this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I read a wonderful short story once about mankind venturing into the stars where they become a symbol of hope, friendliness, and community across all physical and psychological barriers. They would be the ones you turn to in times of crisis, to deliver aid and make repairs, to mediate in times of conflict and to bring joy in times of celebration.

However, occasionally, the humans would see one of their own ships adrift in the sea of stars, and they would stop at nothing to destroy it. The abrupt and merciless hostility would always shock onlookers and associates. "Why" they always ask. The answer was always the same; "when the earth was suffering, they used up our resources and left us behind."

[–] mr_timns@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Got a link or a name for this story? I’d like to read it.

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 146 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Think about how much empathy your parents generation has for yours. They kind of sympathize, wish things were easier, but ultimately do not understand the wealth gap or your day-to-day.

Think about how much empathy you have for a 3rd world exploited labourer. You kind of sympathize, definitely wish things were easier, but ultimately do not understand on how they live on less than a dollar a day.

Billionaires aren't just one or two levels removed from understanding your situation. They are whole planets apart. They cannot comprehend our daily struggles. They do not see it except through summarized news reports that pander and reframe it to their lifestyle.

Billionaires are the most removed species on this planet

[–] Whirling_Ashandarei@lemmy.world 29 points 3 days ago

Billionaires are the most removed species on this planet

If we all do our part, they could be removed further

[–] thedruid@lemmy.world 33 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Your generalizing re your parents and the previous gens sympathy.

Especially those of us who were poor as kids.

We know how hard it is. In 1968 a house was about twice a persons average yearly income, now? Forgot it. My son probably will never have the option. The. Again, I really didn't either.

My son will probably never be able to own a house, may not live in a free country, will face runaway inflation and much more

I faced much in my time. Some way worse than anything my son will see

But those were instances. Moments I. Time. Hard, difficult, but fleeting after a while

What we are living in now is pervasive, all consuming and total greed stifling the younger generations and pulling what little safety nets we have for the old.

I grew up harder. But I also grew up easier. For instance I. The early seventies , you could get a full weight set for 18 bucks ( don't ask how I know that )

Today that weight set is 300. I mean wages were WAYYYYY. Lower.

But when a house could be got for 20 grand , they didn't have to be.

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 21 points 3 days ago

I feel like we are in agreement

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 45 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago

I think they already do, hence the private islands and Bond villain style lairs.

[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

That's too generous.

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[–] Grumpyleb@lemmus.org 69 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Unchecked capitalism has failed, and the USA is the first victim. This is what happens when you dumb down a country so much that they can't see the danger for themselves. Too bad for regular Americans but the leopards are going to feast.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Uhh, USA is one of the last to fall, off the backs of what we have the nerve to call "third world."

It's rich Theil refers to a book with a colonial slogan of "no free lunch," after he and his ilk already sucked the husks of humanity dry. Pun intended.

[–] Bravo@eviltoast.org 13 points 3 days ago (4 children)

The main problem with modern civilization is that it's no longer possible to rob rich people. If Peter Thiel's money actually physically existed, in like a vault somewhere, SOMEBODY would have burgled the vault by now, purely because of the insanely favorable risk vs reward ratio - like a lottery where the cost of buying tickets of every possible combination costs less than the jackpot, once the reward is high enough, there will always be SOMEONE who will make the necessary investment to negate the risk. And "robbing the rich" would always have enough popular support that there would be little effort to find the thief as long as the oligarch was unpopular enough. But now Thiel's money no longer physically exists, and it's basically impossible to forcibly take it from him without basically having to destroy the entire global banking system first in order to get at it.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago (5 children)

You're not wrong, but billionaires are just as easy to kill now as they ever were. If you can't take the money away from the planet destroying psychopath, take the planet destroying psychopath away from the money.

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[–] Widdershins@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

Let them be cake

[–] wabafee@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

"If the billionaires are so determined on quitting humanity, perhaps it would be best to give them what they want and sponsor a mission to Mars so humanity can rid itself of them."

+++

[–] 1SimpleTailor@startrek.website 19 points 3 days ago

The Billionaires are a bunch of Degenerate Morons who diddle children, much as the ruling class has always been. They're funneling the world's wealth upwards thinking capital will insulate them from the coming climate crisis they're exasperating. How I wish I could be there when they realize that it won't.

[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Thiel has worried that Western civilization had entered a period of long-term stagnation in the 1970s which will continue unless there is a radical shake-up. This stagnation has many dimensions: lower economic growth, fewer world-changing scientific discoveries, and a general cultural malaise.

