this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 77 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Is all this bunker-building a sign the 1% know something we don’t

No.

and are preparing for end times?

Yes.

They fantasize constantly about their wealth becoming even more disproportionate to the general population - even if it, in absolute numbers, collapses. They crave more power over people, and are deluded enough to think that in a crisis scenario, their wealth will mean anything.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah these bunkers would just be the homes of warlords that kill billionaires - probably the heads of their own security teams.

[–] Tolstoshev 10 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I’ve heard floated the idea that they will try and stop this happening by having remote detonation collars on the families of their security team.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago

Like anyone would ever put exploding collars before shooting in the face whoever proposed it

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

Who are the assholes who would take that job? "But Honey, I get weekends off and dental! Just put on the decapitation collar... Please?"

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I hope we still have some concrete during the apocolypse in order to seal those fuckers in.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's cute that they think the society that supports them is going to continue to support them in their bunker and they only have to worry about attacks. What are they going to do when the plumbing breaks or the canned food runs out?

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[–] GoofSchmoofer 74 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Here is a silly take:

The billionaires could use their doomsday bunker money to try and help solve the global issues we are having instead of just saying "fuck it I'm going underground."

[–] Buffaloaf 85 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You don't become a billionaire by caring about other people.

[–] chuckleslord 31 points 10 months ago

In fact, you can't!

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[–] MargotRobbie 60 points 10 months ago (5 children)

The idea of a doomsday bunker being dumb and mostly pointless aside, a flammable moat is the best defense system they can come up with? In a doomsday scenario, why would someone waste precious good fuel to set a moat on fire for a few days? Instead of using, say, booby traps?

And of course Yudkowsky, the writer of the world's most boring Harry Potter fan fiction had to chime in with an even worse take.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

a flammable moat is the best defense system they can come up with?

Yeah, that sounds like something straight out of poorly written fiction.

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[–] Bobmighty 42 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Doesn't matter. They're going to burn with the rest of us. They won't be able to keep staff as it gets worse, and many of them lack any real ability to care for themselves. Pampered fucks are facing a grim future they made sure was going to happen.

[–] FlyingSquid 34 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The staff won't keep them. What security guard is going to agree to protect Elon Musk after the apocalypse? They'll shoot him in the back and take the keys to the kitchen.

[–] njm1314 11 points 10 months ago (11 children)

I mean you say this but our species has a long history of people serving authoritarian monsters. I think you're vastly overestimating humans ability to say this is messed up I should do something about it. Most people just keep their heads down.

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[–] APassenger 7 points 10 months ago

These things have been thought through. The money may be worthless, but the highly controlled access to food, guns, ammo and medicine would be adequate leverage.

I expect, at some point, a leader would emerge with more cred than, "I started a company, " but they'd need to get permanent access and they'd have the same problem: control, rationing.

All this stuff is just people fantasizing about being smart and solving hard problems. The truest hard problem is we are not meant to live alone or like Morlocks.

There are ways to have a retreat hidden in plain site.

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[–] CitizenKong 17 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Yeah, once the global economy collapses, their billions are worthless and the people with the guns are the most powerful. How long until their private security force is like "hold on, why are we following you again?"

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[–] Illuminostro 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There was an article where a reporter sat in on a discussion between Tech Lords, where one actually proposed shock collars on "The Staff" to keep them loyal.

"The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time.""

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff

Time to start building guillotines, boys and girls.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I feel like shooting fish in a barrel:

The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew.

That would just get them tortured. While torture is normally not a good way to get information, it's different when the obtained intel can be immediately verified by trying the combination. The lock could be set up in such a way that it jams when you enter it wrong, but its unlikely that the torturers will just give up at this point. More likely, they'll keep going in hope that you have a way to circumvent the lockdown.

Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival.

Thing is, there'd be two ways the collars can fail. They can go off when they shouldn't, or fail to go off when they should. Both can be exploited by an attacker, and guarding against one makes the other more likely.

Time to start building guillotines, boys and girls.

That's a good idea.

[–] FlyingSquid 39 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I say we convince them society is collapsing, let them hide in their bunkers, wait for the flaming moat fuel to run out, then wall them in.

[–] RagingSnarkasm 31 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No need for a wall, just grade over it all with some bulldozers, plant some trees, and make a park where my dog can have a nice place to shit while I read a book.

[–] FlyingSquid 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I don't know... do you want to risk them finding a way to dig themselves out?

[–] AngryCommieKender 11 points 10 months ago

Pour concrete down the ventilation shafts before making the park. They won't realize what's happened until they're too oxygen deprived to do anything except panic for a few minutes and then asphyxiate.

[–] RagingSnarkasm 10 points 10 months ago

I have Great Danes, they'll never dig through that much dog shit.

[–] masquenox 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How? There will be no working class down there to wipe their arsses for them, never mind dig for them.

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[–] Fedizen 37 points 10 months ago (1 children)

bunkers are terrible in general because of air/exhaust problems. If you know where they are you can just tape all the vents shut. What they should be investing in is submersibles.

