Elon Musk , by allowing conspiracy theories and misinformation to exist on X, is a TERRORIST. Hate speech is not free speech and is not covered by the Constitution.
Elon Musk , by allowing conspiracy theories and misinformation to exist on X, is a TERRORIST. Hate speech is not free speech and is not covered by the Constitution.
тАЬIrritsтАЭis a good way to describe being on the site formerly known as Twitter.Musk has ruined this site.It used to be one of my favorites to get a variety of information but sadly, no more.It is a worthless hate-fest that I no longer use.
My guess is he is as vain and nacisstic as his hero, Donnie, and therefore couldn't bear to give it a name thought up by someone else when he (supposedly) had paid so much for it but he probably pays like his hero - not at all. He wanted Twix but that was taken.
Yeh! His special genius has square-cut boundaries. "Twitter" was so innocent and stupid, it was fun. I remember Elizabeth Taylor giggling away in her hospital bed because she could "tweet". I don't think an "X" would have held a promise of smiles or comfort to her closing days.
Here is another Harvard trained fascist lawyer we should lock up. Gift link to NY Times. Seems Harvard produces fascist guys on a routine basis. Matt Gaetz comes to mind as well. Also. Ron DeSantis. Ted Cruz too.
Years ago I was a senior editor at the Harvard Business Review. At one point I put up a series of blogs attempting to get at the issue of ethics in business and whether business schools had a hand in the financial meltdown of 2008. The answer, from the Big Thinkers (including a lot of Harvard Business School professors) was a tepid yes. But only a few schools were doing anything about it.
Money talks! Rogue capitalists become тАШpatronsтАЩ by endowing tens or hundreds of millions of their greed money to those places! Can you say SacklerтАЩs?!
I tend to doubt that it is Harvard's professors (call me naive) who are indoctrinating their students. I think that because of different reasons and backgrounds, such as the legacy admissions (and parental expectations) and the reality that many people who go to Harvard come from well-to-do (wealthy or just plain incredibly rich) family backgrounds, they spend their time there trying to gain additional ideas, information, and strategies for staying rich, for living up to their parents' expectations, for maintaining a family image of what success is, and getting rich or richer themselves.
Also, there are many students who try to get admitted and matriculate there because of the reputation and connections. An edge, you might say. I think their values were already created from their earlier years and their families. Many are not geared or destined to be corrupt and soulless. Most of the people named and used as examples here are insecure people trying to get respect. Many have Daddy issues. Many already have an "I'll show you!" attitude when they arrive there. Some professors may "feed" that need, but for me, having studied families, ethics tend to start forming early in our lives. I've come to believe that the "hands off the family" approach to supporting parents and their children is not the way to go. And if any of you consider that there were times in your own lives you ardently wished someone would save you from your family ...
I believe that a tenet of modern capitalist business practice is that businesses are beholden to their shareholders above all else, not to society, ethics, public good, or anything else. Presumably Harvard and other business schools teach this. I'm not an economist or business expert, so if anyone can correct me or add nuance on this, please do.
Years ago, I had the privilege of an industrial sabbatical at one of the Harvard linked hospitals. I found the interns to be quite self-satisfied, snobbish and generally felt superior to the general population. They were very bright and talented.
George, almost all of the MDтАЩs I meet have a range of hubris about them. I finally concluded that the low bar to entry is the problem. Premed is a few introductory classes with no depth. A bit of time with flash cards yields an easy A. I was CHE so took many of same classes.
Then. Having done well in easy classes they apply to med school never having been challenged.
From this seminal experience they feed their sense of superiority.
I think it's the nature of "elite" educational institutions to have, if not feature, pockets of students who take the wrong message from their privilege.
Mike S, the article you posted provides biographical information about Kenneth Chesebro. There is not a whisper in it about Harvard Law School, in no way confirming your attack on that law school. What is your data and evidence concerning the school? Do you think that mentioning three politicians who graduated from Harvard is evidence? What are your sources for characterizing the nature of the school's student body? Are you familiar with the Princeton Review? I don't think your accusations against Harvard Law School stick. If you interested in the the most conservative and liberal law schools in the country, the following will be helpful.
