Billionaires are not your friends. They're robber barons who rob you.
Trump Dumpster Fire, Chapter 2
Have you ever asked yourself why the folks in Britain still defer to a King? What the hell makes him so special?
What exactly are "royals" anyway?
During the Stone Age, there were many little tribes.
Yes, we’re gonna start at the very beginning. Sorry, but this part is important. So pay attention, numbnuts.
So there were small family clans. And when they met other clans, they killed each other, to steal each other’s resources. The only rule was, kill or be killed.
Knuckle-dragging cavemen didn’t know much, but they knew one thing: “My own tribe are the good guys, simply because I’m one of them. They won’t hurt me, because I’m one of them. All the other tribes are the bad guys, because I’m not one of them. They’re gonna eat me.”
Nothing much has changed in the past couple of thousand years. You don’t have to look very far to see tribalism in action:
“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.”
But if you were a member of the other tribe, the other tribe would be the good guys to you. That’s how tribalism works.
It always boils down to us versus them. They are the enemy.
And “they” means everyone who is not part of your own little tribe or party or race or religion or nationality.
Tribalism is the root of all wars.
The rich ruling class has used tribalism, a primitive caveman instinct, to their advantage since the beginning of time.
They use it to divide and conquer us. They drive wedges between us peasants and make us fight each other, so we won’t rise up against our rulers and fight them.
You can observe the same old trick everywhere in America today: Red states and blue states are fighting. Christians and Muslims are fighting. Men and women are fighting. Baby Boomers and Gen Z are fighting. Black people and white people are fighting.
That doesn’t just happen all by itself. There are always voices instigating these fights.
As long as poor white people and poor black people fight each other, we’re too busy to notice how we’re all being fucked over by our real enemy: the ruling class. The billionaire robber barons who exploit all of us.
Poor whites and poor blacks have way more in common than poor whites and rich whites. But many poor whites hate poor blacks, and adore rich whites.
Weird, huh?
That doesn’t just happen all by itself.
We’re constantly being brainwashed into believing that the rich ruling class are great people, and that we must look up to them. If they’re rich, they’re special. They’re amazing. Their lives are interesting. Their thoughts matter.
We’re obsessed with celebrity gossip about rich people. We want to dress like them. Be them. Every time a rich royal princess is pregnant, it’s big news. As if it’s so much more special when rich people fuck.
This shit is so ingrained in our culture, so normal, we don’t even notice it anymore. Or did you ever notice that almost all books, TV shows and movies tell stories from the perspective of rich people?
Books and movies are full of stories of dukes and ladies and princes. Great houses going to war against each other, or falling in love with each other, or overcoming great obstacles.
Meanwhile their peasants are just unimportant, nameless, faceless figures in the background, opening doors for rich people, standing guard, quietly serving food, or holding the horse steady, while the lord climbs into the saddle.
Dear poor white people, I have bad news for you: super rich white people are not your friends. They became super rich by exploiting peasants like you. That’s not what friends do.
There was a time, during the Irish potato famine, when the lives of white Irish immigrants were worth even less than the lives of black slaves.
The brutal heat and humidity on the cotton fields near New Orleans made the slaves sick. Slaves were valuable property. Losing a slave was expensive.
But Irish immigrants, fresh off the boat, were a dime a dozen. So American robber barons saved their expensive slaves and made the Irish peasants work in the fields. Every time one of them dropped dead, he was replaced by the next worthless Irish peasant. It was much cheaper than losing a slave.
America's tycoons in the 19th and early 20th centuries, pejoratively nicknamed "robber barons," built massive empires and accumulated unprecedented wealth.
Many of these men gained their vast fortunes either at the expense of their factory workers or by methods that were considered unscrupulous even back then
Robber Baron
a ruthlessly powerful U.S. capitalist or industrialist of the late 19th century considered to have become wealthy by exploiting natural resources, corrupting legislators, or other unethical means.
The robber barons didn’t just disappear one day.
They’re still here with us today, still fucking all of us over on a daily basis.
But of course they don’t call themselves capitalist robber barons. They call themselves Republicans now.
A lot of us peasants don’t even realize how the ruling class brainwashes, manipulates and controls us with lies and propaganda, to distract us and make us hate each other, while they exploit and rob us.
“The general population doesn't know what's happening, and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know.”
“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
The robber barons are vastly outnumbered by the rest of us. That’s why they hate democracy.
They could never win a fair, honest election in a democracy.
That’s why the robber barons need to lie and cheat.
Have you ever heard of gerrymandering?
Silly name, I know. But it’s a way to cheat in democratic elections.
Corrupt Republican politicians randomly redraw lines on the map and create fake congressional districts, to give themselves more votes in Congress.
