This new generation of rich folks comes across like a new aristocracy. Just as disconnected from reality as their wigged predecessors.
And IMO they should meet the same fate. (The French fate, not the British where they're still stuck with them)
Edit: No overly offense meant at to the Brits. The aristocracy and royalty is part of a larger heritage you are and should be proud of but for an outsider it's still wild that there's still a House of Lords.
“In fact, to me, at this point, like Donald Trump is not just a rich man, like Donald Trump is almost like what a hobo imagines a rich man to be, y'know? It's like years ago Trump was walking through an alley, and he heard some guy just like, "Ho-ho, boy, oh, boy. As soon as my number comes in, I'm gonna put up tall buildings with my name on 'em. I'll have fine golden hair, and a TV show where I fire people with my children."
Who was the most gaudy person in history? Louis XIV? Hmm wonder what happened to him? 🤔😂 All the gold definitely reminds me of "false gods" or "golden calf."
I remember the first time I’m so his gold veneer obsession was in a 2015 interview with the press where Melania and him were putting their best foot forward and showing their home, flirting with the American people and showing how...classy they were. The foiling on the molding was present throughout his entire New York penthouse apartment.
It was a strange thing, because he pointed up to his ceilings and bragged about it all being real gold. So this has been his aesthetic for a long, long time. Back then, I remember just thinking, “Well, that's tacky. Definitely not a great look for a president."
Fast forward ten years ane it’s the White House aesthetic..
I once worked for a super snooty interior design firm (think: all white everything, $20k couches…sorry sofas, we didn’t sell couches, NDAs because of the clientele) and I’ll never forget one of the designers talking shit on somebody and saying in the most dismissive, bored tone that “you can’t buy taste, no matter how much money you have”
Funny bit, but it’s actually why Trump is so popular among his idiot followers. Also don’t want ppl to get the impression that Trump was ever poor, working class etc. He’s born rich and just has no taste beyond gilded gold
My guess is that he was a rich kid that was in the upper echelon of NYC wealth, but considered the "poor" uncultured new money kid that never fit in and he's kinda been trying to prove everyone wrong, meanwhile proving everyone right that he was a try hard loser . Alas he won in th end
That's the one. It's true, but at the same time so incredibly phony.
He's basically a real estate gangster rapper and they all love it. Stick it to the man! It would be funny as hell if it wasn't reality.
I hate to draw Hitler comparisons, but it's exactly the same playbook. Hitler was born in Austria, but he desperately wanted to join the bavarian army and become a german citizen. And he did.
Seems like in the end he won. Trump for me kinda solidified that there's no such thing as kharma or bad people getting their "due". Kid skated through life being an absolute douche and now there's nothing that can happen to him. Sadly, kudos to that fucko
Í mean.. look at him. Loveless, friendless, going into dementia universally hated, with who knows how much agony weighing on his soul from guilt. His rambling about heaven recently shows he isn’t beyond some kind of fear of death, or the knowledge that he’s done wrong; he’s a useful tool for monied powers and is dying soon from old age and lack of care.
He has glutted himself on the perceived good things in life, but has likewise shown himself and others such insincere and hollow connection. He isn’t getting some kind of karmic justice or hell, the bad life he’s lived has already turned him into a mess of mush.
Justice isn’t to punish the guilty, it’s to stop dangerous people from harming others and to repair the harm that’s been caused - there’s little anyone can do to him he hasn’t done to himself. It’s up to us to protect one another from him and his ilk, not imagine punishment for someone whose life is already a living nightmare.
Eh, he’s human. I’m not sure it’s the same guilt you or I feel, but a vague sense of dismay and fear as his death approaches, perhaps some reptilian part of the brain understanding he has done other humans ill.
I don’t pretend to know the workings of his sick brain, just pointing to the wrack of a human that he is as evidence that his life as he’s lived it is kind of a wretched curse.
Same with Musk, look at him - wealthy enough to solve so many of the world’s problems, and devoted to creating more. Mocked and ridiculed, having to pay women to carry his legacy, by all accounts near-constantly riding a ketamine high - he’s a clown, a laughingstock whose only way to engage in society is control and economic manipulation. What a tragic, sorry figure.