'The Law Schools With The Most Conservative And Liberal Students (2023)'
'Which law schools do you think came out on top of these lists?'
'By STACI ZARETSKY '
'The country has almost never been more divided politically, and whether theyтАЩre strongly in favor of President BidenтАЩs policies or adamantly opposed to them and cheering on Trump (or perhaps someone even worse) in 2024, people have been inspired to go to law school as a means to somehow change our countryтАЩs future.'
'As our readers know, the latest Princeton Review law school rankings are out, and today, weтАЩll be focusing on what are perhaps the most important rankings of them all: the law schools with the most conservative students and the law schools with the most liberal students. During these times of political division and strife, why not attend a law school where thereтАЩs a high likelihood that your classmates will share your political ideology?
Which law schools do you think came out on top of these lists? (AbovetheLaw) See link below,.'
'Our 2023 Best Law School rankings appear on our website. We report 14 ranking lists, each one naming the top 10 law schools in a particular category.'
'The categories cover topics that we think prospective applicants might want to know or would ask during a campus visit, including academics, career prospects, and campus diversity. Eleven of the 14 lists incorporate or are based entirely on student opinions that we collected through our school student survey. Three lists, "Toughest to Get Into," "Best for Federal Clerkships," and "Best for State and Local Clerkships," are based entirely on institutional data.'
'Note: we don't have a "Best Overall Academics" ranking list nor do we rank the law schools 1 to 168 on a single list because we believe each of the schools offers outstanding academics. We believe that hierarchical ranking lists that focus solely on academics offer very little value to students and only add to the stress of applying to law school.'
Also note: our law school rankings are different from our law school ratings. The rankings are lists. The ratings are numerical scores we give to the 168 schools on our complete list of the Best Law Schools 2022 on a scale of 60 to 99 in various areas. Every law school on PrincetonReview.com has at least one rating, and some have as many as five.' (Princeton Review) See links below.
Mike S, stereotyping, scapegoating, misguiding, lying, bias, etc., are often prejudicial and can lead to inequality, violence and war. We see many examples of it everyday. You are correct that we don't escape or want to erase our opinions. Looking around at our polarization, gun violence, and hatred guide me to be thoughtful, knowledgeable and fair-minded. It takes discipline and thoughtfulness to monitor my communications, which is sometimes difficult to do, but I know the consequences of loose minds, mouths and writing.
Fodder for the indoctrination theorists. Harvard indoctrinating students. Hopeful point: not all students are indoctrinated. My favorite is Pete Buttigieg. I am prejudiced since I campaigned for him, but I think he has it all with very little baggage behind him. Some would consider consider his being gay as a handicap but those who are not homophobic would this a plus.
Erica Jong has a passage in "Fear of Flying"* about the pernicious effect Harvard has on those (men) who are not actualy bona fide geniuses. It's not so much the education, she says, as the warping effects of so much presumed glory: the Yard, the river Charles, [the marquee war-criminal professors], all that stays w the self-satisfied fellow so that he lauds the disgusting food & shabby decor of the Club, where he can expatiate to "some sweet young thing" about, of course, his own excellence.
* I take no credit; this very passage that I paraphrase I hope reasonably well was posted apropos of nothing at all in the alumni group of another -- becomingly self-effacing -- school.
Oh, yes! As I read more and more responses I see that many of us come to ask readers and pundits to explore reasons behind the bad apples. Such a great source you all are!
To be fair, I don't think we can quite blame Harvard per se: my owb school has Justice Keg, for example, among others. And quite or we of these horrors went to *both* schools, and others besides. Nor can we even blame the "sense of entitlement": I was "entitled" (what I called "over-privileged") long before I went, though I was shocked at the shallowness of my fellow students. But even being a overpivileged, I was a child of the Enlightenment, and not at all a fascist -- or at least one outgrew that by age 18.
