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Summary

Billionaires like Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy are spreading false claims to discredit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency protecting consumers from fraud and abuse.

Andreessen falsely accused the CFPB of politically motivated “debanking,” despite no evidence.

This rhetoric aligns with the “DOGE” project, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, which aims to slash government regulations and programs under the guise of efficiency.

Critics warn this effort will harm public services, benefit billionaires, and push privatization at the expense of ordinary Americans.

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[-] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 80 points 1 day ago

Oh no, what will we do if billionaires control the U.S. government.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907

And those are just J.P. Morgan.

[-] timmy_dean_sausage@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago

Is your point that this is fear mongering, or that the struggle between classes has been an ongoing fight for most of recorded history?

[-] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago

The latter. I mean, America was founded by a tobacco company and people so weird in their religiosity, they were kicked out of 17th century Europe.

I do think we can solve the oligarch problem. So, part of me was like, “We’ve met this challenge before, motherfuckers.” It wasn’t meant to dismissive but I’m pretty sure I could open hand slap Elon Musk and 24 of his 38 kids would feel it.

[-] CouldaBeen_TheBest@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Wish I had your optimism. Hand it over.

On a more serious note, I truly believe that enriching & modernizing our education system is the way to go for dethroning our billionaire overlords. We can't just expect slap dash imploding submarines to do all the work.

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[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 51 points 1 day ago

Americans will not destroy the military or the police state. We need those to do harm against our enemies and to punish the undeserving.

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago

You don't understand. You make them non-functional through incompetency first, then change their purpose and voila...neither.

Then you pay Elon Musk for fleets of Tesla robots that don't work to do your dirty work 🤣

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

From what I've seen under Eric Adams in New York, you never actually lay any of these people off. You just bring in a robot that bumbles around a subway terminal until it breaks down, while a squad of officers guard it with lethal force.

[-] whithom@discuss.online 8 points 1 day ago

Yawn. We are letting it happen. Remove them or else.

[-] nutsack@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

wow big take there sir

[-] bradd@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

An enemy of my enemy is my friend.

[-] kittenzrulz123 8 points 1 day ago

As an Anarchist I also hate the government, however this will not bring anything good. Maybe in a best case scenario they could destroyed the government and then accedently destroy themselves but thats useless without a complex network of left wing organizations that could replace the government.

[-] bradd@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I don't hate the government but I understand that we aren't friends. I don't hate billionaires or businesses but I understand that they aren't my friends. When it comes to the most dangerous entities, it's governments first, then businesses and billionaires.

Nazi Germany was a government. Volkswagen and IBM were companies, and one of the wealthiest people in that place and time was Friedrich Flick. Friedrich was a shithead but Nazi Germany didn't join the Friedrich fan club, instead Friedrich joined the Nazi fan club. Hitler wasn't trying to be a CEO or a millionaire he was reaching for government power.

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[-] vaquedoso@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago

Are you crazy enough to be implying that your own government is your enemy? Public administration is necessary to any kind of social coordination and the reason you were able to leave that comment

[-] EldritchFeminity 10 points 1 day ago

Yeah, takes like this are crazy. Is the government my enemy? In the sense that we're spiraling towards a fascist regime with an incoming administration that has members who have literally called for "a genocide of trans people," absolutely.

But that's an issue of the government falling apart due to the kinds of people who would be the warmongers lording over the Libertarian paradise that most of these people call for with their PMC, not because the government simply exists. And this branch in particular is one of the ones doing the most to protect the common person from those same warmonger wannabes.

Without branches like this, companies would be dumping chemical waste upriver of towns again.

[-] bradd@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Can you show me the calls for genocide of trans people, please? I'm struggling to understand the rest of what you said, regarding warmongering lords, and Libertarian (as in Libertarian political party?) paradise? 🤔

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[-] bradd@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yes. Pick up a history book, study the constitution, the bill or rights, and you'll see that the founders were also crazy enough.

The billionaires in this country may have many monopolies but the US Government has the monopoly on violance. Counter to what Starship Troopers would lead you to believe, all power is derived from violence.

You are also wrong about public administration being necessary for social coordination and again you only need a history book to see this.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 day ago

Pick up a history book

Collective action (government) is the only thing preventing you from being ruled by someone else’s collective action

[-] bradd@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

That's actually not true. See the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They're documents that were written to guarantee and protect my rights as an individual. I was lucky to have been born in this time and place, look back or just around the world today and you will see countries without these arrangements. If you're a US citizen and you don't understand how lucky you are you need to travel more and read books. Get out of the city, and do it alone. You'll see.

[-] vaquedoso@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You were just arguing against this kind of government, but now you are all for it? Make up your mind. 'the bill of rights' means nothing without a government enforcing it.

In any case, this shows just how ignorant you are to the world around you. Documents protecting the rights of the populace aren't exclusive to the US, nor were they the first to write them, look up the magna Carta, written in medieval times; or the Hammurabi code, one of the first written legal documents that protected the weak and the vulnerable.

What's more, most countries today also have these protections written in their respective constitutions, so this whole "the US is special" talk is just propaganda you ate

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[-] vaquedoso@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm not from the US, so I don't care about your founders.

History books, and biology as well mind you, actually say that the actions of a group of individuals working together have more power than those of individuals working alone, and in any coordinated effort there is a subsection of the group that takes care of the whole and marks the pace. Throughout history the civilizations that managed to thrive and leave their mark were those whose governing body was efficient and effective, and there's no denying that. You may be able to wrangle your friends and coordinate them without a specific administrative role, but try doing that with a group of people surpassing the hundreds of millions and you will have a problem.

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[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Ah, the enlightened libertarian

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The founders would routinely rape their slaves and participated in scalping. They were day drunk all the time because one of the best ways to clean water was to make it into beer. They didn't believe in bathing, they thought washing the grime off would let the bad airs in and make them sick.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

They were day drunk all the time because one of the best ways to clean water was to make it into beer.

I need to take issue with this part because that is simply not how things worked. The ale that was being made at the time (and had been made and drunk by people for centuries before then) instead of water had an extremely low alcohol content. Even a small child would have to drink a LOT to get tipsy.

It was generally drunk the day after it was brewed, so it didn't really have ages to ferment into a potent alcoholic drink. People did drink to get drunk, of course, but drinking small ale/small beer rather than water was not how they did it.

[-] bradd@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Largely irrelevant, if true.

[-] timmy_dean_sausage@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

It's not irrelevant. They're saying that the people you hold up as some kind of supremely enlightened few of a special era, were in fact products of their time who believed in a lot of silly things with no basis in science/reality, and committed many atrocities themselves.

I was a die-hard libertarian when I was 18. Then I learned a lot more about how the government actually functions. The more you know, the more painfully obvious it becomes that, not only is democratic government extremely necessary to support a civilization of our size, but also that uncoordinated government is literally impossible at scale. Try to lead a group of 20+ people in any activity and the importance of coordinated leadership will become evident very quickly.

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[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Where do you think Jefferson's Black descendents come from? Who do you think paid the bounties for scalps? Germ theory wasn't invented yet, they didn't know why beer was safe to drink or why they needed to bathe. Settlers thought it was strange how the natives would strip naked and bathe in rivers - so uncivilized! Unlike Europeans, who would bathe as little as possible as to preserve their modesty.

All of this is easily looked up.

Your idols were evil morons. Read a history book.

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[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

“If true” hooooooly shit you just live in a different reality, huh.

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[-] m3t00@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

they can't even tie their own shoes

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this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2024
799 points (100.0% liked)

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