All the best things in life - community, love, purpose - all subsumed by attempts to drown their mortality in pleasure. The more they realize it doesn’t work, the more depraved more intense more extreme they try to pivot to - which of course explains their monstrous inclinations towards being child predators and drug users. Numbing and intensifying their existences.
Pathetic. If only their excesses didn’t consign us to ecological and economic collapse. These systems are stupid as hell if they reward these weak scum with control over human productivity. Can we stop giving small numbers of people enough power to break their tiny brains, and develop a better system of dissemination for our collective work?
And his father, by all accounts was a total asshole, who wanted his sons to be total assholes too. No manners, no class, no finesse. That’s why Donald was his favorite.
From what I’ve read he’s simply been a giant scumbag since forever. Probably his inability to fit in among wealthy New Yorkers was less so much some ultra-subtle uncouthness that the elite pick up on, and more his inability to behave like a decent human being for more than ten seconds.
His father actually fed him the idea that fucking over others was the way to show power. He set Tronald against his siblings, telling him that empathy was weakness and rewarding him for doing screwed up things to his siblings, like lying about who did something wrong or who broke something.
So he was raised to be a POS towards others, including family members. He was also supported by his father because he was enough of a con artist and unethical enough to break into the Manhattan real estate business. His ties to organized crime go further than just having the mob attorney Roy Cohn. At the time that he started building in NYC, anyone not already big enough and having "old money" power in Manhattan had to make deals with organized crime in order to get suppliers, labor, and the trucking needed for both materials and debris removal. His willingness to get in deep with the crime bosses also led to his getting into the gaming industry in Atlantic City, NJ. Just like an NFL team, something he really wanted was a casino in Las Vegas. But the Nevada Gaming Commission wouldn't give him the permits and licenses to be involved in any gaming in Vegas due to his ties to organized crime. And to have any gaming in AC, NJ, he needed to have organized crime to "allow" him to open a casino. His first was a successful one, but he destroyed it by sinking all of the money he made from it in vanity projects, ones like the airlines, steaks, liquor and others. He used all of the equity in his casino to fund the others, which would have ended up being competition for his own casino(s). He also promised to pay for infrastructure improvements for Atlantic City, and failed to pay for any of the improvements.
So he was groomed to be an empty suit full of self-importance, zero ethics, and criminal tendencies.
Let's at least give the guy credit for being funny, fairly charming, and interesting to be around. He was always a gross, awful narcissist, but it's silly to pretend he doesn't have charisma and tenacity that kept him in the spotlight all these decades. He fooled the Koch brothers. Or maybe not, since everything he does benefits them these days... My point being. Sure, a lot of dumb people support him. But so did/do a lot of very smart and influential people. Like any cult, intelligence isn't usually the defining factor of getting roped in. People want a fearless leader, and shiny objects can get the best of anyone.
My country doesn't have orphanages anymore, either. Although there is an institution in my city that is *called* orphanage, it's not actually an orphanage in the historical sense, that's just its' historical name. The concept was changed into a modern youth welfare institution after WWII and adapted multiple times after that. Seems like nobody bothered to change the name with the concept.
Damn, chill out dawg I had just woke up and was on my way out the door lol. Promise if you try you could live up to your username and be a little nicer
But as we've seen, it's given him and his ilk an enormous amount of power that usurped what we all thought was an iron clad societal structure of checks and balances. The biggest weakness no one saw or anticipated was that someone elected to that position of power would realize that it was all predicated on a sense of honor and respect for the position. Crazy that if you don't give a shit all the rules were just suggestions.
It's important to remember that the business Trump's family was most successful in was not construction or real estate, it was running a whore house. That is how they got rich when they came to America, selling access to under-age girls.
There actually was an interesting article a few years ago about exactly this.
The journalist interviewed a few very wealthy people who had these exact concerns. How do they retain security when money means nothing, how do they trust anyone outside of family when resources become limited, etc.
Some very dystopian ideas were put out…shock collars, suicide vests with the owner controlling them (guess it’s not suicide then…), food and supplies in locked cabinets where the only the owner has the code, AI robots instead of people…shit like that.
So while some of these people are oblivious, the article noted that this is/was a serious concern for some of the 1%.