So what we have, actually, are arrested adolescents, who never learned that they don't actually count. As we also see in the Ayn Rand afficionados: grown men, who might as well be learning Elfish.
think you are talking about the same Harvard where students in large numbers turned out to shame IsraeI for retaliation to the barbarians from Hamas. I think Harvard's track record for producing radical liberal points of view is well documented.
It reminds me of the fossilized mindset that was depicted in The Dead Poets Society. I have a friend who went there and MIT. He said Harvard is very right wing. It explains a lot. He graduated with a PHD from MIT. Some of the best in the world are from MIT.
Thank you for being concerned about our freedoms...I am as well. However, because we are a nation of people who have fought for freedom of the people....freedom to vote as one chooses....we also allow for others who have different views to live in this country with us freedom-loving citizens......even those who would destroy us.
This is one reason to encourage everyone to vote and to work to keep our voting system guarded...ie legal and legitimate.
Freedoms are great...but they work for all views......sometimes freedom can be scary...especially....as we are observing....when dangerous views are controlled and spread by the enemies of freedom.
I have to ask, are you still upset because you didn't get in ? Should we hold Penn responsible for accepting TFG and all of his children? Or Princeton for Ted Cruz? Or Yale for Kavanaugh?
Some of us got an excellent education at Harvard, would you like me to publish a list of the Harvard good grads? ....I question your motives and your hysteria.
A long time ago, I learned that Hahvahd and the other ivies pride themselves in the very low dropout rate! Indeed, this translates to the admissions people wonтАЩt admit to making a mistake regarding the fascist wannabeтАЩs who were a mistake! The pse institutions do everything possible to keep the mistakes matriculating!
I was about to ask, should anyone have money to burn? But there is Melinda French Gates putting her half to good use. Still, $999,999,999 should be enough for even the greediest.
My middle school students were in awe of billionaires. I had a hard time getting them to see that someone could not personally spend it on themselves because 24 hours a day would not be enough. It would wind up invested to bring in even more money to have to deal with. None of the kids suggested giving it away.
No, it's nice that Melinda Gates is putting hers to good use. I am not surprised that middle school kids didn't think of giving it away. They are in the throes of a consumer society with all kinds of glittering goodies to buy. I find it disgusting. Our economy would not be very good if it depended on my buying habits. We are just back from the Saturday Market and grocery shopping....both local. I enjoy supporting local farmers and artists. Around our neighborhood, we share a lot of things too, both produce and things we make. We are lucky here that we have rather large urban lots....ours is about a half acre....so plenty of room to garden. I realize that this is not true for a large part of the population who live in food deserts.
My anecdote was from 15 years ago. There are more tech goodies to lust after now. Like you, I donтАЩt spend big. I am lucky to have several luxury Cancer Society charity shops for half my clothes and home decor over the years. Neighbors also share and I give away tomatoes and herbs and succulents. Malls depress me.
I am trying to think of the last time I was in a mall. Maybe 20 or so years ago. I am retired, so can basically live in jeans, tees, and sweatshirts. My weaknesses are book stores and nurseries. I am a big fan of Burlap and Barrel spices because I cook with very little salt. Big box of Christmas books from Powell's arrived today. My husband and I buy each other books for Christmas and then pass them out one by one as we finish reading. I just finished shelling the last of my dry beans while watching Duck football.
As much as I would like to see him locked up and deported, and there is no way I would ever buy a tesla, he has his hooks into our government in too many ways for that to happen. Starlink is foundational to UkraineтАЩs resistance to putin, SpaceX deploys government satellites and sends people to the space station among many other things. I would like to see him in the basement of Leavenworth with a gag on so that he couldnтАЩt use his wealth to bribe his way out. But we have the rule of law and free speech and as despicable as I find him to be, unless he breaks the law none of that will happen.
Actually, hate speech is free speech. That's why the antisemites on campus and in our cities are allowed to spew forth their genocidal denunciations of the Jews. It's distasteful in the extreme, but freedom of speech and expression is meaningless if it only applies to nice speech.
