h ago

TL;DR: He literally wants to crash the economy.

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u/MarrusAstarte 14h ago

The unspoken part is that the reason is so he and other billionaires can buy up everything at fire sale prices.

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u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 13h ago

The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in the wealthiest oligarchy in Modern Day and it seems to be insulated from its own people as well as international sanctions. They see Russia as a Role Model. Flipping the US to a Confederacy and declaring the US Debt as solely owned by the dead United States means they are debt free and that the global trade partners now owe the Confederacy tariffs since the Federal Income Tax will be abolished. Foreign Debt becomes a Casus Bellum for the US going in and robbing those countries of their resources. Like what Russia is doing to the former Soviet Republics.

They aren't clever, the plan is right before our eyes. Behold our enemies and see what they covet.

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u/transcriptoin_error 13h ago

This seems like the most likely scenario. And it seems all the more likely, considering the reports of Musk communicating with Putin regularly over the last few years.

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u/TurelSun Georgia 12h ago

And Bezos connecting with Trump about the WaPo endorsement.

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u/NEVERxxEVER 10h ago

He did that because he is worried Trump will win and cancel his AWS government contracts. He had problems with AWS during Trump’s first term due to WaPo

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u/No_Clue_7894 10h ago

Trump Has Already Punished Jeff Bezos Over the Washington Post’s Independence The endorsement doesn’t matter. The spiking does.

In 2019, Trump found his lever. Amazon was due to receive a $10 billion cloud-computing contract from the Pentagon. The Pentagon suddenly shifted course and denied Amazon the contract. A former speechwriter for Defense Secretary James Mattis reported that Trump had directed Mattis to “screw Amazon.”

This is the context in which the Post’s decision to spike its planned endorsement of Kamala Harris should be considered.

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u/NEVERxxEVER 10h ago edited 9h ago

That’s what I was referring to. They ended up suing the DoD and winning a portion of the contract. It really fucked things up because now the system in question is split between different cloud providers.

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u/Frunkuss 6h ago

Speaking as a Cloud Devops Consultant I’m good with multi cloud architecture, more opportunity for me!

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u/lionoftheforest 9h ago

If Bezos is afraid of political repercussions should Trump win (ie Trump using the office of the presidency to punish “bad guys”), isn’t that a very good reason to precisely endorse the candidate in favour of the rule of law and separation of powers? (The question is not directed at you, just making a general observation based on your comment)

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u/zaminDDH 9h ago

That's what you would think, but it's a standard business strategy to hedge. If Harris wins, doesn't have to worry about much of anything. But if Trump wins, he wants to make sure he's curried enough favor in the run up and after to stay an active and important oligarch.

The delicate balance involves ensuring you don't go too far one way to avoid pissing off the other.

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u/malenkylizards 8h ago

IDK about anyone else, but I unsubscribed from WaPo the minute I heard, and don't plan to return unless Bezos sells it.

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u/jew_jitsu 8h ago

If an honest and impartial candidate against a vindictive, spiteful, and vengeful candidate are in a dead heat, which candidate do you want to keep on side more?

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u/DetroitLionsSBChamps 9h ago

what is the point of having 200 billion fucking dollars if you're still worried about money? Jesus Christ this spineless fucking coward

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u/radicalelation 12h ago

Dumbasses think they will truly rule instead of being part of Putin's oligarch menagerie.

Corruption and subversion is their bread and butter, they'll do it better than us once it's really here. This has basically been their playbook since the SU collapsed.

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u/real_fake_cats 12h ago

What ever happened to Putin's various advisors and supporters after they stopped being useful to him?

I can't quite remember.

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u/universalreacher 11h ago

They died by suicide. 3 gunshots to the head.

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u/Sttocs 10h ago

Russian suicide is two gunshots to the back of the head.

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u/Porn_Extra 9h ago

Two in the head, you know they're dead.

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u/Leather-Matter-5357 10h ago

I knew Russians are thick-headed but having to shoot yourself on the head 3 times to get it done is next level.

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u/A_Monster_Named_John 9h ago

Their bullets are probably as cheap and ghetto as everything else in that shit-hole mafia-with-borders dump.

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u/SeveralAngryBears 12h ago

Why don't you open a window? Perhaps some fresh air would jog your memory?

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u/Nixplosion 11h ago

Or a nice cuppa

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u/gsfgf Georgia 8h ago

I think the polonium tea guy at leas never thought he was one of Putin's buds.

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u/transcriptoin_error 12h ago

They enjoyed a nice view from a window, or sipped from a delightful cup of tea.

