Democracy was literally the remedy for it and we’ve allowed democracy to be removed from the hands of the many in favour of the few.

Exactly, the entire point of having a government is supposed to be to protect society from these people.

•Thiel has been equally explicit. In a now-infamous 2009 essay for the Cato Institute, he declared that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” But he’d made the point in far greater detail in an earlier essay on Strauss, in which he argued that elites must use “esoteric” doublespeak to hide their true intentions from the masses who wouldn’t and shouldn’t understand the plans their natural-born leaders were making for them.

I hate to say this, but the Internet is not the same as it was back when I was growing up.

You always had the possibility of stumbling across a bad actor. Now the billionaire tech broligoply who own most social media are the bad actors. How many websites did you visit where the person running the website has been caught repeatedly trying to psychologically manipulate and control the masses via disinformation?

Back in the day, nobody would be doing whatever the fuck it is these people are doing with kids and their pedo adjacent targeted ads and chat bots bc they would be afraid of being sent to jail for cp

Why does it need to take decades though?

I bet if there were actual consequences for this shit, like in the form of seizing assets from the broligarchs who run these companies, and giving them to the victims of their creations, the issue would be solved very quickly.

Also, having people upload their ID seems like just another obvious surveillance ploy/invasion of privacy in the name of safety. These people who have given us nothing but reasons not to trust them, just keep offering us more and more solutions to the issues that they’ve created.

“We’re doing this for your own good. You should say thank you.”

It’s so fucking creepy. It’s not just making people dumber, its literally exposing kids to sexual content and sexualizing children in advertisements aimed at adults.

At what point is it ok for all of society to demand these people either be put in jail or at least exiled from the rest of society?

Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man Instagram pictures of girls as young as 13 were posted to promote Threads site ‘as bait’, campaigner says

Meta CEO Zuckerberg blocked curbs on sex-talking chatbots for minors, court filing alleges

Regulations are keeping your businesses from thriving? The ones you seem to be building to intentionally cater to pedophiles and harm children? Half of these creepy ass broligarchs are already confirmed to be in the Epstein files.

They’re pretty open about what they want the future to look like, and the shit they’ve already got going, like the inescapable 24/7 surveillance where they can pick and choose the victims they want to legally abduct and traffic is just the beginning. And we’re supposed to just pretend we’re all fucking stupid enough to go along with it?

Attending the summit, Kratsios, the White House representative, addressed middle powers’ fears. “Real AI sovereignty means owning and using best-in-class technology for the benefit of your people,” he said. “Complete technological self-containment is unrealistic for any country, because the AI stack is incredibly complex. But strategic autonomy alongside rapid AI adoption is achievable, and it is a necessity for independent nations. America wants to help.”

“America is the only AI superpower willing and able to truly empower partner nations in your pursuit of meaningful AI sovereignty,” he went on. “American companies can build large, independent AI infrastructure, with secure and robust supply chains that minimize backdoor risk. They build it; it’s yours.”

… Are you fucking kidding me. America wants to help? America is being held hostage by these shitbag oligarchs. It needs help.

Also, American companies can build large, independent AI infrastructure, with secure and robust supply chains that minimize backdoor risk?

Who TF are you kidding with this bullshit. Nobody paying attention to any of the bullshit DOGE did (that we know about so far) under the anti-regulatory administration you work for. Given you’re the big AI policy guy, and you paved the path for everything DOGE did it in 2025, during your run in Trump’s first administration, this should really be considered your fault as much as it is Musk’s fault for taking the bait, and becoming the fall guy on behalf of you and your mentor Peter Thiel.

•2018: The White House promises to release government data to fuel the AI boom

What a brilliant fucking idea Michael Kratsios had in 2018, what could possibly go wrong?

•2025: DOGE’s access to federal data is ‘an absolute nightmare,’ legal experts warn

•2025: DOGE is putting the country’s data and computing infrastructure at risk, HKS expert argues

Cyber security expert Bruce Schneier worries that DOGE’s access to highly sensitive information is giving bad actors a chance to take advantage

But that’s the opposite of what Kratsios sez Merican tech is good at…? Is he lying? How could we ever know?

•2026: Government Data Breach Sparks Fears Millions May Need New Social Security Numbers

Yeah…, seems like pretty solid evidence these people don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, and they never have. Or alternatively, if they do, their interests are purely selfish. They never should have been trusted with power, and if they weren’t such sociopathic narcissists they wouldn’t be able to maintain a straight face while telling such bold faced lies to the rest of the world.

I feel like he would just buy his luxury in prison like Pablo Escobar.

I think the worst punishment for people like Thiel and Musk would be to have their assets seized and any future wages garnished to be paid to the victims of their crimes, while they’re forced to attempt to survive in the society they’ve helped create.

The consequences they face will serve as an example and deterrent for others like them and one of two things would happen. Billionaires suddenly experience empathy/gain a conscience and conditions improve for all of society, or, billionaires continue to maintain the conditions they’ve created while one by one falling victim to their own creations. Most likely they check themselves out very quickly rather than attempt to survive the nightmare they had no problems inflicting on others. Either way equals a net gain for society.

I could use an extra $2500.

Thanks a lot DOGE. So clearly Elon Musk gives every American compensation, we get new numbers and have all of our credit history wiped clean to start new right? Bc otherwise this just means we’ve all been massively fucked by Trump and his band of idiots

Yes! It is so sad this seems like such a bold move, but we’ve just become so fucking conditioned to bullshit politicians gaslighting us about why everybody else is just going to have to go without in order to keep giving handouts to the most entitled and useless pieces of crap just because they’re already wealthy.

Why? Allegedly because they generate more money… But do they really? Have they ever?

It feels ridiculous I have to say this, but it feels so good to hear about a politician just immediately saying “oh yeah, we needed to figure out where to make cuts, and these shitty AI chat bots seemed like an obvious place to start.”