Either way this a grotesque squandering of society's resources.

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[–] Nacktmull 37 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Urge to build guillotines intensifies.

[–] joneskind 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Funny how that if collapse happens, only their security guards will be enjoying those bunkers.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Oh yeah he wouldn’t last a day if I was on the property. Thanks for the bunker Zuckie

[–] fidodo 29 points 10 months ago (11 children)

Here's an article about that

But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?

The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time”.

[–] AquaTofana 9 points 10 months ago

"Disciplinary collars". JFC, that's some Cyberpunk 2077 bullshit right there.

How fucking appalling that anyone other than a fantasy writer trying to create a dystopia hellscape would even float that idea as reasonable.

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[–] butterflyattack 23 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I suspect they're looking into ways to keep their staff loyal, they'll be considering things like controlling the supply of an addictive drug, implanting behaviour modification chips in their brains, explosive collars, holding their kids hostage. Shit like that. Because why else would anyone be loyal to these vermin?

[–] Weslee 8 points 10 months ago

Have a code that has to be entered twice a day to keep airflow active

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Elon is already sticking chips in brains, I think you’re on to something.

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[–] Son_of_dad 28 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I told you guys. I've been waiting for you guys to catch up for ages, so we can go drag these fucks out of their homes, now they've gone and built moats

[–] DannyMac 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The good thing is that these moats need fuel to work which means they'll eventually stop burning.

[–] CaptainSpaceman 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Lava moat is better, stops zombies and creepers

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

An enterprising person could siphon off the fuel to power their own survival and leave the paranoid billionaire without as much protection.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (3 children)

This is the best case scenario.

  1. We the under classes scare them into their bunkers.

  2. We cut off all forms of communication with them.

  3. We seal them in so they can't change their minds.

  4. We switch the rules to "Socialize the profits and privatize the losses."

There is only so many in the .0001% that need to be taken off the board and left to play with their toys inside their gilded cages. If they go voluntarily then how can they say that it is wrong, especially if no one is listening.

[–] NegativeInf 16 points 10 months ago

Congrats, you won capitalism. Please proceed to the winners bunker for your prize. Non-compliance will be met with dinner forks.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Podcaster Christina Randall, who has over 1.58 million subscribers, thinks so. Randall recently observed that Zuckerberg’s reported bunker is one of approximately 15 end-of-days projects being undertaken by billionaires worldwide and said the Biblical Book of Revelation, which predicts the end of the world, is being fulfilled. “Revelation 6:15 says that the kings of the Earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains,” Randall said.

Okay, the guardian

[–] STOMPYI 13 points 10 months ago

The best defense is a strong community that loves you. Literally living around you.

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[–] masquenox 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This just proves how capitalism rewards the inanely stupid - these parasites cosplaying as doomsday preppers (who already are not known for their firm grip on reality) don't realize that any event which would cause them to need such a bunker would also most likely destroy the very thing that attributes any kind of value to the power-coupons they've been hoarding - ie, the economy that only exists thanks to the working class.

Also, good luck to them when the well-armed rent-a-goons they hired to protect their little bunkers finds out the money they are being paid is all of a sudden completely worthless and that the governments that guaranteed private property rights is no longer around to protect them from the very same well-armed rent-a-goons. It would be a shame if nobody was around to film the anarcho-capitalist comedy that would ensue...

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[–] HurlingDurling 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I love how they think we're going to try to break in and hurt them. We really are just going to entomb them in their bunkers and seal off any intake and exhaust.

If we as a species survives the climate collapse and finds a way to flourish again, archeologists will find these bunkers and think they where built by slaves to celebrate their rulling pharaohs.

Oh, and billionares getting bunkers is a new trend? Bill Gates has had one since he was CEO of Microsoft and HE was following the trend already.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

10 Zuckerfield Lane

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

It's a sign that they're paranoid as fuck and never learned to share or play nicely with others.

[–] paddirn 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I wonder if this is part of a cyclical history and this is how we ended up with kings/nobility in the first place? Like we've been in this situation before where the Earth's climate goes to shit and the only people with the resources to make it through the Dark Ages are this class of wealthy individuals who were also the cause of the Dark Ages, but were able to build bunkers/castles to make it through their obscene wealth that they had accumulated.

So at some point in a few hundred years, we'll have these kingdoms carved out, all centered on these new tech billionaires and other families that were able to carve out their own fiefdoms. I'd love to see a "fantasy" series that starts out as sort of typical Fantasy, with maybe medieval technology, but then gradually over time it's revealed that they're survivors of a post-apocalypse (though I'm sure it's been around for decades, I know Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series kind of fits in that realm, along with Dungeon Crawl Classics for an RPG). The "Great Families" will be revealed to be the Musks, Gates', Bezos', Zuckerburgs, Ballmers, Ellisons, Pages, and whoever else has been building their own bunkers in secret.

[–] cley_faye 8 points 10 months ago

Sure, seal yourself up in a bunker and deplete your very non-renewable fuel to keep you safe from the outside.

In a real case scenario they may find themselves walled in anyway.

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