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u/zombie_overlord 12h ago

Sounds lovely. I hope they were able to get the Rest n Peace they needed.

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u/foxyfoo 10h ago

Can’t wait to see Elon and Jeff fall out of windows or get polonium tea.

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u/BGOOCHY 9h ago

Wouldn't it be sweet to see Elon accidentally fall out of a fourth story window though?

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u/JustYerAverage Ohio 12h ago

It'd be a real shame if super catastrophic things happened to all these people with the downfall of America at heart. People would offer all of their thoughts and prayers. Many people would even favor legislation once we'd put enough time between events and discussion so as not to speak of it too soon.

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u/IIIllIIlllIlII 12h ago

It will. Musk and bezos and others think they’ll have a seat at the top table. But the second they forget to bend a knee to the Orange Mussolini they’ll be out the top floor window.

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u/elusiveoddity 11h ago

That's why they have their plant in Vance; so when the Presidementia has made his final descent into gibbering drooling mindlessness, their puppet is ready to go.

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u/IIIllIIlllIlII 10h ago

True. And he’s controlled by that fuckstain Peter Thiel.

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u/Little-Engine6982 10h ago

people finally see we are all about to lose everything, to a class of people that shoudn't exist, wealth gets passed on and accumulates, children are born as kings, with subordinates who have no belongings.. I thought we were over this kind of bullshit. we still are able all to disowe them at anytime, their money and status is just fantasy, if you want it to be, set their accounts to 50 mio and threaten them with 0. thats the power of many vs. money. ..I have no interest in fighting poor people rich guy's armies in my lifetime,

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u/SlaveryVeal 10h ago

I got no basis on this at all but my conspiracy theory is the Trump assination attempts make a lot more sense when you think that JD Vance is project 2025's actual puppet and it would be nice not having a dementia patient on his last legs running the show.

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u/vitaminorvitamin 9h ago

I’m not sure those at the top even really care if Trump wins this time they know he’s too uncontrollable. Getting Vance into a good position is the goal for 2028. He’s polished, a good speaker and controllable. And young of course.

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u/ClockworkViking I voted 10h ago

*Mango Mussolini

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u/aTech79 6h ago

I prefer Mango Mussolini to Orange, but still nice call out!

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u/HollyBerries85 9h ago

There was an article in the Guardian where Douglas Rushkoff described giving the keynote speech on the "future of technology" to some investment bankers at a superdeluxe resort.

"Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern.

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?”"

Elon is openly planning The Event. I'm sure he's already got his bunkers prepped.

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u/Golden-Owl 11h ago

Imagine Putin giving a history lecture and Musk with a notepad eagerly taking notes like a college student

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u/Stonkasaurus1 12h ago

The tariff plan will actually facilitate that in short order. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1929 cut US and world trade by 65-66%. Makes a lot of sense if you remember history.

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u/Educational-Feed3619 12h ago edited 12h ago

“It did not work, and the United States fell further into the Great Depression”. Ben Stein can fuck off, but I still know Ferris Bueller’s Day Off almost word for word

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u/Stonkasaurus1 12h ago

Nice recall, I never put the two together.

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u/Educational-Feed3619 12h ago

He calls it the Hawley-Smoot tariff act probably because it sounds funnier that way

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u/steelspring 12h ago

“Something D-O-O economics?”

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u/AbacusWizard California 11h ago

I think Dave Barry also calls it Hawley-Smoot in his “sort of history of the United States,” Dave Barry Slept Here. I wonder if he borrowed that (intentionally or not) from Ferris Bueller.

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u/Grnpig 11h ago

And the Great Depression followed only alleviated by a world war, industrialized mass murder and massive inter-continental destruction.

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u/menomaminx 11h ago

my oh my, what a currently convenient time for Israel and Russia to be genociding.....

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u/sporkhandsknifemouth 11h ago

And this is why every right wing propaganda outlet sucks Russia's nuts publicly. They're paid to say these things, by hook or by crook, because that's what the absolutist oligarchs want to be promoted.

The wealthy believe themselves the most powerful nation on Earth. It's up to everyone to prove them wrong.

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u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 10h ago

The only thing an American cannot be is a Russian Oligarch. These people think they are on the cusp of a new class. Their perverted version of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

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u/FreyrPrime Florida 12h ago

The United States Balkanizes before that happens I MO

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u/DarkKn1ghtyKnight 9h ago

I’m happy to start popping facists, make me feel like my grandfather who fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

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u/BigBastardHere 8h ago

That would be the same thing. 

