It’s almost as if the ruling class built systems of opression and now people ask to politely use those to fight back?
The fuck are we talking about? Protest only if it doesn’t inconvenience the rich? Vote, because that’s exactly how we got here in the first place? Tax the owners instead of dropping the hammer for every life the corporation ruined?
Yeah, don’t be too barbaric, violence will definitely go wrong.
I’m personally interested in filling downticket seats with more progressive candidates. Conservatives are gobbling these positions up which bolster higher office mandate. Anyone left of center needs to find common ground and start shifting the window left. Lower seats are critical to turning the gears of bureaucracy, and establishing that base makes things like transparent and accountability more attainable.
The rich own the people that decide taxes. They own the media that influences the masses. In many cases, they even own the prisons thereby giving them incentive to “encourage” lawmakers to make more stringent laws to put more citizens in prison. The rich own everything. Our entire culture is rigged to give them more money and more power. The only advantage we have is numbers. Sometimes, violence is the only choice. They certainly wouldn’t hesitate to use it against you. They would just get the “authorities” to do it for them.
Once the violence starts, it won’t stay focused on what “you” want. That’s the problem.
Conservatives are snatching up every lower post they can, and democrats and progressives need to be doing the same. By solidifying bottom up representation, you have increasing influence over higher decisions. The left kneecaps itself and needs to stop. Fantasy about guillotines is a distraction.
Once the first billionaire is killed the rest will go everywhere with a phalanx of SMG toting body armor wearing security. They will push through laws extending the same qualified immunity that we hate with police to armed bodyguards and the politicians will roll over and let them because once killing the rich starts, they know they arent far down the list.
You being privileged enough to not be personally impacted by it (yet, or enough to be willing to give up that privilege) doesn't mean the violence isn't already here, being inflicted on billions of people, costing millions of lives, all to enrich a tiny percent of the population that already has almost all of the power and resources, meanwhile you're happy to sit there and criticise those who react to this oppression in self defence.
The level of inequality in the world makes me want to die. I’m not enough of a dick, and I’m kind of a dick. I don’t want to be part of it, it’s horrible.
Noted that this is the face of the person who ruined the lives of my friends and former coworkers. In case anyone doesn’t know, everything Rooster Teeth will be vanishing in like 2 weeks thanks to Warner Brothers. I finally get my dream job as a Production Designer on Simple Walk into Mordor, then this…
Man do I have a love hate relationship with that series. The first couple seasons were so fun, and hooked me in. The middle few were pretty bad but this last one had things going in a promising direction. And now, poof, no more RWBY
Wood chippers require energy and can be expensive. A guillotine is rather easy to make, requires no electricity and is easy to build from things at hand for everyone.
The only thing I ever hear about David Zaslav is how he’s a notorious piece of shit who only makes terrible decisions about how to further ruin the reputation of his company. That, and now about how he’s getting a huge raise.
I hope this is true, because the bullshit we are fed is that they earn those incomes by their performance. This would be an obvious slap in the face for that argument.
I know it’s all bullshit, but it’s nice to have direct evidence that it’s bullshit.
I understood it to be mocking the headline’s passive tone. The CEO is the one with much of the power to increase their own pay in a company, but the article is talking about it like some unknown magical entity just gifted this guy with $50 million.
And I think it’s also combined with the general sentiment that anyone making that much is stealing from workers.
The only issue with that is there is a corporate board and shareholders (only non-binding votes to show approval or displeasure i read in the nyt piece), but cant say you’re not wrong either in terms of the board. And maybe something to do with this:
Pay packages like these — when entertainment companies have been walloped by the shift to streaming from traditional television — played a major role in the union strikes. “They plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their C.E.O.s,” Fran Drescher, the president of the actors’ union, said at July rally. “It is disgusting.”
Most of the big media companies slashed costs in 2023, laying off thousands of people and announcing plans to make fewer movies and television shows. But Mr. Zaslav and his lieutenants have been particularly aggressive, even shelving nearly finished content like “Batgirl” and “Coyote vs. Acme.” www.nytimes.com/…/david-zaslav-pay-package.html
No, he is the CEO of the company “Warner Bros. Discovery” from a quick google. I think it’s just unfamiliar to see someone’s pay increase retroactively, since it literally doesn’t happen for normal people.