Progressives used to understand this, but they seem to have forgotten it.
Elon Musk , by allowing conspiracy theories and misinformation to exist on X, is a TERRORIST. Hate speech is not free speech and is not covered by the Constitution.
LOCK HIM UP - BOYCOTT TESLA!!!!!
And refer to it as Twitter (X). This "X" increasingly gives me the irrits.
I know a fellow who refers to it as "Xitter," pronouncing the "X" as an "sh."
LOL. RefJim. First smile of the am.
Agreed. Because that's where the bird has gone. Into the xitter.
LOL.
ЁЯдгЁЯСПЁЯП╝ЁЯСПЁЯП╝
Writer Jay Kuo has his weekend feature called "Just for Xeets & Giggles" where he looks at the past week in humorous tweets and memes. Today's:
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/just-for-xeets-and-giggles-102123
ЁЯдгЁЯдг
тАЬIrritsтАЭis a good way to describe being on the site formerly known as Twitter.Musk has ruined this site.It used to be one of my favorites to get a variety of information but sadly, no more.It is a worthless hate-fest that I no longer use.
Mine too. I hate how he ruined it.
He deadnames his own child, so I don't mind deadnaming x and continuing to call it Twitter
It hits me the same way "Democrat Party" does!
A MAGAt slur, I.e. the book on NYT best seller list тАЬThe democrat Party Hates America.тАЭ
My guess is he is as vain and nacisstic as his hero, Donnie, and therefore couldn't bear to give it a name thought up by someone else when he (supposedly) had paid so much for it but he probably pays like his hero - not at all. He wanted Twix but that was taken.
Yeh! His special genius has square-cut boundaries. "Twitter" was so innocent and stupid, it was fun. I remember Elizabeth Taylor giggling away in her hospital bed because she could "tweet". I don't think an "X" would have held a promise of smiles or comfort to her closing days.
Here is another Harvard trained fascist lawyer we should lock up. Gift link to NY Times. Seems Harvard produces fascist guys on a routine basis. Matt Gaetz comes to mind as well. Also. Ron DeSantis. Ted Cruz too.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/us/politics/chesebro-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4Uw.vUKf.Gyei3pMxujvN&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
I wonder what it is about Harvard that produces guys who feel unencumbered by laws and rules?
Or? Do we empower that mindset in some way by overhyping Harvard as an educational facility when it is just an indoctrination facility?
Yes. I know Prof Richardson went there too but I bet she did not тАЬfit inтАЭ to the typical Harvard student profile like, for example, Kavanaugh did.
Years ago I was a senior editor at the Harvard Business Review. At one point I put up a series of blogs attempting to get at the issue of ethics in business and whether business schools had a hand in the financial meltdown of 2008. The answer, from the Big Thinkers (including a lot of Harvard Business School professors) was a tepid yes. But only a few schools were doing anything about it.
Bronwyn, Congrats on being an editor with a conscience!
Thanks, but the place wore me down. After almost 10 years there, I quit in 2009.
Boston would wear me down. I have rarely experienced so many people crowded into so little space.
unless it's Gaza. : <
Money talks! Rogue capitalists become тАШpatronsтАЩ by endowing tens or hundreds of millions of their greed money to those places! Can you say SacklerтАЩs?!
I tend to doubt that it is Harvard's professors (call me naive) who are indoctrinating their students. I think that because of different reasons and backgrounds, such as the legacy admissions (and parental expectations) and the reality that many people who go to Harvard come from well-to-do (wealthy or just plain incredibly rich) family backgrounds, they spend their time there trying to gain additional ideas, information, and strategies for staying rich, for living up to their parents' expectations, for maintaining a family image of what success is, and getting rich or richer themselves.