Imagine looking back at the proud of time where there was literally the most advances in the wildest technology and thinking it's stagnation. It was from a time period where people remembered refrigeration as new and exciting to the time where your phone has more computing power than the ones that put people on the moon, and it's in your freaking pocket, and say that technology stagnated.

As for the lower economic growth and the "stagnating" culture, that's squarely on the shoulders of corporations, and therefore, billionaires.

[–] match@pawb.social 18 points 3 days ago

man who hoarded and centralized wealth from software companies concerned about decay of entrepreneurship

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

interestingly, i get the sentiment that the economy has stalled since the 1970s from a surprising number of people, and i figured out that it's probably because blue-collar jobs have stagnated since the 1970s, and that's what most people feel. That sentiment coming from Thiel, who invests in software, is very weird though.

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[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They never had any humanity to begin with. It is the only way to become a Billionaire.

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[–] MyOpinion@lemmy.today 36 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Maybe it is required to be inhumane to be a billionaire?

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

If so, then

Maybe it is required to be inhumane to ~~be~~ a billionaire

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Peter Thiel and his friends feel they no longer belong to our species.

Hard to argue with that actually. I'm going to go with they're some terrible type of worm, slug, or parasite rather than human beings.

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[–] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.org 37 points 3 days ago
[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 29 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.

William Gibson, Count Zero (Sprawl, #2)

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/126076-and-for-an-instant-she-stared-directly-into-those-soft

Like the torment Nexus tweet, I feel like some rich idiots read stuff like that and think it's a good idea.

[–] Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We should abandon them, by expropriating their wealth!

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[–] frenchfryenjoyer 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Have they not learned from Mario's brother?

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A second time.

The first time was stealing from everybody to become billionaires in the first place.

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[–] antisocialite@lemmy.today 34 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Spez talked about this years ago. He wants society to fall so he can rule over what's left because he thinks he's superior to all other humans

[–] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

Dude can't even run a glorified message board... How the fuck does he think he's gonna run a post-apocalyptic society?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This isn't a joke, Steve Huffman built a bunker with the express desire of becoming a feudal lord in whatever post apocalyptic hell hole that he helped create.

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[–] Rookwood@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

A human's humanity is inversely proportional to the amount of money they have. After a billion, you stop being human and turn into a lizard person. We are quickly approaching the day when a lizard person will evolve into something even weirder once they hit a trillion.

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[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

Steps to become a billionaire:

  1. Abandon humanity
  2. Step-on children's smiles
  3. Fund a feasibility study on turning poor into fuel
  4. Second study to prove those idiots in the first study wrong
  5. Replace gym equipment in second home with dogs you can kick and hit for exercise. The dogs must be trained service animals in active service to people who need them. You bankrupt those people at great personal expense and then you buy their dogs for pennies.
  6. Lunch
  7. Become billionaire
  8. Take cool pictures with swords. Don't show nobody.
  9. Abandon humanity
  10. Something kardashian related
[–] Allemaniac@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago (2 children)

as a german I am very sorry to the world for Peter Thiel, Trumps bloodline, Hitler and a shit ton more. We are bad exporters as it turns out

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 13 points 3 days ago

Sorry mate, this "money" thing can only be owned by humans. See, that dog over there, that chair, that building, or that chatbot over yonder, they can't own anything, because they're not human. If you are not part of humanity, you can't own human IOU credits. So, have fun at the island, we'll check in on you in October.

[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They abandoned humanity the second they decided to exploit their fellow man for profit. Fuck them and fuck anyone ignorant enough to believe that they ever had anything but ill will towards the rest of the world.

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[–] Karrion409@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Then maybe we should start relieving them of theirs

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

That's because, and I'll speak loudly for those in the back, THEY DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU

[–] redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 days ago

🌎🌑🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Reagan and Thatcher were politically successful, remaking even their center-left opponents such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair into celebrants of streamlined government. But this political success has not in fact solved the problem of stagnation, which remains as severe, by Thiel’s account, as it has ever been. Thiel and his cohorts have gotten everything they want politically, but that has still failed to solve the key problem of our time. The fact that he still advocates a failed economic program suggests the deeper stagnation is in his own mind.

Since politics has failed, Thiel and the other plutocrats are also toying with another solution: secession from society and the human species. Thiel has long been an advocate of various post-human technological solutions that will allow him and his fellow plutocrats to free themselves from the stagnant mass of humanity: cryonics (to overcome death), sea-steading (to create sea-board libertarian utopias), colonizing Mars, and artificial intelligence.

I'm all for it. Send them to Mars and make sure they don't come back!

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[–] Naich 10 points 3 days ago

Well, they can feel free to fuck right off and find another species that will accept them.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)
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