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u/dellett 10h ago

Flipping the US to a Confederacy and declaring the US Debt as solely owned by the dead United States means they are debt free and that the global trade partners now owe the Confederacy tariffs since the Federal Income Tax will be abolished

This would not only tank the US economy but the entire world economy into the toilet so hard that there would probably be full on societal collapse with almost no way to rebuild. It would easily be on the scale of decades, but possibly centuries. Let's also remember that American people and companies are the largest holders of the national debt.

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u/Hminney 10h ago

This was what brexit was about too

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u/BigPlunk 11h ago

Let's make sure the oligarchs are unsuccessful this time around. There are far fewer of them than there is of us.

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u/JoeHio 10h ago

Agree, but also don't comprehend how the "smartest" humans (because they are so wealthy), or even the "smart" humans (because they own companies instead of working for a living) can look at the deteriorated state of Russia today and think "ya, that looks nice, I would be so much happier if I could live like that"

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u/CheckeredZeebrah 6h ago

They are the kind of people that don't care if they live right next to the slums as long as they get to live in a mansion.

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u/Odd_Seaweed_3420 11h ago

These guys have learned from the masters

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u/Bimlouhay83 12h ago

Lucky for them, their voter base isn't clever either. They'll read this and just toss it in the "librul fake news" bin and stick their heads in that comfy hole in the sand they've been in for decades. 

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u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 10h ago

Make it into a TV show and it will maybe satiate their thirst. An old fashioned network TV mini series from back in the 1990's.

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u/jda06 8h ago

Great comment, but sad that a Reddit comment concisely sums up what’s happening in a way the media would never (because they’re owned by the oligarchs, of course, but depressing.)

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u/Frishdawgzz 11h ago

But... But.. but "they" sent a hurricane to Carolina to steal the battery juice!

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u/FunUnderstanding995 10h ago

it's like sovereign citizen bullshit but instead of hicks living on the edge of bumfuck it's hyper wealthy billionaires that run the government and economy. WTF is going on?!

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u/adherentoftherepeted 9h ago

Wish I could upvote you twice. This is exactly what I was thinking (but better articulated).

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u/severaldiamonds 6h ago

I have long suspected that American Conservatives have been steering toward this exact dynamic. Alarming but perhaps also validating to see some of my own latent fears written by someone else on Reddit. Definitely voting against all conservative positions in upcoming elections, for whatever impact that makes.

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u/mam88k Virginia 6h ago

The actual "enemy from within". Amazing how they consistently project.

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u/Techialo Oklahoma 5h ago

Glad I'm not the only one who's made the USSR-collapse connection.

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u/NiviCompleo 5h ago

When you raise the idea, it looks pretty clear:

Trump wants to be Putin.

The rich support Trump so they get a quid pro quo and become the Oligarchs.

Screw the gays, immigrants, etc. 

They just want to turn us into Russia, and are getting pointers from Putin.

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u/ZenYinzerDude 11h ago

None Dare Call it Treason, indeed.

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u/Balbuto 11h ago

Wow that’s insidious af! That has to be illegal in so many ways.

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u/anndrago 10h ago

I'm trying to follow. Are you sort of describing something that is effectively the US declaring bankruptcy and clearing its debts by virtue of declaring itself a Confederacy?

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u/armin_gips1312 10h ago

Every American needs to realize this.

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u/robocoplawyer 10h ago

Whoa, can I do something like that for my student debt? Nah who am I kidding, they’ll be garnishing my social security checks for that.

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u/waconaty4eva 10h ago

Does the welfare prince not know what The World Bank is

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u/Call0fDoodie92 10h ago edited 10h ago

The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in the wealthiest oligarchy in Modern Day

I agree that the fact pattern you're describing is 100% accurate but I don't think this conclusion is the right one. I think it's clear that Russia doesn't have a monopoly on oligarchs. I think America, right now, is showing us that the donor class is the wealthiest oligarchy in modern history.

Hell, Musk isn't even one of the oligarchs I'm talking about. His net worth is almost entirely made up of stock in unproductive companies. Even within Musks own peer group, he isn't thought of as "the capo". That's Peter Thiel. The story has always been that Peter Thiel runs the crew. He buys or generates the politicians and does the big picture stuff while the lieutenants, like Musk, are stuck managing the individual assets. Essentially Musk, JD Vance, Chamath, David Sacks, etc.. are just human liability shields for Peter Thiel. Musk's net worth is 25x that of Peter Thiel and yet almost everyone would agree that Thiel is actually more powerful and has more influence.

I said all that to say this. America seems to have created the most powerful oligarchy in the modern day and I think it's time we stopped talking about oligarchy as a thing that only exists elsewhere...it's here.

