"For others—the billionaire blowhards making excited pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago—the return of authoritarian populism simply allows them to stop pretending."

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"The goal is for the exploiters to ensure we lose the truth in order to look the wrong way, fight the wrong people, and hurt other victims worse. Anything but transformation of the system that keeps them at the top."

#Trump #ElonMusk #MarkZuckerberg #JeffBezos #TimCook #EconomicElites #TechBros #SuperRich #autocracy #plutocracy
/7

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"You do not have to hand it to Donald Trump. You do not have to hand it to Elon Musk. You do not have to hand it to RFK Jr. You do not have to hand it to any of these people.....

I understand that it’s hard to see yourself as out in the wilderness, locked out of power, with those in the positions of greatest authority unable to be reasoned with."

~ Emily Tamkin

#Trump #ElonMusk #MarkZuckerberg #JeffBezos #TimCook #EconomicElites #TechBros #SuperRich #autocracy
/8

https://emilyctamkin.substack.com/p/you-do-not-have-to-hand-it-to-them

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"But what’s worse is waking up every day and deluding yourself that these people are somehow secretly reasonable or that you can play them or lie down in the mud and not get dirty. It is not possible."

#Trump #ElonMusk #MarkZuckerberg #JeffBezos #TimCook #EconomicElites #TechBros #SuperRich #autocracy
/9

[zhizhu@newsie.social]

@wdlindsy

Big business billionaires do NOT want the working classes to realize that big business is the real enemy of the working classes.

So the billionaires keep telling the workers that it's the "others" (pick a minority, Blacks, immigrants, LGBTQ+, career women, etc... ) that are the "real" reason the working classes are suffering, not big business abusiveness.

Sadly, many workers are more willing to blame those with less power, rather than take on the powerful corporations.

#Meme

https://assets.newsie.social/media_attachments/files/113/799/110/377/909/927/original/bae6389d608694b7.png

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"Just as these [California] fires demonstrate why we desperately need reliable information during disasters, Silicon Valley is busy dismantling the systems designed to provide it. Mark Zuckerberg calls this 'getting back to our roots around free expression.' In reality, it's about appeasing the incoming Trump administration, even if that means letting lies spread as fast as wildfire."

~ Parker Molloy

#Trump #ElonMusk #MarkZuckerberg #EconomicElites #SuperRich
/10

https://www.readtpa.com/p/the-rights-wildfire-lies-spread-faster

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@ZhiZhu Yes, I agree. Good analysis.

[tcatinreality@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy

Trump's inauguration may be packed with billionaires, but the entertainment will still be D-list has beens like Kid Rock, Ted Nugent and poetry read by Hulk Hogan. Just like in 2017.

Edit: updated to replace high school band reference w Hulk Hogan.

[npars01@mstdn.social]

@wdlindsy

The fossil fuel industry & their allies funds attacks on all sources of factual information.
1. Libraries
https://www.everylibrary.org/the_koch_brothers_and_libraries
2. Internet Archive
https://www.wired.com/story/internet-archive-loses-hachette-books-case-appeal/
https://www.eff.org/cases/hachette-v-internet-archive
3. Shadow libraries
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/17/fbi-takeover-zlibrary-booktok-impacted/
4. Public education
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/07/arizona-fight-koch-brothers-school-vouchers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/16/koch-network-says-it-wants-remake-public-education-that-means-destroying-it-says-author-new-book-billionaire-brothers/
5. Publishers
https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/press-releases/publishers-and-authors-guild-file-landmark-lawsuit-against-state-of-florida-for-unconstitutional-book-banning-provisions-with-house-bill-1069
6. News
https://www.axios.com/2021/08/18/oan-loses-appeal-in-defamation-lawsuit-against-msnbc
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/20/comcast-spinoff-cable
7. Encyclopedias
https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-takes-aim-wikipedia-fund-raising-editing-political-woke-2005742
8. Journalists
https://www.pen-international.org/news/united-kingdom-support-for-carole-cadwalladr-as-she-faces-slapp-trial

[huntingdon@mstdn.social]

@wdlindsy

Clownish-seeming Authoritarians. Trump may be clownish, but he employs and is beholden to people who are not.

[huntingdon@mstdn.social]

@wdlindsy

Does unregulated capitalism know how to make anything but a "quick buck?"

[huntingdon@mstdn.social]

@wdlindsy

Trump has already raised more than $200 million. Guaranteed that his Coronation will cost no more than half that. The rest will find it's way into his pockets. Who will document the corruption? Because Trump's own DoJ will obscure it.

[oldoldcojote@climatejustice.social]

@wdlindsy

I always told my children, knowing how to survive in the wilderness gives you the gift of being able to give power the finger without fear.

[mlbellar@universeodon.com]

@wdlindsy

"the plan is getting Jesus to see the fires from outer-space so he will come back and make us all billionaires" - all that Citizen's United money the wealthy gave Christianity to save their King James asses

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@mlbellar Con brio, as usual — and a great observation.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@oldoldcojote Good point. My father had many shortcomings, but something I'll always remember about him with gratitude is that he took us children on frequent walks in the woods, and a key lesson he taught us was not to let fear rule us, to make wise decisions if we encountered danger (e.g., in one case, a rattlesnake about to strike my youngest brother), etc. Fear puts us off-balance and makes us more susceptible to bad decisions.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@huntingdon Who will document the corruption? A good question. I fear the answer is no one.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@huntingdon It knows how to exploit and corrupt as it does that, for sure.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@huntingdon Well-noted and well-stated.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Npars01 Thank you for that valuable list. Interestingly enough, when I began thinking of constructive things I could do to respond to what's happening now with that man's re-election, the very first two things I did is double my monthly donation to my public library (double and then a bit more), and to up the amount I give monthly to Internet Archive, which is not a lot but still my attempt to support a very valuable web enterprise.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@TCatInReality I agree.