this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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I guess they just want to be in charge for no other reason? Not really sure what their game is, but they'll follow the money to get elected and then do what their donors wanted them to do. Then??? I'm not really understanding what they have to gain other than insider information.
Profit. That's pretty much it. Why does anyone seek excess power in a capitalist society? Personal wealth gain. That insider info allows them to make their winning stock trades, and the "perks" they receive from their high offices (think private jet travel, free meals, tickets to events, etc) ensure that their expenses are kept at a minimum. Their lavish lifestyles while we struggle, and the fact that they could help resolve society's problems yet don't to keep the status quo, is the epitome of "fuck you, I got mine."
I don't really understand how it's a lavish lifestyle if you have to hang out with a bunch of politicians and business people all the time. That sounds like pure hell to me. Like you're going to hang out with the vice president of East Coast sales for some manufacturing company or some shit, no thanks.
Yeah but some people get off on it, like that being in the company of the rich and powerful increases their social stock (in their own insular world), and some thrive on that type of stuff.
That sounds fucking pathetic.
I agree, but welcome to the world we live in.
I think that's partially why the well connected and famous billionaires are such miserable assholes. Their lives really aren't that great because they're all uninteresting losers surrounded by uninteresting losers who sold their souls for money and power and spend decades between having any moments of real joy.
It's like that movie, The Mask (and it's like that for the rest of us, too): the more times you put it on and the longer you wear it, the more you meld into it and the mask into you.
Are you American?
I only ask because Americans are trained from birth to know (through for profit media and oligarch captured public education) that money is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end, and the very meaning of existence and life itself as its own end.
It's why we're a bunch of rugged individuals competing against one another for oligarch scraps and not a society. It's the wedge that informs all others to keep their exploited capital batteries at war with each other instead of looking up at the greedy bastards running up their ego scores by burning us.
Yeah, but I don't really care what other people think of me, so I don't feel the need to have to have a ton of money just to impress other people. Though having more money is always helpful just to make things easier in life. I'd be much happier if I didn't have to worry about paying for things like healthcare and education.
Congratulations, you bucked the overwhelming norm. People who make it to Congress, with the exception of spoilers, have proven to their respective parties through state elections that they love money, don't get bored of getting moar money, and know how to get it. That's how you get promoted in the parties. It's all they care about.
Because our values are so far beyond fucked it's almost funny in an absurdist humor kind of way.
I'm sure most of these politicians also don't care what other people think of them which is why it's so easy for them to do all this vile shit and stand in front of a national audience telling complete lies with a straight face. They aren't doing it to gain approval from other people, they're doing it because they're following their own concept of what an impressive person does.