Basically they change the lines on the map, so that a whole bunch of Democratic voters all live in one big Democratic district, and get one congressman.
And then the Republicans draw a bunch of other congressional districts on the map, with hardly anyone in it, and each of the almost empty congressional districts all get one Republican congressman each.
That way the Republican robber barons get more votes in Congress, even though they represent far fewer people in their empty districts.
In order for Democrats to gain control of Congress, they need to get an overwhelming majority of votes. They need to win even in those districts that the Republican robber barons specifically created to make sure the Democrats lose.
You might be thinking that’s a good thing, since you believe the Democrats are your enemies and the Republican robber barons are your friends, but they’re not.
The Republican robber barons are the ones fucking you over on a daily basis. They’re not just cheating on congressional district maps. They do shady shit like that all day every day. You just don’t know anything about it.
Ohio Congressional Map Is Illegal Gerrymander, Federal Court Rules
A federal court on Friday tossed out Ohio’s congressional map, ruling that Republican state lawmakers had carved up the state to give themselves an illegal partisan advantage and to dilute Democrats’ votes in a way that predetermined the outcome of elections.
Federal Court Rules That Michigan's Congressional Map Was Unfairly Gerrymandered
A federal court in Michigan says that the state's Republican-controlled legislature unfairly drew some of Michigan's state legislative and U.S. House district lines and that a divided government will have to come up with new boundaries.
North Carolina’s gerrymandered map is unconstitutional, judges rule, and may have to be redrawn before midterms
A panel of three federal judges held Monday that North Carolina’s congressional districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans over Democrats and said it may require new districts before the November elections, possibly affecting control of the House.
Pennsylvania court orders new congressional map due to gerrymandering
Pennsylvania’s top court on Monday threw out the state’s congressional map, ruling that Republican legislators unlawfully sought partisan advantage, and gave them three weeks to rework it in a decision that could boost Democratic chances of retaking the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a 5-2 decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the electoral map violated the state’s Constitution by manipulating the district boundaries to marginalize Democratic voters, a practice called partisan gerrymandering.”
Pretty fucked up, huh?
And you had no idea, because no one ever told you about it.
The less you know, the better for the robber barons.
But this shit is not the only way the robber barons cheat, to take our votes away.
You know what Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, Delaware, Nevada, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa…
...and California have in common?
Together, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, Delaware, Nevada, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa have 40 million residents...
...and California alone also has 40 million residents.
You know what the difference is?
Together, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, Delaware, Nevada, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa have a total of 46 senators...
...but California only has 2 senators.
Are you paying attention? This is a big fucking deal.
Here, let me draw you a picture:
So, on the one hand we have 46 senators representing 40 million people. And on the other hand we have 2 senators representing 40 million people.
Does that sound fair to you?
No, of course not.
It means that the 40 million people in California are totally under-represented. Their votes count a lot less than the votes of someone who lives in North Dakota. One single vote in North Dakota counts thousands of times more than a vote in California.
But it’s not just the people in California who’re getting fucked.
Most of the blue Democratic states have a lot more residents than the empty red Republican states. But the Democrats always get a lot less senators per voter.
A Democratic senator represents far more people than a Republican senator.
4 Republican senators from almost empty states like Wyoming or North Dakota, who represent only a small handful of people, can outvote the 2 senators from California, who represent 40 million people.
The robber barons don’t even have to win millions of votes in California. They can win the election with a few thousand votes in North Dakota and a couple of other empty red states.
Obviously there’s something seriously wrong with that picture. The Senate and the House of Congress are both rigged in favor of the rich robber barons.
A country where a tiny minority can rule over tens of millions of people is not a real democracy. It’s corrupt.
Remember when they told you before the Iraq war that Saddam’s Sunni Muslims were a tiny minority who ruled over an oppressed Shiite majority in Iraq?
We were told how corrupt and horrible that is. We were told this is proof that Saddam is a dictator. What we weren’t told is that the very same thing is happening in America.
Right now Congress and the Senate are totally rigged against democracy, and in favor of a small group of Republican robber barons.
The system, the way it is right now, makes sure that a small handful of robber barons can control millions of people by simply taking their votes away.
But it gets worse…
To continue, click here:
The Founding Fathers were just as racist, corrupt, and greedy as Trump. And they fucked their slaves.
The Founding Fathers were slave-owning robber barons, not freedom fighters or saints.
You hit upon the major problem of American government. We've never had enough democracy; and a massive transfer of wealth to the already wealthy, orchestrated and beginning by & with Reagan's GOP has made it increasingly difficult to maintain what little democracy we have.
Wholly complicit in that GOP wealth transfer, from the poor to the rich, has been the corporatist, profoundly corrupt Roberts Supreme Courts.
This piece should be an illustrated children’s book to explain personal finance in a nutshell.