Comment on Republicans put tech firms in a vise on Kirk social-media posts
PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 3 days agoPart of my point is that the damage Trump is going to do will cost them tons more money than if they had helped to prop up the fairly safe and civil society they previously were allowed to exist within, under which secure umbrella they've been able to rake in money like leaves in autumn on a wide country estate.
squaresinger@lemmy.world 3 days ago
And I don’t think it will cost them tons of money. Yes, Trump does and will continue to do a ton of damage, no question about that. But the ultra-rich have money enough to weather the storm, and they have money enough to buy out every competitor who cannot weather the storm for discount prices.
Look at any major crisis in the last 50 years. Every single time without fail the rich benefit from the crisis and make it out with more money and more wealth inequality than before.
PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 3 days ago
I think the crisis of Trump is likely to be worse than any crisis in the Western world for the last 50 years. I think the closest analogue is probably the collapse of the USSR. So yes, some of the rich people upped their wealth by orders of magnitude, and honestly you might be right that Zuck might manage to be one of that category, but also some of them lost everything or got thrown out windows, or had to survive in reduced capacity within their new walled fortresses in the horrifying new meta. I feel like more likely is that the MAGA world will remember Facebook censoring their posts about ivermectin, and not feel like Zuck needs to have a seat at the table, no matter how many ass-kissing sessions he shows up at the White House to do.
For example I feel like breaking up Meta and mandating Truth Social and TikTok as the only new sanctioned social media going forward might be one possible outcome. It's kind of hard to say and I won't swear that you're definitely wrong that he might come out way ahead in the end. I'm just saying that this type of crisis is a very different type of crisis.
squaresinger@lemmy.world 3 days ago
You are right that any crisis shakes up things and that even someone looking pretty good right now might get in trouble.
But on the one hand we are talking about people with wealth in the order of the GDP of a mid-sized country.
Meta truely is a one-trick-pony, with ads making up almost all of their income, and of course they could be in trouble if a scenario like what you suggested were to happen.
On the other hand, Zuck has money without end, so he can buy whatever would continue to make him money.