• underscores@lemmy.zip
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    14 hours ago

    Here’s the thing: obscenely rich people can say whatever and literally everyone will believe it because the average human thinks “he has lots of money therefore he is smart and worked his way up and if I use this as a judge of his character then he is unlikely to lie”

    It’s a huge cultural issue that pervades everything, money is not virtue.

    • Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      29 minutes ago

      he has lots of money therefore he is smart

      Not smart, cunning. The peole who worship billionaires do not respect intelligence.

    • It’s classic circular reasoning.

      “He’s so rich because he’s hard working and smart.”

      “How do you know he’s so hard working?”

      “Because lazy and dumb people don’t get rich, duh.”

      To many, rich parents, dumb luck, lack or morals and a huge pile of debt don’t play a role.

    • FishFace@piefed.social
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      12 hours ago

      Nah, that’s not how it works. People believe it because they can pay people to repeat their lies, and their success buys them a seat in main-stream media interviews where they can broadcast their bullshit to millions of people. And in Musk’s case, he can just buy a social media company and force it to boost his excreta.

      • underscores@lemmy.zip
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        12 hours ago

        Dude, Epstein himself was about to release an “interview” where he’s this approachable cool guy and he’s just eccentric. I bet you it would have worked if released as planned.

        Yes there are bot accounts pushing narratives but that doesn’t stop people from going “whoa everyone must be wrong about him”

        • FishFace@piefed.social
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          2 hours ago

          My point is that people don’t believe it just because he’s rich. People believe it because it’s made to sound believable, and repeated from every angle by many outlets. It’s not really about bots but rather a complicit media.