When Sheldon Edelstein, the Koch Brothers, Michael Bloomberg (who famously during the 2020 Democratic primary debates had a Freudian slip of admitting outright buying congressional seats) and sundry other oligarchs throw their assets around, it's a non-issue, but suddenly new blood and noveau riche start doing it and it's somehow gauche and a threat to democracy, while also being outright misandrist. Selective rigor is the enemy. It's bad when anyone does it, not just when your outgroup does it.
Nah. There was plenty of pushback & rage against the previous ultra-rich & their ability to exert such massive political control over what nominally was a democracy too.
Selective rigor this is not. Nor should it be; it's all gross as hell & a horrible perversion of democratic interests.
And the stridency with which these folks work against democracy has only intensified. The article cites what books/influences these people have spoken for, and this is worthy coverage to consider.
> ...The Sovereign Individual, by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg. The text unironically likens the ultrarich to "the gods in Greek myth," and assures readers that they deserve no less than world domination: "Commanding vastly greater resources and beyond the reach of many forms of compulsion, the Sovereign Individual will redesign governments and reconfigure economies.
Democracy should remain vigilant to enemies within and without. It's hard for me to read something like this & not form a belief that these people are working against our democracy in ever more direct conflict. Perhaps even more vigor is needed, given the magnitude of the conflict.
>Nah. There was plenty of pushback & rage against the previous ultra-rich & their ability to exert such massive political control over what nominally was a democracy too.
Citation needed. Especially from outfits like the Atlantic, replete with invented pejoratives.