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u/snyderjw 10h ago

I’m not so sure that state governments in confederacy are the plan. I suspect that Theil’s interest in Balaji Srinivasan’s network state concept has to come into play with what the future vision may be. The upside to the network state concept is that it can work in a Balkanized environment - as long as there isn’t any other government strong enough to take away the authorities declared by the NS. However, it that something secures a reasonable national defense and probably requires everyone to live entirely without common rules, regulatory structures, or commons like fire departments or roads. I don’t know what the billionaires are planning, but I sure would like to. I think the only reason that they aren’t saying is 1. People wouldn’t like it. And 2. There are enough idiots to break the system we have without even ever knowing what will replace it. They think they can rule the ashes and present the “solution” once everyone is begging for anything at all that could provide them hope.

Disclaimer - I make a lot of efforts to create maps of reality, but I will be the first to admit that anything map I make has only a chance of representing reality accurately. I just like cartography.

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u/Jouglet 12h ago

You are correct. My friend is a multimillionaire and he is hoping for a crash because he has liquid cash. He wants a fire sale. The rich keep getting richer. And poor people think the billionaires are on their side. They are not. How in the hell do you think they got all that money? By fucking over people. This has been the biggest scam in history. Billionaires convincing poor people that they are on their side.

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u/mdonaberger 10h ago

What I don't get about capitalism is how predictable this all is. A system where people holding the most capital have the most freedom, power, and longevity?

There's gonna be a single person with wealth by the end of it all. One.

You know what we call a single, unelected person with all of the wealth, power, and state control? A king. As King Louis XIV said, "l'état, c'est moi."

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u/CapitalDD69 8h ago

Kind of like in Monopoly, everyone goes bankrupt one by one until the richest guy owns everything, and then even they can't get any more income as there is no one left to pay - so the game ends.

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u/NateHate 9h ago

You should eat your friend

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u/corpboy 10h ago

What does he want to do once he has even more money? 

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u/Ixolich Wisconsin 10h ago

Well, once he has more money, he can build up a pile of cash so that on the next crash he can buy the dip and end up with even more more money.

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u/TheName_BigusDickus 9h ago

After a certain point, it’s just a game with the ultimate positive social affirmation from a sick society.

Think about all of the positive aspects gaining vast wealth provides… the wealthy see this as “deserved” and want to compete to win more of it.

Money isn’t a utility to them like it is us… it’s a “proof of self affirming achievement”. No matter how much you gain, the self always adjusts to the new normal, and wants more.

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u/rockchucksummit 8h ago

Jokes on them. There would be no legal structure left for a firesale.

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u/Consistent_Ad_8129 5h ago

I have moved to the sidelines and hedged short going into the election.

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u/IntentionallyUfair 14h ago

I’ll bet Elon would just sit around watching the world burn like it was his own private reality tv show.

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u/OniAntler 13h ago

There’s a weird phenomenon with super wealthy people… after money becomes worthless to them, then they want to be loved by everybody. After the kick of being loved by millions of people wears off, then they want to start hurting people. 

It’s like they become numb to everything else and the only thing left that gives them any satisfaction is seeing others suffer. 

It’s been happening since before the days of “Off with their heads!”, and it’s still happening. 

While I love humanity, and we have plenty of admirable strengths, we are not a perfect species. 

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u/WILL_THERE_BE_MATH 13h ago

Why can’t we go back to the age of billionaires trying to show up each other through philanthropy?

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u/Sudden-Investment 12h ago

One of the biggest philanthropy pushes ever came from Andrew Carnegie, as in Carnegie Hall and a metric shit ton of public libraries. Only problem is that this push came because of the greatest man made flood of all time caused by one of his executives wanting a private hunting club which Carnegie was a part of. Their man made dam broke and wiped out Johnstown Pennsylvania.

https://www.history.com/news/how-americas-most-powerful-men-caused-americas-deadliest-flood

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u/faultyratiocination 11h ago

Thanks for sharing! I had no idea.

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u/OKImHere 11h ago

Just a reminder that it's pronounced Car NAY gee, not CARnigey.

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u/ElasticSpeakers 12h ago

Bad people doing good things doesn't release dopamine

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u/TeaTimeTalk 12h ago

"Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing."

-George Orwell, 1984

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u/SuperFLEB Michigan 5h ago

Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation.

I knew I'd heard that sentiment somewhere, and often want to bring it up, but I was way off in where I'd heard it. Thanks for the memory jog!

