Billionaires siding with dictators thinking they'll be protected?
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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It's funny to me that they think they'll be special, every single time. "They won't throw me out the window for my fortune!"
Well, in the case of Nazi Germany it worked spectacularly well. Many of Germanys most rich people are inheritors to industrial fortunes that got unimaginably rich with selling weapons to the Nazi army and using forced labor from the concentration camps. The families Quandt/Klatten (BMW) and Porsche/Piech (Porsche,VW, Audi...) come to mind directly. The Krupps are also still in the game although they have gambled a lot of money away over the past decades
It is worth mentioning that in the case of krupps they made a lot of money selling arms in WWI and they purchased newspapers to sell the war to increase profits.
Own all the newspapers... Propaganda... Seems familiar.
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Nah. They all play this game; they all know the risk. It’s all about gaining leverage and the correct alignment at the right time.
He probably knows it’s happening and sacrifices himself for his family and assets.
Usually they are. Dictators typically gain and keep power by appeasing the wealthy and powerful.
Not keep power, just to get it. Then they dump them once they've got it. See Giuliani, Musk, My Pillow guy, Herman Cain, etc.
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Some folks became billionaires in Russia simply because they were friends of Putin though.
These may truly be protected class. Everyone else though - out the window as soon as they outlive their usefulness.
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This is a pretty good example of why I say even millinoaires and billionaires should support a functional democractic society with taxation and regulation and social safety nets. Its the old penny wise and pound foolish. Getting a sliver more and a sliver more and then you lose it all because the rule of law was thrown out long ago. It won't necessarily take that long to. At a certain point it could happen at any time. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't.
This all depends on the people born into wealth being reasonable people.
Most are unhinged psychopaths or nepo babies with too much ego.
Which is why wealth needs to be forcefully redistributed, they won't do it voluntarily.
Wealth is actually being redistributed quite a bit in Russia right now. The oligarchs are paying for the war and "the people" are getting much higher wages either in the military or because of labor shortages.
It's not great, what with all the death and destruction. But Russians gini coefficient is going down fast.
a functional democratic society would not have billionaires and hopefully millionaires neither
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The USA elite should take notice. It'll happen to them too. Trump will ruin them if things get between himself and them.
It’s all ready happening between him and Musk unless that’s all kayfabe
I'm really excited for Zuckerfuck to get Trump'd. Unlike Musk, he'll do it in the most pathetic way... Raging like a little nerd by writing private temper tantrum emails and everyone in his circle comforts him because he pays them 7-figures.
Tbf, musk’s way is also pretty pathetic.
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Trump Admin using national security as a pre-tense to take control over X/Twitter away from Musk, and effectively killing it in favour of Truth Social
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It's funny because $3.5bln is nothing when trying to cover the war effort, but it'll spark a massive distrust in the Kremlin's inner circle, which is basically the only group of people that can realistically threaten Putin's very life.
I'm still waiting for these fuckers to finally grow some balls.
Nah. Russia will implode itself on its own even without resistance. As if Russia never learned anything that autocratic control over economy never works, because their political culture is too corrupt to function effectively.
Francis Fukuyama, as wrong as he was about the end of history, is still correct that dictatorships eventually collapse because they surround themselves with yes men who are too detached from reality. The invasion of Ukraine is the beginning of the end for Putin. It is only a matter of time.
the beginning of the end for Putin. It is only a matter of time.
With his age, he has all biological means to fuck around and never find out. I believe the legacy talk captures him, but the fact he himself would never meet any pushback makes many of his decisions way easier than if he was 40yo and had another 40+ to his rule. Any other minute of him fucking up foreign countries with a weaponised influence, not to say direct warfare, is a minute too much.
He could've tried to revive the country, and he got an easy start in the 00s, but he chosed to gamble it instead.
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Strukov’s company has denied the incident entirely, stating that he was in Moscow on the day in question and calling the reports “disinformation.” But court documents confirm that a judge had already banned him and his family from leaving the country, and government agencies moved quickly to enforce it.
I will now recommend the Sad Oligarch podcast. Short series on the mysterious deaths of Russian oligarchs in the last few years.
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Somebody didn't watch Rules for Rulers, keep your elite happy or they'll come together and turn on you.
Fingers crossed.
You remember those old “In Soviet Russia” backwards jokes? It’s like that, but unironically.
Putin has consolidated power to the point that he doesn’t serve at the behest of Russian billionaires; they only exist due to his whims - and they can cease to exist just as quickly.
‘Blowout’ by Rachel Maddow touches on this, it’s an interesting read/listen.
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Conversely, if Putin falls out a window, maybe they can keep their business.
They're scared they'll go down with him. But they'll finally have to accept the fact that they're fucked either way. At this point, getting rid of him is their best chance.
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And let this be a lesson to US Billionaires.
If most of them are as smart and lucid as Musk, they won't learn anything.
US billionaires think they can control Trump, and that's very likely true. The worst is yet to come for these rich guys when someone who can truly reverse the power dynamics and thus rule them with an iron fist, as well as the common people, takes the throne.
Trump cannot be controlled, everything is purely transactional with him. The moment he gains more from taking businesses by force, thats what he will do.
Trust and deals have no meaning to him. This is a theif without honor.
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This is the oligarchy that American technocrats want to recreate at home. Owning things is dependent on being alive. Maybe paying a couple percent extra on taxes is worth it.
What a great way to show the inefficiency of sanctions! /s
That's what you get for siding with fascists. People will never learn.
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It’s giving Elon-Trump vibes
Ooooh, gringo broligarchs, cast your eyes upon all the fucks left to give, and see that $Trump wallet may also be empty.
Just like Ancient Rome. The dictator needs cash so he murders the rich people who aren’t his friends and takes their money
tax the rich! (slight /s)
what i'm wondering is:
who exactly wanted this war? i.e., i guess it was not a single-person decision. probably a number of oligarchs are behind it because they think they can profit from either the conflict or the outcome of it.
everybody knows that wars are hella expensive. i guess most wars are decided by economic factors, i.e. who can stay solvent longer. what did the oligarchs think would happen to their wealth due to the war?
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The billionaires?
If you nationalize your industry, you should be doing it to reform and re-gear it to support your country.
Clearly, Putin here is not interested in making it good for the country, but that his petty war has him cash-strapped and needs to forcibly 'borrow' his billionaire friends' assets.
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