I could def be wrong, but it might have to do with Zaslav’s ‘vision’ to move focus towards ‘unscripted programming’, as in reality tv, true crime and live sports, less on scripted programming. My guess* is the car that’s laying about is reality tv and regular people. He’s not really helping create new shows, great storytelling, rather just using regular people to draw in viewers and rake in profits. I imagine the cost of unscripted programming is much less than truly scripted programming.
He can give himself a 25% raise worth several tens of millions of dollars which he made thanks to the hard work of the employees at WB, but these employees get next to nothing during a time where every basic needs like food and shelter are increasingly expensive.
A big part of that money should go to the employees.
From a communist lens, the money to give the CEO a raise is the value of labor that workers provided, taken by the CEO instead of shared among the workers who provided it.
So (from that lens) the money going to the CEO is being stolen from the workers, the money is the car in the analogy. But the headline is framing the situation as “X got this thing worth a lot” without considering where the value came from.
Workers whose labor value have been stolen are like a person whose car was stolen, waking up to a positively-framed article about someone else receiving the stolen goods.
or without any lens, the CEO makes short term decisions that are good for shareholders (the board) and bad for people working for the company, so the board rewards the CEO with a suitcase full of cash
Brag about it and use it as leverage for power. The money doesn’t actually exist, it’s stock mostly that gets instantly created from nothing. But they can use the idea of its existence to take other people’s real money for the things they want and the rest is just other people agreeing to do what they want because of the idea of power that having it conveys.
Mansions, supercars, yachts, maids, private chefs, expensive trips in their private airplanes. Those are the things that at least make sense. But then they start doing really stupid stuff like spending $45,000 for a light fixture in their house when most people have light fixtures that cost a hundred bucks. They buy T-shirts that cost $1200 just because of the label. They literally eat gold on $20,000 deserts that are powdered with gold dust and gold flake. They get bored of having everything they could ever want and start acting like fucking idiots. A normal person that has already had every single desire they’ve ever had met would start looking to benefit the less fortunate. Not these fucks. Instead they put diamonds on the soles of their shoes and pursue even more money that they’ll never be able to spend.
George Krikes does my favorite cover of that one, on the “stories” yt channel (run by the guitarist from Scary Pockets, same studio). Great channel overall.
So I gotta ask, because I’ve always noticed this about the song:
In the first chorus, is the electric guitar that plays between the brass lines, two chords, tuned slightly higher than the rest of the band? It sounds different than the second chorus.
And then you’ve got Warren Buffet who just was really into it as a high score competition living in a house he bought 40 years ago driving a 8 year old car
I always thought Buffett was a pretty cool guy until I found out that he disowned his grand daughter for speaking in a documentary film after he told her not to. She doesn’t even really say anything particularly bad. He’s a psychopath.
And then what? If you have bought everything you will ever need, what else would you want the money for? They have enough money for their great great great children.
Control and awe. Many of those guys have antisocial personality disorders. Their brains work different to ours. One can always control more people/processes or inspire more fear&awe.
Best explanation for the difference between a million and a billion: a million seconds is 12 days, a billion seconds is 31 years.
While we are angry at the guys who maybe stole a few months, there are people who have stolen centuries and millenias. The warner CEO is closer to being homeless, than being a billionaire (though neither is realistic).
It’s an addiction in the most literal sense of the word. Going after money is the most default of all possible goals, so it’s a way to avoid facing choices in life.
Money’s numerical, which means you can always in theory make a decision without having to think or feel. Bigger number = better choice.
Just like cocaine or video games or jerking off, it’s a way to get dopamine flowing without figuring anything out.
I’ve found that any time I actually emerge from poverty, I encounter a deep existential dread that’s basically covered up by the struggle. Because I don’t know what my next goal is after getting out of the pit.
So my subconscious finds a way to just fall back into the pit.
One solution to this is to view “more money” with the same urgency no matter how financially secure I am.
I don’t seem to be capable of that. I know it would be handy in some ways to be driven to always rise on the money ladder, but the thought of trying to awaken and cultivate that pattern in myself feels like more of a cost than a benefit.
Virtually every single thing I stress about in my life is in one way or another related to money. It’s not spending money I’m into - it’s having it. I have way more money saved up than anyone else I know but I still want more. You can call it an addiction but it’s what gives me the peace of mind. 1 million euros is the number I have in mind about how much I’d need to have money saved up untill I would consider it enough. I’m nowhere even close that amount so it’s safe to assume that money is going to remain among the top priorities for the rest of my life.
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