Also, there are many students who try to get admitted and matriculate there because of the reputation and connections. An edge, you might say. I think their values were already created from their earlier years and their families. Many are not geared or destined to be corrupt and soulless. Most of the people named and used as examples here are insecure people trying to get respect. Many have Daddy issues. Many already have an "I'll show you!" attitude when they arrive there. Some professors may "feed" that need, but for me, having studied families, ethics tend to start forming early in our lives. I've come to believe that the "hands off the family" approach to supporting parents and their children is not the way to go. And if any of you consider that there were times in your own lives you ardently wished someone would save you from your family ...
G.W. Bush: Harvard MBA 1975
Background. Proven.
Makes sense to me at least
I believe that a tenet of modern capitalist business practice is that businesses are beholden to their shareholders above all else, not to society, ethics, public good, or anything else. Presumably Harvard and other business schools teach this. I'm not an economist or business expert, so if anyone can correct me or add nuance on this, please do.
that was basically what most people told me. And explains why we're so screwed.
Years ago, I had the privilege of an industrial sabbatical at one of the Harvard linked hospitals. I found the interns to be quite self-satisfied, snobbish and generally felt superior to the general population. They were very bright and talented.
George, almost all of the MDтАЩs I meet have a range of hubris about them. I finally concluded that the low bar to entry is the problem. Premed is a few introductory classes with no depth. A bit of time with flash cards yields an easy A. I was CHE so took many of same classes.
Then. Having done well in easy classes they apply to med school never having been challenged.
From this seminal experience they feed their sense of superiority.
Bronwyn, when you were at Harvard, did you notice that the Heritage Foundation had a large presence there?
I didn't, but Mormons were all over the biz school. Have been for years.
I think it's the nature of "elite" educational institutions to have, if not feature, pockets of students who take the wrong message from their privilege.
You nailed it.
Accurate, but we have to wonder if it's accelerated along with late stage capitalism.
Mike S, the article you posted provides biographical information about Kenneth Chesebro. There is not a whisper in it about Harvard Law School, in no way confirming your attack on that law school. What is your data and evidence concerning the school? Do you think that mentioning three politicians who graduated from Harvard is evidence? What are your sources for characterizing the nature of the school's student body? Are you familiar with the Princeton Review? I don't think your accusations against Harvard Law School stick. If you interested in the the most conservative and liberal law schools in the country, the following will be helpful.
'The Law Schools With The Most Conservative And Liberal Students (2023)'
'Which law schools do you think came out on top of these lists?'
'By STACI ZARETSKY '
'The country has almost never been more divided politically, and whether theyтАЩre strongly in favor of President BidenтАЩs policies or adamantly opposed to them and cheering on Trump (or perhaps someone even worse) in 2024, people have been inspired to go to law school as a means to somehow change our countryтАЩs future.'
'As our readers know, the latest Princeton Review law school rankings are out, and today, weтАЩll be focusing on what are perhaps the most important rankings of them all: the law schools with the most conservative students and the law schools with the most liberal students. During these times of political division and strife, why not attend a law school where thereтАЩs a high likelihood that your classmates will share your political ideology?
Which law schools do you think came out on top of these lists? (AbovetheLaw) See link below,.'
https://abovethelaw.com/2023/02/the-law-schools-with-the-most-conservative-and-liberal-students-2023/
'Princeton Review'
'Our Law School Rankings Methodology'
'Our 2023 Best Law School rankings appear on our website. We report 14 ranking lists, each one naming the top 10 law schools in a particular category.'
'The categories cover topics that we think prospective applicants might want to know or would ask during a campus visit, including academics, career prospects, and campus diversity. Eleven of the 14 lists incorporate or are based entirely on student opinions that we collected through our school student survey. Three lists, "Toughest to Get Into," "Best for Federal Clerkships," and "Best for State and Local Clerkships," are based entirely on institutional data.'
'Note: we don't have a "Best Overall Academics" ranking list nor do we rank the law schools 1 to 168 on a single list because we believe each of the schools offers outstanding academics. We believe that hierarchical ranking lists that focus solely on academics offer very little value to students and only add to the stress of applying to law school.'