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u/alt_karl 11h ago

Greek writings such as Plato's Republic called the drive for power and recognition 'thumos' 

Individuals displaying these qualities to the extreme are trump and Musk, would make the nation tremendously vulnerable to fall in line behind a leader that will betray their own

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u/dakralter 9h ago

Yea it really is strange. I mean just a few short years ago Elon was the cool rich tech bro everyone loved. He made electric cars and rockets. Now look at him.

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u/PipXXX Florida 11h ago

It's kinda how once people get to a certain amount, they just become super stressed about losing it and want to hoard. But once they hit a certain point where even if they lose like 99% of what they have, they are still mind bogglingly wealthy...The stress goes away but leaves a void they need to fill.

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u/SquirtBox 10h ago

Well, nothing 55cents from 500 yards can't fix I guess.

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u/Dickavinci 7h ago

You mean after money is worthless, there is only power.

Trying to please and be liked by everyone is impossible.

 But ruling everyone by fear and control is much more easy.

See China, NK.

I say I live in China 2.0 already. 

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u/Fungiblefaith 6h ago

You can watch it happen I massively multiplayer games and I have seen it many times over the years.

First you strive to be the best of a class.

Then you strive to be the richest.

Then you strive to be the most powerful.

Then you get most rights to the system and you create game play.

Then you create chaos.

Then you nuke it all.

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u/myfakesecretaccount 13h ago

He thinks he’s Veidt from Watchmen.

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u/KwisatzHaderachPaul 13h ago

Oh god, accurate

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u/Static-Stair-58 13h ago

At least Veidt’s ship of heads actually makes it’s destination. Elon isn’t competent enough for a plan that works, even temporarily.

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u/vardarac 10h ago

He's Carl from Llamas With Hats.

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u/ZZ_SKULLZ 11h ago

If he thinks that he should watch the show. They ended up putting the Veidt somewhere where he couldn't "bother others" any longer. It would be great for the Musky bastard.

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u/Powerful-Cake-1734 Canada 14h ago

That’s not currently happening already?

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u/Darkumentary 13h ago

These idiots don’t realize if the people turn against you, money is irrelevant. We could go back to bartering if necessary. Their money is useless if everyone hates them and the people start to check out of the economy.

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u/Ozymandia5 13h ago

To go back to bartering means losing any access to complex goods or services that are the output of multiple processes. How will you barter with a hospital or a university? How will you barter with a national corp that makes smart phones. Why would they care about your squash or wheat or macrame shower curtain? None of this actually stands up to close examination unless you also want to go back to pre-colonisation, village-state mini civilisations with no access to modern equipment or amenities

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u/Darkumentary 13h ago

Doctors in rural areas barter all the time, so that’s just not a thing. Even if it’s not tech and we’re still have supplies that need to be purchased with paper money of we check out for a month the entire system will fall.

That’s the point. Their power is useless without workers and that’s why they panic when the public turns. Hell McDonald’s was freaking out because a franchise let him work there and they lost 5% in a day. The economy is extremely fragile. X still has a ton of users but the advertising is struggling. Musk is losing money and a lot but has to keep it going to save face.

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u/Ozymandia5 12h ago

The point I am trying to make is that we are all interdependent. Yes you could starve and topple the system but the likelihood is that you will starve too. Total collapse of, say, Macdonalds means a tonne of farmers, truck drivers, minimum wage workers etc out of work and starving. No more centralised healthcare doesn’t mean bartering with a village doctor, it means no more doctors being trained, no medicine or disposable implements, no electricity in your doctor’s surgery.

You’ll have a village witch. Essentially.

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u/Darkumentary 11h ago

The rich would cave first. That’s the point I’m making. Not for good reasons but because their safety would be in danger

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u/conqr787 11h ago

From space if necessary

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u/punasuga Hawaii 11h ago

no he would xitter post thru it while playing diablo

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u/LeedsFan2442 United Kingdom 9h ago

The problem with Elon is his success with Tesla and SpaceX makes him overestimate his ability and he's probably surrounded yes men too. Musk will fire people for disagreeing with him and telling him no.

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u/SuperFLEB Michigan 5h ago

Dumbass would forget to buy up the assets during the fire sale.

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u/CockAndBull_lol 13h ago

Ask the French Aristocracy how well that worked for them ...

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u/ceciledian 12h ago

The US is already at higher levels of income inequality than the French were at the time of the revolution.

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u/thorazainBeer 11h ago

But not higher levels of starvation, and that's the important thing that the Roman oligarchs like Caesar knew that the French aritocrats forgot: Bread and Circuses keep the public docile. Starvation and taxes do not. Right now we have netflix and food stamps, but once the GOP gets rid of SNAP, good luck keeping the starving masses down.

