Such a shock.

I absolutely get the “I’d be a good billionaire” fantasy, it’s something I’ve indulged in every now and then- but for me, it’s really more a personal agency fantasy, just one of many ways I like to imagine having the power to single-handedly make the world better. But… in the end, they ARE fantasies, are just cathartic games for me to play when I’m feeling particularly overwhelmed by the world’s bullshit. (And they usually involve giving the money away, hah.) No one should actually have that much individual power. Definitely not me, lol.

It’s the people who defend the exploitative systems that make billionaires possible, for the sake of that fantasy, who really irk me. They’ve genuinely convinced themselves, on some level, that it’s possible to, as you said, keep the billions without being a leech on society. That there’s somehow a chance they could really be that billionaire personally, or even that they’re actually temporarily embarrassed billionaires.

But the laughter it brings us?

Priceless.

I’ve spent way too many pages of my books making fun of utilitarians to stop now lol.

Even Peven Stinker, friend and defender of Jeffrey Epstein, is coming out against EA? Wow.

Goddamnit I wish I’d intended that pun

Yeah, there’s absolutely a place for arguments that aren’t full-bore “capitalism is evil, forward the revolution!” Some people need to be eased into that space, and articles like this, that show how fundamentally stupid and terrible Musk and company are, are a great way to get people to start asking HOW dingbats like that got power. And it’s not the longest journey from there to questioning whether something is wrong with the system itself.

(There are failure states, of course- namely, reinforcing the neoliberal idea that if you just put better people in charge of a system, it will work better. But that’s a question of execution, not of tactical validity.)

Somehow, I doubt there’s many other sneerers in Hanoi, but you never know…

Oh gross

As a non-tech person who has zero idea what Urbit is, this is still deeply funny to me.

I’m guessing there’s probably a libertarian bent to this whole thing, somehow?

Seldom have I seen anyone who has drunk their own kool-aid deeper than SBF.

Oh heck yeah new Dan Olson

The full book is well worth the read, imho.

You should check out the book A Libertarian Walks into a Bear for another great example, if you haven’t already!

Uggggghhhhhhhhhhhh

Oooh, Quinn Slobodian! Just read his book Crack-Up Capitalism, good stuff.

Solid post, already shared this a few times.

I’ll check it out!

…The vast majority of guys I know who have been in a lot of fights (me included) are quite happy never getting in a fight again? Like, there’s definitely a few weirdos and dudes with anger issues who love fighting, but the shine wears off pretty damn quick for most people, and they’d rather avoid the fight in the first place? I really don’t think real-life arenas and duels would work the way this guy thinks.

(I used to work as a bouncer in a bar, haven’t been in a fight since then, I prefer keeping it that way. Also, fair notice, I wasn’t actually a very good fighter- I was the average-sized, unintimidating bouncer, my job was to head off fights before they happened, so the bigger bouncers and bartenders didn’t have to intervene, and I was good at talking drunks down. I wrestled a decent number of drunks when I had to, but that did not an impressive fighter make, I’d suck at Colosseum fights, lol.)

This is arcane, eldritch knowledge my mortal brain cannot comprehend.

My web guy can probably read it just fine, though, thanks for sharing!