• @HikingVet
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    268 months ago

    Oh, for fucks sakes. Can we just shut him up already?

      • @LadyLikesSpiders@lemmy.ml
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        178 months ago

        I remember thinking him a unicorn among capitalists when he was pushing for Tesla as a means to combat climate change

        But ah well, he was a piece of shit all along

          • @LadyLikesSpiders@lemmy.ml
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            158 months ago

            I just remember that it is impossible to be unfathomably wealthy and a good person. You cannot get that rich without being shitty

            • Tis a hard thing to keep in mind, but keep it in mind we must.

              You can be wealthy and a good person, maybe even rich (up to a point) and a good person, but when you reach the level of Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, and other titans of this second Gilded Age, it is nearly impossible.

              I wouldn’t say impossible, but so improbable due to the inherent corruption of the sheer wealth of the position they’re in that it takes a titanic level of inner willpower to maintain one’s humility.

              Most people at that level of wealth—hell, most people—are not that strong.

              • @Khotetsu@lib.lgbt
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                58 months ago

                A wise person once said, “It’s not possible to make a billion dollars in a year. It is, however, possible to steal a billion dollars in a year.” You have to be stealing value from somebody along the production chain to be accumulating that kind of wealth.

              • @LadyLikesSpiders@lemmy.ml
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                38 months ago

                I don’t even think it’s about inner strength or humility. Competitors will force you to make unethical choices in order to succeed. Your own empathy will get in the way of accumulating that kind of wealth. I call it impossible because the actions needed to be taken in order to acquire such wealth are inherently unethical ones. It demands exploitation; It demands narcissism; It demands that you not have empathy. Bezos would not be where he is if he actually paid his workers and let them take piss breaks. Musk would not be wear he is if not for his family emerald mine fortune, and for his delusions of grandeur, taking credit for the inventions he payed people to have. None of these people would have this kind of wealth without political dealings with shady figures, and without lobbying against worker’s rights

                So is it impossible? Well not technically, but if someone does get to those levels of wealth without the exploitation and lobbying and ruthless business practices, they won’t stay there for long anyway, because the other billionaires won’t let them

                • So is it impossible? Well not technically,

                  That’s what I was saying. It is not, strictly speaking, absolutely impossible. But so improbably as to be nearly not at all possible.

                  Although, that being said, you made a lot of good points in that comment, to the point where I have to change my mind a bit and say that I agree with you. Humility can take you far to preserve a sense of empathy, but the sheer corruption of the decisions you have to take to become that wealthy inherently make it infinitesimally improbable that you will come out the other side even half as good a person as you went in.

                  In short, technically improbable but not impossible, yet practically impossible.

          • @PM_ME_FAT_ENBIES@lib.lgbt
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            28 months ago

            Your mistake is making heroes of real people. Reality is crap. Your heroes should be people like Superman, Yoda, and Atlacatl. Ideas will always be purer than a person can hope to be. Ideas can give you inspiration that will not be corrupted.

      • magnetosphere
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        108 months ago

        It’s okay. A lot of us did, before he revealed to the world what a terrible human being he is.