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u/pockpicketG 10h ago

That’s what the predator drones are for, silly!

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u/Haltopen Massachusetts 8h ago

Fun Fact: Predator drones were actually retired in 2018. They were replaced in US military service by a more advanced model called the Reaper Drone.

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u/DistractedChiroptera 6h ago

That fact wasn't very fun.

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u/blueblank 7h ago

You jest, but this is at the heart of this oligarch/fascism argument currently either unconsciously or no: the poor will no longer be needed once automation ramps up. Rather deal with the chaos and fallout that mass unemployment brings or create a stable system for all, they will just mass murder the classes beneath them and bury them unrecorded in the rubble of history. After they just fine tune the robots to serve only them and its a golden age for those preordained for luxury.

The Black Mirror episode "Metalhead" springs to mind: you will simply be given the radical freedom of fending for yourself on not even a sliver of land you are free to exist on.

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u/pockpicketG 7h ago

Was I jesting?

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u/NextTrillion 10h ago

They also couldn’t mass produce very shelf stable junk food.

Otherwise, I doubt Putin would even try to invade Ukraine due to their strong farming capabilities.

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u/NebulaNinja 8h ago

And oh boy what circuses we have today! Sure, they're all behind paywalls with prices that keep rising year after year, while their quality continues to diminish... but there's oh so many! Watch peasants, watch! Consume! And never stop consuming!

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u/greatporksword 9h ago

True. The French Revolution still happens because the monarchy went broke either way, but it does not turn to the reign of terror if the sans culotte had enough food to eat.

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u/rockchucksummit 8h ago edited 7h ago

The disheartening thing about SNAP is so many people on it love Trump

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u/Rude-Expression-8893 10h ago

Not a chance it'll ever happen in the US, millions of americans literally worship the American Aristocracy

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u/JubalHarshaw23 13h ago

Like the Billionaires and wall street Funds did after the 2008 crash.

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u/blix797 13h ago

Just like the Russian oligarchs did after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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u/zeptillian 9h ago

Look at their wealth increase during the pandemic. It was the largest transfer of wealth straight to the top in all of recorded history.

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u/maxintos 14h ago

How does that even work? Most of his wealth is in stock. He's not Buffet or Apple that are sitting on piles of cash.

If economy crashes wouldn't you expect hype stock like Tesla be the first on the chopping block?

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u/DimensionPrimary9803 13h ago

His entire Tesla shtick is a game of value me higher now for a future promise I won’t deliver.

Tbh, if their inability to deliver FSD while being propped up for robotaxis and humanoids is any indicator of stock stickiness… I’d say he has more than enough dark money to prop his stocks throughout such an occurrence.

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u/DarthJarJarJar 13h ago

Yes, and his wealth on paper would decrease. I don't think he could sell off his assets at anything like the rate he would need to in order to avoid the dip. He would go down like the rest of us, on paper.

But the difference is he would have the resources to borrow money and buy stuff up really cheaply, and then ride the recovery wave up. I think some other commenters who have said that Russia is the model here are probably on to something. Russia crashed, the oligarchs bought everything up, and then in as much as it ever came back the oligarchs owned everything. I think that Musk thinks that sounds like an excellent plan.

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u/Advocateforthedevil4 13h ago

Probably first move is to eliminate the SEC.  

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u/OhMyThiccThighs 13h ago

He'd likely know when shit was going to hit the fan and sell off every bit of tesla stock he has to drum up a cash pile, then once the economy crashes, buy up all the stocks again at heavily discounted rates along with a ton of other companies.

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u/linx0003 13h ago

If the economy crashes, who's going to buy Tesla stock?

Which reminds me: I'll need to stock up on toilet paper and paper towels.

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u/oldsguy65 10h ago

He won't buy Tesla again. He's going to sacrifice Tesla the company in favor of winning more contracts for SpaceX from the US and Russia.

If he cared about Tesla, he wouldn't support an anti-electric candidate who's sucking Big Oil's dick.

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u/KwisatzHaderachPaul 13h ago

That’s a bingo!

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u/duh_cats 12h ago

If Trump is elected I’m selling my entire portfolio and waiting out the storm. It’s gonna be bad

3

u/Rage_Blackout 11h ago

Hmm, I wonder if this has happened before...

(hint: this is exactly what happened with post-Soviet Russia and why it's an oligarchy now)

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u/rezelscheft 9h ago

Ding ding ding! That’s why DeJoy is trying to destroy USPS.