Also note: our law school rankings are different from our law school ratings. The rankings are lists. The ratings are numerical scores we give to the 168 schools on our complete list of the Best Law Schools 2022 on a scale of 60 to 99 in various areas. Every law school on PrincetonReview.com has at least one rating, and some have as many as five.' (Princeton Review) See links below.
https://www.princetonreview.com/law-school-rankings?rankings=most-conservative-students
https://www.princetonreview.com/law-school-rankings?rankings=most-liberal-students
Fern. I am ok with your favorable view of Harvard. That is the beauty of diversity of thought.
My own take is that Harvard sometimes appears to be no bastion of liberal thought.
Quite the opposite.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/us/harvard-students-israel-hamas-doxxing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4Uw.GX8e.xSxZv1nZ8Aus&smid=url-share
I gave no view of Harvard but one of your judgement, which lacked evidence, and I see that
you continue to grab anything even when it does not substantiate your claims. My review was of your unproven attacks.
Yikes! Just an opinion Fern. Opinions are ok to share as far as I know.
This board is not the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
Just a place to share (different) perspectives.
I am ok with yours and wish you the best of the day.
Mike S, stereotyping, scapegoating, misguiding, lying, bias, etc., are often prejudicial and can lead to inequality, violence and war. We see many examples of it everyday. You are correct that we don't escape or want to erase our opinions. Looking around at our polarization, gun violence, and hatred guide me to be thoughtful, knowledgeable and fair-minded. It takes discipline and thoughtfulness to monitor my communications, which is sometimes difficult to do, but I know the consequences of loose minds, mouths and writing.
ЁЯСО
He went to Northwestern and Harvard. The article did not give the lengths of study at these Universities
Fodder for the indoctrination theorists. Harvard indoctrinating students. Hopeful point: not all students are indoctrinated. My favorite is Pete Buttigieg. I am prejudiced since I campaigned for him, but I think he has it all with very little baggage behind him. Some would consider consider his being gay as a handicap but those who are not homophobic would this a plus.
Erica Jong has a passage in "Fear of Flying"* about the pernicious effect Harvard has on those (men) who are not actualy bona fide geniuses. It's not so much the education, she says, as the warping effects of so much presumed glory: the Yard, the river Charles, [the marquee war-criminal professors], all that stays w the self-satisfied fellow so that he lauds the disgusting food & shabby decor of the Club, where he can expatiate to "some sweet young thing" about, of course, his own excellence.
* I take no credit; this very passage that I paraphrase I hope reasonably well was posted apropos of nothing at all in the alumni group of another -- becomingly self-effacing -- school.
Oh, yes! As I read more and more responses I see that many of us come to ask readers and pundits to explore reasons behind the bad apples. Such a great source you all are!
ItтАЩs all about a sense of entitlement...
To be fair, I don't think we can quite blame Harvard per se: my owb school has Justice Keg, for example, among others. And quite or we of these horrors went to *both* schools, and others besides. Nor can we even blame the "sense of entitlement": I was "entitled" (what I called "over-privileged") long before I went, though I was shocked at the shallowness of my fellow students. But even being a overpivileged, I was a child of the Enlightenment, and not at all a fascist -- or at least one outgrew that by age 18.
So what we have, actually, are arrested adolescents, who never learned that they don't actually count. As we also see in the Ayn Rand afficionados: grown men, who might as well be learning Elfish.
Many Harvard students/alumni are not like these guys. Plus, Gaetz did not go to Harvard.
think you are talking about the same Harvard where students in large numbers turned out to shame IsraeI for retaliation to the barbarians from Hamas. I think Harvard's track record for producing radical liberal points of view is well documented.
Right. And far right groups have subsequently posted their names and Wall Street Employers have promised not to hire them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/us/harvard-students-israel-hamas-doxxing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4Uw.GX8e.xSxZv1nZ8Aus&smid=url-share
Maybe Harvard has too many legacy students. Would explain a lot.
It reminds me of the fossilized mindset that was depicted in The Dead Poets Society. I have a friend who went there and MIT. He said Harvard is very right wing. It explains a lot. He graduated with a PHD from MIT. Some of the best in the world are from MIT.
