#billionairesshouldnotexist

hankg@friendica.myportal.social

Thinking to the 1st Gilded Age (late-19th century) versus the 2nd Gilded Age (now), the robber barons have different names and industries but are just as big of megalomaniacs as then. They will point to the technological advances and say, "See I did that," when the industries could/would have done that without individuals owning more wealth than some countries. The first time around it blew up in their faces and it probably will this time too. Many people despised them then but enough of them bought into their "gods of industry" hero worship that we mostly remember them fondly for the mythology but for them none of these modern things would exist rather than disgusted that they used and abused so many for so long to hoard so much from so many. Oh they built some museums and colleges, well all is forgiven or something. The modern day robber barons aren't even doing that except as a mechanism to concentrate further money and power into their own pockets. I guess from that perspective they are even more pathological this time around. Maybe we can revile them like we do Bernie Madoff this time around instead too. How about we try that starting today rather than waiting for them to exact more destruction, sorry disruption, on everyone. #rant #BillionairesShouldNotExist

hankg@friendica.myportal.social

I know I beat up on a very specific Silicon Valley Tech Bro Billionaire a lot, so let me spread the love around. Sam Altman, the AI and Crypto grifter recently annointed a demigod by the press and investors who promises that his company is about to generate self aware general AI that will magically solve the "boiling oceans" level of energy requirements AI needs to improve somehow. Yeah, fuck that guy too. Over the course of the latest two FOMO waves these sociopaths have tried to create, first crypto, and now AI, they are completely reversing the insufficient progress we've made on climate change mitigation, among the other crimes against humanity with their cavalier efforts on both fronts. Worship them? I revile them. (h/t image from Dorian Taylor doriantaylor.com ) #ai #SamAltman #SiliconValley #BillionairesShouldNotExist #rant
The poster for the movie Her but with Sam Altman instead of Joaquin Phoenix, the title is "hurr" instead of "her", and the sub-title is "A Sam Altman DUH story" instead of "A Spike Jonze love story"

hankg@friendica.myportal.social

My contempt for these Silicon Valley monopolies grows by the day and is almost at the level I have towards the Silicon Valley Tech Bros. We should have never allowed the tax code and monopoly statute enforcement to be changed so that we got to this point. It is the cause of so many of our problems and it is a runaway train at this point. Especially now that the richest man in the world is working hand in hand with the autocrat fascist that will soon be running the government come January. #uspoli #SiliconValley #monopolies #BillionairesShouldNotExist
Dave Karpf status chain from Bluesky that reads: In 2017, they were shocked by the techlash. Their employees were furious. Their users were furious. Tech journalists were giving them grief. And so they stood in as regulators-of-last-resort. They stepped up, partially at least, to defend democratic institutions. Because they were afraid. In 2025, they've decided to side with Trump. Forced to choose between regulated capitalism and authoritarianism, they chose the authoritarian. They're done listening to tech workers. They resent tech journalists. They despise their users. We are on our own here. Even moreso than last time. The institutions with social and economic capital that at least partially aligned with us last time have cast their lot with the new regime. It's... it's just overwhelming.

hankg@friendica.myportal.social

Musk isn't the real life Tony Stark. He's the real life Lex Luthor. It's his platform to do with what he wants, but remember the hysteria he and the right wing had over orders of magnitude less behaviors and none so strategically coordinated with any party (much of it actually right wingers getting dispensations left wingers didn't but still bitching, ironically). Stick around Twitter, continue to feed Musk's persona buy buying his shit and into his shit and this sort of crap is what you are contributing to. I'm hoping Democrats take control over the House and Senate and have comparable investigations to what the Republicans did over the contrived "Twitter Files". #uspoli #Election2024 #Twitter #ElonMusk #BillionairesShouldNotExist
Screenshot of NYT Bluesky posting: "Elon Musk plans to spend election night with Donald Trump, giving the former president direct access to the person controlling X, a key information platform, on what could be a chaotic evening."

hankg@friendica.myportal.social

A risk AI models face...is “model collapse”: the rapid degradation that results from AI models being trained on the output of AI models. We’ve been watching something similar happen, in real time, with the Elon Musks, Marc Andreessens, Peter Thiels, and other chronically online Silicon Valley representatives of far-right ideology. #uspoli #ElonMusk #SiliconValley #BillionairesShouldNotExist aaronrosspowell.com/p/silicon-…

hankg@friendica.myportal.social

I'm at the point where I would pop champagne if a Crowdstrike like event wiped every byte of data and financialhistory of every firm in Silicon Vally so that we could all restart without their sociopathy and their wealth starting at zero. A man can dream. #rant #BillionairesShouldNotExist

hankg@friendica.myportal.social

Silicon Valley Techbro Billionaires again taking the lament “could you be more despicable” as a dare. At least his company isn’t as overtly manipulating their algorithms to support the right wing (but still are) or giving them hundreds of millions of dollars. Fucking trash the lot of them. #rant #uspoli #BillionairesShouldNotExist
Zuckerberg Calls Trump "Badass" But Doesn

hankg@friendica.myportal.social

If all that matters is more there is never contentment. You will do exponentially worse things to others and be a net negative on the planet just to add decimal places to your net worth. Hold billionaires in contempt. Don't look up to them like demigods/people to emulate #BillionairesShouldNotExist
Joe Heller</p><p>True story, Word of Honor:<br>Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer<br>now dead,<br>and I were at a party given by a billionaire<br>on Shelter Island.</p><p>I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel<br>to know that our host only yesterday<br>may have made more money<br>than your novel ‘Catch-22’<br>has earned in its entire history?”<br>And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”<br>And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”<br>And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”<br>Not bad! Rest in peace!”</p><p>–Kurt Vonnegut</p><p>The New Yorker, May 16th, 2005