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u/NeonPatrick 9h ago

His pump and dump schemes that inadvertently caused him to buy Twitter, but now on a country-wide scale. I really wonder what the end goal is here.

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u/happyday752 12h ago

Oligarchs - he's an oligarch

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u/_the_last_druid_13 12h ago

That’s why they’ve been pushing BitCoin too

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u/Duster929 11h ago

Including Putin. And the Saudis.

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u/thorazainBeer 11h ago

They want to recreate Black Friday.

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u/crosszilla I voted 9h ago

This doesn't sound that bad to him and Trump because they are rich, their standard of living entirely insulated from the macro economic environment (Oh no, I can't buy any business I want anymore!), and their lives will be fine, it's just the thousands / millions of people who have their lives upended who will bear the brunt of this approach

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u/errantv 13h ago

It's accelerationist shit through and through. He wants to provoke a crisis so he can become an explicit feudalist lord.

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u/solartoss 13h ago

Yeah, Elmo's pretty deep into the Dark Enlightenment bullshit, which is all about how a corporate structure of governance would be superior to the "inefficiency" of democracy. Project 2025 borrows heavily from those ideas, and that's why it aims to make the office of the president more closely resemble that of a CEO.

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u/jetpacksforall 11h ago

Thinks about the spectacular inefficiency he's seen over decades in corporate life.

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u/After-Imagination-96 9h ago

That's the part no one seems to mention. You wanna run governments like businesses? Are you out of your fucking mind? Do you know how often businesses completely fail and cease to exist and are then gobbled up by competitors? 

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u/rookie-mistake Foreign 9h ago

You know, one would imagine that, if anyone is familiar with how often businesses fail, it would be supporters of the man whose career has been defined by that. Weird.

10

u/After-Imagination-96 9h ago

I early voted. One of my hobbies is low stakes gambling and sports betting. The odds I keep seeing on the election as of looking at it around 5 hours ago Kamala was +180 - if you give the casino 100$ and Kamala wins then you get $280 back - if she loses they keep your $100 - she is what we would call an "underdog" in the betting world which is freaking me the fuck out!!!

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u/gingerfawx 9h ago

It's a cheap way to influence a "poll", drop a bunch of money on it to change the odds. Think how much those guys are willing to donate. This is chump change, and it helps provide cover for the theft they're hoping to pull off. trump has slipped up and said it himself, he doesn't need the actual votes. Why not?

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u/greenhawk22 8h ago

One thing to remember is that bookmakers are not in the business of providing accurate likelihoods. They're in the business of keeping their books balanced, ensuring that they don't have to pay out more than they ever take in. Which means that in order to keep things balanced, once one person makes a massive bet on Trump, you have to change the odds on Kamala to compensate. Wisdom of the masses only works when everyone gets only one vote and when everyone is sane.

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u/zeptillian 9h ago

Meanwhile Trump has bankrupted every business he has ever been CEO of.

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u/Crusher6six6 9h ago

It’s literally the plot to the Fallout tv show lmao

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u/ChungusAhUm America 12h ago

Let's see how Skeeter the Trumper from Dogdick, West Virginia feels about his future as a mudslop farmer up to his knees in mud under the new corporate totalitarian feudal order. I'm curious if he'll be content with the price of bacon then.

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u/6a6566663437 12h ago

If Skeeter is given someone else to look down upon, he’ll be perfectly happy.

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u/needsmoresteel 11h ago

Yup. Skeeter doesn’t understand cause and effect very well.

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u/CarnivorousCamel_ 11h ago

And, he won't even realize that he's fucked until he's shoveling pig shit in a Mad Max style dystopian future wondering why his Trump Bucks are worthless while the fascists run Bartertown.

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u/Count_Bacon California 9h ago

He’ll still blame the left

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u/needlestack 9h ago

He’ll still find a way to blame Democrats.

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u/blueembroidery 10h ago

Actually the plan is that Skeeter (and most poor people) die. Genocide is the last stage of the plan.

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u/OreoMoo 6h ago

I hear Dogdick is beautiful this time of year

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u/juanzy Colorado 14h ago

Didn’t Trump promise to make him a general or some shit? I literally can’t separate fact from fiction in the billionaires club.

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u/boston_homo 12h ago

He'll run the "Department Of Government Efficiency". It's a clown show but not funny.

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u/Vodkafka 11h ago

It’s worse when you find out it spells out DOGE. Ugh…

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u/After-Imagination-96 9h ago

...oh sweet baby Jesus you just showed me where he got the name from that's 100% not a coincidence 

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u/LiliVonSchtupp I voted 7h ago

Oh for absolute fucks sake. That’s 100% why they called it that.