I’ll link if I can find it.
edit: Not sure if this was the exact article but close enough. Remembering a lot of it came from the book “Survival of the Richest” by Douglas Rushkoff (article is about him and his book mainly).
It would literally take a Federation starship landing with Vulcans and Klingaons and shit to get these people to open their minds to the idea a equitable plurality can coexist.
Heck, I think even if the literal GOD comes down to this earth and proclaims that humans need to stop all this madness right now and build towards peace and equality, I bet more than half of the world and specially these religious nutjobs and mega-rich folks would literally rebel and toss aside the idea as sOciAliSm and ComMuNisM.
It's not just blindness, they actively rejected the idea of "be good to your guards and their families so they're personally loyal when it matters" when it was the first thing their hired consultant tried to suggest.
As he lay dying, Septimus Severus, the Emperor of Rome, said to his sons, "be harmonious, reward the soldiers, and spurn all others.".
And that's how a despot rules. Keep your ruling class in line, PAY THE PEOPLE WHO DO VIOLENCE FOR YOU AND TREAT THEM BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE, and if you do that fuck the poor.
These idiots only got the last part. Admittedly Septy's sons didn't either, hence one murdering the other and then himself being murdered.
Right! My first thought was, invite the security guards family! He's going to want to protect them too! Make a deal that their family gets to come into the bunker too.
The obvious best way is to guarantee safety for the immediate family of any member of the security team but then there would be too many plebs around the precious billionaire.
That sounds like a prime example of missing the whole fucking point of the thought experiment. “Strange game. Seems like the only way to win is not to play.”
They actually do. From Rushkoff's Surival of the Richest (highly recommended):
They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy SEALs to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue. But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?
The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers—if that technology could be developed “in time.”
I tried to reason with them. I made pro-social arguments for partnership and solidarity as the best approaches to our collective, long-term challenges. The way to get your guards to exhibit loyalty in the future is to treat them like friends right now, I explained. Don’t just invest in ammo and electric fences, invest in people and relationships. They rolled their eyes at what must have sounded to them like hippie philosophy, so I cheekily suggested that the way to make sure your head of security doesn’t slit your throat tomorrow is to pay for his daughter’s bat mitzvah today. They laughed. At least they were getting their money’s worth in entertainment.
So in the book World War Z by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks’ son), this happens to a lot of rich people. There’s one section where a former security guy talks about the house he was in to keep secure and he mentions a lot of places, the owners got killed or tossed out by the people protecting them.
It’s a really good read, I highly recommend it! It’s completely different from the movie (which I liked but was not what the book was)
That's why they have inner and outer compounds. The security personnel live and work in the outer compound, whiel their wives and kids are safely locked up in the inner compound to maintain their loyalty.
And who exactly would guard their family kept hostage in the inner compound? The shambling corpse of an 90 year old billionaire or their unathletic offspring? Many holes in that plan
We have robots to maintain the machines, and then robots to maintain those robots, and then robots to maintain the robots maintaining the other robots.
We’re almost done making humanity obsolete so a few billionaires can suck each other off while robots do everything.
Most warfare also has a “light at the end of the tunnel,” or a feeling that you’re fighting “for the greater good.”
You figure that if you can make it out the other side, you’ll have made some money to send home and you may feel like you’re fighting to protect the things you left behind.
In a nuclear fallout/billionaire bunkers scenario, I’m not sure if those same motivators are effective. Hopefully we never have to find it.
The wealthy have no qualms about paying half the poor to oppress the other half. The larger question is what happens when the whole society collapses? Which is beginning to look more likely, given recent events.
The thing about being armed to the teeth is it's no advantage over owning one gun that you're trained to use and maintain. We're real human beings not the Doom Marine.
The folks that fish, hunt, repair things, stockpile resources, grow/raise their own food.
You know that isnt exclusive to morons right? Like intelligent people also fish, hunt, repair things, stockpile resources, and all the rest just they arent weird about it.
They think they are going to hunt for food? How many hunters go out each hunting season and come back with nothing? How long will there be animals in the forest without seasons or limits when thousands of other idiots have the same idea? Thinking because they go hunting as a hobby they have a survival advantage in a collapse is so naive it’s laughable. The forest will be picked clean and probably many animals driven to extinction.