Mike S.
Thank you for being concerned about our freedoms...I am as well. However, because we are a nation of people who have fought for freedom of the people....freedom to vote as one chooses....we also allow for others who have different views to live in this country with us freedom-loving citizens......even those who would destroy us.
This is one reason to encourage everyone to vote and to work to keep our voting system guarded...ie legal and legitimate.
Freedoms are great...but they work for all views......sometimes freedom can be scary...especially....as we are observing....when dangerous views are controlled and spread by the enemies of freedom.
Harvard Law gave up requiring ethics courses years ago ((? 1960тАЩs).
I have to ask, are you still upset because you didn't get in ? Should we hold Penn responsible for accepting TFG and all of his children? Or Princeton for Ted Cruz? Or Yale for Kavanaugh?
Some of us got an excellent education at Harvard, would you like me to publish a list of the Harvard good grads? ....I question your motives and your hysteria.
Mike S - thanks for gifting the link!
A long time ago, I learned that Hahvahd and the other ivies pride themselves in the very low dropout rate! Indeed, this translates to the admissions people wonтАЩt admit to making a mistake regarding the fascist wannabeтАЩs who were a mistake! The pse institutions do everything possible to keep the mistakes matriculating!
Musk has inserted himself into international politics in nefarious ways. He is the example of why some people should never have money to burn.
I was about to ask, should anyone have money to burn? But there is Melinda French Gates putting her half to good use. Still, $999,999,999 should be enough for even the greediest.
My middle school students were in awe of billionaires. I had a hard time getting them to see that someone could not personally spend it on themselves because 24 hours a day would not be enough. It would wind up invested to bring in even more money to have to deal with. None of the kids suggested giving it away.
No, it's nice that Melinda Gates is putting hers to good use. I am not surprised that middle school kids didn't think of giving it away. They are in the throes of a consumer society with all kinds of glittering goodies to buy. I find it disgusting. Our economy would not be very good if it depended on my buying habits. We are just back from the Saturday Market and grocery shopping....both local. I enjoy supporting local farmers and artists. Around our neighborhood, we share a lot of things too, both produce and things we make. We are lucky here that we have rather large urban lots....ours is about a half acre....so plenty of room to garden. I realize that this is not true for a large part of the population who live in food deserts.
My anecdote was from 15 years ago. There are more tech goodies to lust after now. Like you, I donтАЩt spend big. I am lucky to have several luxury Cancer Society charity shops for half my clothes and home decor over the years. Neighbors also share and I give away tomatoes and herbs and succulents. Malls depress me.
I am trying to think of the last time I was in a mall. Maybe 20 or so years ago. I am retired, so can basically live in jeans, tees, and sweatshirts. My weaknesses are book stores and nurseries. I am a big fan of Burlap and Barrel spices because I cook with very little salt. Big box of Christmas books from Powell's arrived today. My husband and I buy each other books for Christmas and then pass them out one by one as we finish reading. I just finished shelling the last of my dry beans while watching Duck football.
You are probably not the only 'originalist' among us, William Whitman.
As much as I would like to see him locked up and deported, and there is no way I would ever buy a tesla, he has his hooks into our government in too many ways for that to happen. Starlink is foundational to UkraineтАЩs resistance to putin, SpaceX deploys government satellites and sends people to the space station among many other things. I would like to see him in the basement of Leavenworth with a gag on so that he couldnтАЩt use his wealth to bribe his way out. But we have the rule of law and free speech and as despicable as I find him to be, unless he breaks the law none of that will happen.
Actually, hate speech is free speech. That's why the antisemites on campus and in our cities are allowed to spew forth their genocidal denunciations of the Jews. It's distasteful in the extreme, but freedom of speech and expression is meaningless if it only applies to nice speech.
Progressives used to understand this, but they seem to have forgotten it.
Boycott X, that would hurt Musk more than Tesla, he lost interest in that toy.
And his space program! Make your own rockets, and communication satellites. Musk is almost a good guy, just not a complete guy.