In an interview on Theo Vonās podcast This Past Weekend, Mamdani warned that if the American Dream is just an ideal thatās out of within reach, then people may start to give up.
The democratic socialist compared it to legendary NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardiaās observation during the rise of fascism in Europe, saying people turned away from democracy not because they were tired of liberty, but because they were tired of being hungry.
āSo if democracy doesnāt mean the better life that it has to, itāll lose its worth. And the same thing with the American Dream: if itās something you can only see when you turn on your TV or you hear about that one guy you grew up with who made it, that doesnāt mean enough,ā Mamdani said.
Nepo babies are taking every opportunity, and the cute name doesnāt change the reality of it.
When enough people realize it, it wonāt matter how ācoolā some of them are.
Generational wealth inequality destroys everything, and itās going to keep getting worse. Not just because the vast majority gets fucked over, but because the people who get to run shit are chosen because how wealthy their daddy was.
The masses can keep shit functional for a while, but once that pattern starts you quickly run into the rich idiots at the top causing so much damage the rest canāt keep society moving.
The wealthy are always the ones directly to blame for violent social upheaval, because they were the only ones with the power to fix it without violence. Their iron grip on their parents stolen wealth means thereās no other option.
Just a matter of when.
Where are the Carnegie types to build public infrastructure? Yāknow, improve the lives of the rest of society that gave them enough power to amass such wealth.
Thereās no such thing as a āself-made billionaireā, itās made off the exploitation of the folks below. Everyone has a great idea or two, but getting lucky isnāt just being āGodās chosen oneā (or whatever nonsense people use to deflect that billionaires existence is unjust). Itās full out exploitation in the highest order, but because they toss some breadcrumbs we do the dance for them.
Jesus fucking christā¦
They did that stuff so theyād have an excuse to lobby for tax changes
None of that shit was for the good of society, it was to trick idiots into voting for tax cuts for the wealthy.
As soon as they got the tax cuts, the wealthy stopped doing those projects.
Because the sole reason was PR
How the fuck are so many people seeing the broad strokes and not only missing the finer details, but missing who painted the fucking picture.
Gates and even Musk seemed āokā at one point, they were all pieces of shit their entire lives, they just stopped paying the PR costs
Thing is, I really donāt care if itās just PR, so long as that PR involves taking good actions.
Itās the same way how a fear of eternal damnation and hellfire does not by default make you a good person, but it can cause you to perform the same actions as a genuinely good person would. At the end of the day it doesnāt matter if you were really feeling it or not, as long as you acted like a good person.
I feel the same way about the rich. I donāt really care if you really want to be a good person or not. If some billionaireās entire philanthropic history revolves around strictly just not wanting to get eaten by the peasants, thatās fine by me. I donāt really care if you really love trans kids in your heart of hearts, but if you donate some of your money to helping them, it keeps you off my dinner menu for another day.
We canāt expect the rich to be good people at heart, because that doesnāt really ever happen (with some VERY rare and VERY special exceptions), but we can compel āgoodā behavior out of them if they fear the unwashed masses. For me, thatās good enough for most cases.
But you fucking should, thatās the entire point Iām making
If we just fucking taxed them, then the wealth would go back into circulation. If we let them pick where to donate, it just makes idiots think letting billionaires be in charge of billions of dollars might not fuck us all.
It always will Even if takes a generation or two, eventually theyāll decide that they really should be in charge because they have the most money. The only way to stop it is to stop letting people accumulate that much, and we do that thru taxation.
You are pining for a past that does not exist. Itās very similar to MAGA and itās how they all got tricked, except this is the version that Bill Maher wants you to believe.
Again, the philanthropy was a ruse to get their taxes lowered so they would āhave more to give backā.
Their taxes were lowered many times, and here we are. Carved up and stagnant since the 1980s, every gain we make erased, every ladder pulled up. Every third place closed and commercialized; even the entire sport of bowling has been fist-fucked by private equity. No more toy stores; the only hobby store is run by fundamentalist Christian nationalists who harbor stolen ancient artifacts as if Lara Croft was in Leviticus. Theyāre not just gaining power, theyāre fucking styling on us.
Now they want us to only rent from them; from land to software and everything in between.
Iām not going back to a time when we fell for their tricks, this has played out so many times over history. This time, we keep the fucking money and build what society needs. No one needs that kind of unelected power. I donāt care what you built, you didnāt earn that.
More than one thing can be true.
Iām just not seeing the goodwill to society from the current billionaires. Theyāre all ratfucks but at least of yesteryear they tossed us a bone or two.
You didnāt see it from Carnegie eitherā¦
Why the fuck can you not understand this?
They were laying the groundwork so their descendants can say āwealthy businessmen know better than anyone elseā.
Look at our fucking president, he is the direct and natural consequence of people not understanding what you canāt. The difference is most of them didnāt have someone desperately trying to help them realize the most basic part of that
But at this point, Iām throwing in the towel on you.
I hope someone can explain this to you later, if not then hopefully youāll at least stop repeating the same billionaire propaganda people have been falling for this time.
Like, you can manage that, right?
If you wonāt learn how to help us, at least stop fucking helping the billionairez.
Can you do that for the 99.99999% of humans on the planet?
Someoneās angry lol.
I mean Iām angry at the billionaires too, but why be angry at me? Iām all about class consciousness and not feeding the machineā¦ but me a) not being American, b) merely suggesting some goodwill from the massive resource extraction by the billionaire class. Why you hating the player and not the game?
Iām just trying to understand where the Epstein class lost their fear? Where are the third spaces like arboretums and libraries being built today by them? I donāt see it. Maybe they had fear back then because they had to see their neighbours faces everyday, now weāre so disconnected.
But yes, please attack me more it helps us so much.
This is it exactly. Itās not necessarily the form of government youāre running, itās the elites that are running whatever form of government you have.
The only thing that has ever kept elites in check is a people united and willing to do whatever it takes to fix it.
Thatās learned helplessnessā¦
You still canāt even imagine a system without elites running everything.
Itās not just you, but itās so fucking disappointing itās so prevelant.
Wake the fuck up man, we need all hands on deck and even tho you think youāre plugged in your have no idea what youāre talking about and youre hurting more than helping.
For fucks sake man, I donāt even think you understand what a democracy is. You think u er capitalist wealth inequality is a part of it.
Economy and government are two completely fucking separate things. The vast majority of governmental systems would be fine without the wealth inequality the wealthy always say is a necessary part of every government system
David Ellison feels attacked.
We should call them Nepo leeches.
Hereditary disorders?
Fixed my grammar. Thanks.