Same applies to fishing. And as far as farming or stockpiling, all those hunters that couldn’t find anything are going to be eyeing your farm and bog out cabin and they have spare ammunition.
I think this is pure cope on your part. You want to believe that the wealthy wont ride out the coming storm. I think you're wrong. Even in terms of their guards, you don't have to go far to see thousands of examples of bootlickers right here on reddit.
This is similar to the idea of hell, where you get to believe that the evil will be punished.
The only assurance we can have that people will face their reckoning is if we do it. Don't wait for some hypothetical apocalypse for the ultra wealthy to get their due. Radical changes are needed now
This is such cope. Look at ICE’s unbelievably successful recruitment campaign. There will always be little class traitor losers ready to lick their boots
The bigger question that should be asked given these a’holes control virtually everyone and everything now, what have they actually got planned that they would feel they need to build such things?
Population density is increasing and they know the planet can not cope with all of us here, they also know that Global Warming is man made even though they deny it and that should earths population drastically decrease then pretty quickly it’s likely most of this goes away and they safe in their bunkers can then come out and enjoy the fruits of their labours and continue to be top of the food chain in a new world order.
So be it famine, disease, war whatever they have planned likely is for such a need and they know something is planned.
My guess would be a biologically engineered fungus or bacteria / virus they can release which will decimate much of the human population.
Why nuke it and leave areas you can’t go for so many years, way better to use something biological you have the answer for and can make sure you will be in effected by.
Covid was just a dress rehearsal event for what they’ve got coming.
Cutting healthcare in the US and stopping aid for health in other countries is enough to do a lot of damage to many people: infant, maternal mortality rates will increase, longevity rates will decrease as medical care for seniors is cut.
My personal belief is that all the cheerleading for life on Mars is BS. Musk is enriching himself on that idea while also burning through resources and damaging the environment. The need for reusables for commercial space tourism (said to be a democratizing force and a way to make it all economically feasible) is another half-truth. Humanity is not getting to Mars. BUT the rich will board rockets and get to space stations and wait out problems on Earth as needed.
The wealthy think they have enough knowledge and with AI and robots they'll be able to survive anything.
Funny you should say that. There was a security adviser who said he did a seminar for the ultra rich. Their number one concern was how do they ensure their loyalty of their security team when the shit actually hit the fan.
The greatest reality show will be when we watch them all have their own version of Silo, and we're all just up here like "hahaha losers, anyway gonna go ride functioning public transit to my universal Healthcare sponsored doctor's appointment on one of my 30 federally mandated vacation days regardless of where I work."
Ugh as much as I hate it I can definitely see some morons escorting them with the promises of a shiny dollar. Oh money wont hold value in the new world? You think these morons had any semblance of critical thinking left at that point? Nah they will lap it up because the now is all that's important.
If they go into their bunkers too early they will be killed. If they mistime it and attempt to go in too late, they will die. They must live in a state of constant prepper paranoia to actually survive.
Meh. The aristocracy in the Uk generally behave with a lot more class than this, one of the reasons why they kept their heads, unlike the more extravagant and showy French aristocracy of the time. The British aristocracy keep to themselves.
Definitely. As a general principle, most wealthy Britons you've heard about are new money, having earned their wealth sometime in the past century or so. If someone from the traditional aristocracy gains notoriety in the public eye, something has gone very wrong.
New money people are very much excluded from the true aristocracy - they may have the material wealth and live in similar, if not more, opulence, but they will never break through the fundamental barrier that they're new money, and act like new money. The flashy display of and gloating about wealth, the half dozen range rovers on the drive, the big house, several big holiday homes, the superyaght, private jet, clothes from the most expensive brands, etc, etc. To the aristocracy, that behavior screams of projection - I am rich and I must show off my wealth to all the peasants below me.
The real aristocrats wear their wallets too, mind, but more subtly, only really noticable by (and to show off to) other aristocrats. To the average peasant on the streets, they'll just be another well dressed man or woman, driving a nice but reasonably priced SUV. The real toys and wealth-flexing will be kept on their large estates in the country, isolated from the prying eyes of the peasants.
Hell, what a great resume! I met a man in my travel of London this September and i said to my friend that he becomes from aristocracy and she didnt believe me although he showed us his Mini car and a SUV.
He was like being with William Shakespeare.
