Summary
Elon Musk has emerged as a key enforcer of Donald Trump’s agenda, warning Republicans against opposing Trump’s policies and Cabinet picks.
Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, played a significant role in Trump’s election victory, spending heavily in swing states and funding groups like RBG PAC to broaden voter appeal.
Musk has hinted at funding primary challenges against GOP lawmakers who resist Trump, creating a “naughty and nice list” with ally Vivek Ramaswamy.
With allies in Trump’s administration and influence through his platform X, Musk’s political clout is growing rapidly.
If it helps, history runs in cycles. We used to have kings, we got rid of the kings, then we welcomed the kings back with open arms. But the reign of kings doesn’t last forever.
Human history broadly runs in cycles, yes.
But the history of a particular civilization is strictly linear, with a beginning, a middle and an end.
True, the Roman Empire fell and the United States could fall too. Humanity didn’t end though, it went through periods of enlightenment and darkness and kept marching forward.
I’m not saying the end of humanity is impossible, just that at many points in history it seemed like society was on the brink of total annihilation but yet here we still are.
Very true, but kind of glosses over the gigantic accumulated suffering felt by those experiencing a civilizational / societal collapse.
I will point out as well that civilization rarely goes into total collapse. The Romans kept on going in the east for another millennium, Egypt and the Assyrians survived the Bronze Age collapse, China shouldve died five times over by now. Even if the US collapses its pretty likely it will have surviving elements in the West based here in California and East probably based around New England.
I think you’re forgetting the nukes.
When the Roman Empire fell, they didn’t turn half the population of the planet into dust along with them.
Today, through the power of technology and psychopaths, there’s actually a chance to undo thousands of years of technological progress in an afternoon.
History didn’t have the internet to keep the masses brainwashed. We’re looking at 1984 levels of control here.
1984 is tame compared to what we have now.
The current situation with automated systems learning every little secret about pur lives, sometimes even before we know it ourselves, based on the trends on our searches, our messages, hell even just the shift in tone of our messages, our location history and more.
1984 is no longer the horrible future, it is the good old days when surveilence didn’t go as far.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition
No they had the Vatican instead amongst others. The idea of seperation of church and state didn’t come from nowhere.
The oligarchs sure are trying to live forever though. Life extension, mind uploading, etc. They say that mouse lifespans can already be nearly doubled.
Funny thing about that though. Human lifespans already doubled over the previous century, thanks to medical advances and resource abundance. There’s no reason to think it can extend much further, aside from the peddling of grifters. The brain is far, far too complex to emulate without destroying it in the process, so I encourage Elon to go for it.
That’s a true nightmare, when the oligarchs finally don’t have to suffer the indignity of death like the common rabble. It’s the only great equalizer we have left.
Eh I dunno. I like to imagine some hackers could find a way to pull a “Black Mirror” and trap their consciousness in a virtual prison for all eternity.
Their lives sure must be fantastic for them to want to live that way for eternity.
On a physical level they sure are. Having obscene wealth means you want for nothing in that regard. Mentally it’s another matter. Money only buys happiness to a certain point - you don’t even need a million a year to reach maximum happiness. Anything over that doesn’t make things any better.
It’ll last for centuries if we’re collectively reduced back to feudalism.