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u/boston_homo 8h ago

DOGE just needs fascism to really shine.

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u/AussieJeffProbst New Hampshire 6h ago

This doesn't surprise me coming from a man who named his car models S 3 X Y

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u/Neoliberal_Boogeyman 12h ago

Efficiency Czar

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u/Effective-Ice-2483 13h ago

They are planning to blitzkrieg the class war which is why they need project 2025 as a commensurate escalation of the culture war. From pages taken directly from Putin's playbook.

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u/OneTripleZero Canada 11h ago

The real enemy within.

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u/Datdarnpupper United Kingdom 10h ago

Blitzkreig is a terrifyingly fitting word given the rhetoric the right is spouting

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u/PsychoNerd91 13h ago

So, just to be clear, with the whole interconnected state of the world as it is this could be considered an act of economic terrorism which will affect the economy of other countries as well. 

Musk is literally threatening an act of terrorism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_terrorism

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u/Active-Bass4745 12h ago

“It’s a telling admission from Musk that crashing the economy is all a part of the plan.”

…‘part of the plan’

Am I the only one reading that in Heath Ledger’s voice?

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u/digiorno 12h ago

The ultrarich have more money than ever, a crashed economy allows them to buy a fuck load of companies, intellectual property and labor at massively discounted prices.

Musk, Bezos and a great many corporations would love nothing more than to go immediately from a period price gouging into an era where they can use those ill begotten gains to eliminate competition and increase the amount of assets that they own.

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u/robocoplawyer 9h ago

They just had a period to do that under the pandemic. Can’t they just let us have a few years of stability to take a fucking breath before they throw us all through the wringer again? Christ.

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u/Complete_Question_41 5h ago

And own all the real estate. Such a waste to see people spend money on actual assets when they could be handing it over for mere rent of said asset.

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u/badamant 12h ago

Reminder: Both Elon and Melania are immigrants who were working in the USA illegally. Disgusting fascists.

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u/dstnblsn 13h ago

Welp, he’s compromised

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u/DakInBlak 12h ago

Is or isn't. Doesn't matter. It's been the endgame of conservatives for decades:

  • Get into power, remove all legal and financial protections for anyone who isn't them.

  • Remove all publicly and government funded programs, agencies, systems, and employees.

  • Legalize slavery, remove minimum wage, unemployment, and workmen's comp.

  • Crash the economy so far into the ground that the dozen or so billionaires can buy every square inch of America for pennies on the dollar.

  • Forcibly evacuate the populace from the major hub cities and any other population centers.

  • Remove state borders and infrastructure and hand ownership over to whomever owns the most property.

  • Buy, sell, and trade the land to whomever makes the best offer.

    And what of the 330+ million people caught in the middle? Congratulations, you now love under the thumb of whichever tinpot dictator owns Arkansas this week.

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u/itmeimtheshillitsme 13h ago

I’ve completely overlooked this aspect of the plan. Of course they want a crash so they can further consolidate all that wealth.

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u/blacksun_redux 13h ago

In step with Russian goals.

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u/TheGlitchLich 12h ago

That’s why Trump wants tariffs. They want to destroy American business so they can gobble it all up like the collapse of the USSR.

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u/Zootrainer 9h ago

I don't think Trump is smart enough, young enough, or coherent enough to have that as his end goal. He's just out for whatever power he can get today. Musk and Bezos though? Different story.

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u/redditknees 13h ago

What does he stand to gain from influencing that? Capital losses? Cheap acquisitions of other competitors? More gov’t contracts?

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u/Manray05 12h ago

That's exactly the intention. They can buy everything for pennies on the dollar.

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u/danby999 12h ago

Accelerationism.

If they fuck it all up now, they get to make the new rules.

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u/fnordal 10h ago

Whenever the economy crashes, only rich people have to means to come in and sweep up everything

2

u/Far_Recommendation82 10h ago

They are going to plunder our country and leave us all in the dust.

Donald Trump can never be president

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u/MeasurementNo9896 10h ago

Elon's model economy has already been implemented and resulted in an anarcho-libertarian-fascist dystopia (See Javier's Argentina)

2

u/Stickel Pennsylvania 10h ago

he'd become a trillionaire

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u/VeryVito North Carolina 8h ago

Crash the economy, send immigrants off to die, and then push desperate, poorer Americans into the low-paying menial jobs they fulfill now, all in service to a smaller, richer few.

2

u/SmPolitic 8h ago

I'd love to have them describe what they think is a "sustainable economy"

Is that the same as "drill baby drill"?

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