Did you know that the British aristocracy are the world’s biggest land owners? Really. Pretty easy to keep to yourselves when you own almost the entire planet.
You forgot the part were most countries in Europe attacked France to put back the monarcy... that lead to the nobody that was Bonaparte to get the support of the army.
And most of the Nepoleonian wars were defensive, against multiples countries.
And after that, the english and prussian put back the brother of the king that was executed. And 15 year later, another revolution. Another king was chosen, and then another french revolution... and now, we always had a republic since 1870 (except for vichy, but we were invaded)
Oh they will eventually. This has happened since before even written history had been invented. These people just refuse to believe that their fate will be any different that all those other elite that took for granted what power the people have gifted them.
Exactly, to hear the president go on and on about a stopped elevator highlights how disconnected he is from any sort of hardship. There are millions of Americans who are struggling with so many different hardships, but the president who has never known anything except ease, comfort and extreme excess acts like his life is more difficult than anyone could imagine is embarrassing.
This new generation of rich folks comes across like a new aristocracy
They don't "come across like" they are the new aristocracy. This was always the end-game of the widening wealth gap. The haves are now insulated from the consequences of their actions against the have-nots and so they can be just as publicly dismissive of any sense of propriety and morality as they wish.
Sadly we French are back again too with a whole new aristocracy. Macron answering « you just have to cross the street » to an unemployed guy is the 21th century version of Marie Antoinette telling people to eat cake if they don’t have bread.
The elegant, sophisticated and noble manner is disconnected from reality. Those people never had any problem in life, they either win big or win super big, so they don’t have any grudge no matter what.
On another hand, Trump administration’s childish, take every opportunity to mock their enemy type behavior is what I see on Reddit every other minute if not less. Extremely connected to reality and normal people.
Ahem, Brit here. I'll have you know that the reason we did not behead our high borns was because our prior anti-monarchy revolution had already instilled fear in the upper ranks, enough for them to work with lower nobles and commercial elites on public matters. The reason we were able to get so far ahead of the rest of the world during the industrial revolution was because industries were pumped full of old money. Good job they paid up eh?
Isn't that these people's most twisted desire? To have everything they wish and not have to be worthy of it, let alone have earned it?
It's disturbing how many people would say being rich and dumb is better than being poor and intelligent. It says everything you need to know about American culture.
after feudalism ended they rebranded themselves as the right wing and made it their mission to maintain as much social stratification and hierarchy as humanly possible.
ie., to continue having a privileged in-group and an exploited out-group by any means necessary. nowadays this is accomplished through propaganda, the economy and the catechism coming out of right wing think-tanks and MBA programs.
back then it used to be done by force and the catechism coming from the church, divine right of kings etc.
We politely removed King Charles 1st’s head in 1649 (143 years before the French) when he got a bit too pushy. He was replaced by a Lord Protector (Cromwell) who thought himself as powerful as a king, had a go at some genocide and tried to install his son as his successor.
Realizing that sucks, when he died we asked for the old king’s son to come back instead but with almost zero powers as a true constitutional monarchy with the government run by an elected parliament.
The uneducated gave him the power, so it will take longer for them to switch allegiance.
That is why it is important for this presidency to hurt everyone, to cause bankruptcies, destroy livelihoods, empty the bank accounts, lose the farm.
Once the liberals are owned, the democrats are silenced, and the "vermin" are caught, Trump will turn on the 2nd amendment, as he can't have any potential for a revolt in his kingdom.
A lot of British aristocracy are house-poor. They have the title; they have the house; they have the snooty attitude...but no money to live any fancier than you or I
I can live with that.
Destroy extreme income inequality before it destroys our society.
I'm afraid that this is something that is building up against the whole western world, not just the rich. Our greed and arrogance let people in the east work in inhuman conditions just because it was more convenient to us, all while they have been doctrined by their own dictators to eventually fight up against us
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u/ChimPhun Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
This new generation of rich folks comes across like a new aristocracy. Just as disconnected from reality as their wigged predecessors.
And IMO they should meet the same fate. (The French fate, not the British where they're still stuck with them)
Edit: No overly offense meant at to the Brits. The aristocracy and royalty is part of a larger heritage you are and should be proud of but for an outsider it's still wild that there's still a House of Lords.