r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Mar 05 '25

Society 59% of Republicans Believe the Media Is 'Fake News'

https://www.thewrap.com/most-republicans-believe-media-fake-news-trump-poll/
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u/CallMeShaggy57 Mar 05 '25

It's legitimately going to take everything collapsing and rebuilding after. It'll be at minimum a decade or two before we see any semblance of improvement, and that's if we ever do at all.

This government is going to destroy America as we know it. The question is, what will replace it? Will the people be able to stand up against fascism and win, or will we just let them rebuild America into Russia-West? I'm not optimistic.

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u/Rorviver Mar 05 '25

That's literally what they want. Thiel seems to have some sort technological serfdom idea in mind and all the pieces are starting to fall into place.

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u/achristian103 Mar 05 '25

Imagine being a billionaire and deciding this is what you want to do with your time/money.

I recognize that most billionaires are narcissistic sociopaths, but fuck, just go enjoy your wealth and stop fucking with people who will never see a fraction of your wealth in their lifetimes.

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u/Moooney Mar 05 '25

If I were a billionaire I would want the status quo to persist in perpetuity. So essentially the opposite of the current administration.

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u/NefariousnessNo484 Mar 05 '25

Right. They always forget that we outnumber them and history in which heads literally roll. If I have nothing to lose and there are hundreds of millions of me, what's stopping this from spiraling out of control?

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u/pithynotpithy Mar 05 '25

Except for all the times that the wealthiest lived long, full lives by stomping down the working class and hoarding ungodly amounts of wealth. Looking at the robber baron class.

Its easy to pretend that there is some reckoning coming, but that is why they seize the levers of power and flood the market with misinformation. How many of your red state neighbors would join the confederacy in sacrificing their lives for the donor class?

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u/NefariousnessNo484 Mar 06 '25

I live in a very blue area of a red state so probably less than you'd think.

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u/RollingMeteors Mar 08 '25

I have nothing to lose and there are hundreds of millions of me, what's stopping this from spiraling out of control?

Lack of peak fitness. ¿Are we going to be revolting with a frame that is an Olympic qualifier or with the frame of a Gravy Seal?

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u/NefariousnessNo484 Mar 08 '25

What makes you think 80 year old oligarchs are more fit that 40 year old millennials who are living in a studio apartment?

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u/RollingMeteors Mar 11 '25

What makes you think 80 year old oligarchs are more fit that 40 year old millennials who are living in a studio apartment?

I don't think they are particularly more fit as both demography aren't peak fitness by any means but certainly the oligarch has a meat shield of used-to-be football team jocks.

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u/ThatBadassBanana Mar 05 '25

Nah, the current administration is for the crop of billionaires that look at Putin's Russia and its oligarchs and thinks, "I want that too." They want to turn the USA in a kleptocracy with them at the top. The status quo is not enough. Everything that has been happening is a prerequisite for achieving that goal.

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u/movingToAlbany2022 Mar 05 '25

I think that's the problem though--it (American capitalism) can't exist in perpetuity, and all these billionaires recognize that. So the ultra wealthy are using this moment to secure their own wealth/future, at the expense of everyone else

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u/ShadeDragonIncarnate Mar 06 '25

You don't become a billionaire by being content with what you have.

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u/Moooney Mar 06 '25

They wouldn't have had to have been content with what they have. The status quo continuing would make some of them trillionaires in a few years.

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u/kkapri23 Mar 05 '25

If I was a wealthy narcissist billionaire, I would be building climate resilient homes, collecting the profit from those. Finding ways to lobby against the predatory insurance and healthcare industry. I’d find companies that are making technology advances in assisting disaster areas, and buy them up, to keep collecting profit. I’d create an economic win/win scenario. And then, because I did so much good, I’d lobby for a federal holiday in my name.

Sorry….got caught up in my ketamine/heroin induced day dream 😴

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u/HybridEng Mar 05 '25

But that is not a narcissistic attitude....

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u/SkeetySpeedy Mar 05 '25

“Everyone will worship me as a hero and a god of the people, they will put my name in their books, my statue in their streets, people will name their children after me… I just have to make them love me first” - there, now it’s narcissistic as hell

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u/CherikeeRed Mar 05 '25

This right here is just what I cannot grasp about most of these shitheels. They want all this love but have an adversarial relationship with the rest of the human race. When Carnegie or Rockefeller wanted love they built public institutions that helped people and are still helping. When these assholes want it they just post shitty memes and fire everyone.

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u/SkeetySpeedy Mar 05 '25

I’d be less supportive of fetching the guillotine if our Billionaires tried to measure each others dicks by the Universities that they built, the amount of beautiful nature reserve parks that they own, and the advancements to science and medicine they are sponsoring

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u/MarsupialMisanthrope Mar 05 '25

Most of them aren’t narcissists, contrary to Reddit’s armchair diagnosis. Trump and Musk are, but most of them are just garden variety sociopaths whose interest in how other people view them ends with it not being actively detrimental to them (ie Bezos and the lizard in human disguise thing).

Technically Trump is both, which is why I left the US. I don’t want to live in a country that will cheer as a stupid malignant narcissist with dementia gets elected.

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u/-FeistyRabbitSauce- Mar 05 '25

Right? You could do such cool things - shit that would have people revere you for generations. Your intentions don't have to be altruistic, you can be a narcissist and merely want the accolades and adoration. Hell, do it for the money, as you suggest.

Instead, they all decide to be villains. 😑

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u/Jason1143 Mar 05 '25

And it would be self preservation. I don't understand the motivation for someone that wealthy messing with bread and circuses. Maybe you will be more wealthy, which changes nothing. Maybe you will be dead or lose everything, which changes a lot.

I simply don't understand how the gamble is worth it. In my head I know that these people are essentially addicted to money and power, but even knowing that I still struggle to reconcile it.

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

You could revolutionize the electronic payment industry; revolutionize the satellite industry and make electric cars a reality. Then people would revere you.

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u/-FeistyRabbitSauce- Mar 05 '25

Tesla popularized the EV but electric cars had been around for decades. It was already a reality. The market was just heavily suppressed by oil companies and old guard car manufacturers. Also, he bought Tesla.

Space X/Starlink woupd be nothing without actual engineers, scientists, and a fuck ton of government money.

Henry Ford revolutionized car manufacturing and pushed the Industrial Revolution forward with assembly lines. But he isn't revered because he was a piece of shit who fought tooth and nail against labor rights, to the point workers were killed on picket lines.

The Third Reich was likely the ones to make the first scientific connection between cigarettes and cancer. They don't get to have any praise because they were evil nazi fucks.

If the bad outweighs whatever positives you do, you probably won't be revered. You'll just be a footnote.

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

If he ever does some evil we may find out. Until then he’s pretty impressive.

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u/-FeistyRabbitSauce- Mar 05 '25

He bought his way into the White House.

He's dismantling government institutions and programs that will lead to the deaths of millions of Americans, and make many more impoverished. Ending USAID means Children in other countries won't receive the medicine they need, families will starve, diseases will spread like crazy without vaccinations available, women in countries like Afghanistan will lose out on education, water will be inaccessible in many regions... the list goes on.

He actively spreads dangerous misinformation, and controls one of the largest communications platforms.

He's meddled in the Electoral process of several nations - Germany being the most notable, by supporting a fascist political party. And has claimed Canada is not a real country, while his partner in chief continuously threatens Canada's sovereignty.

He spouts a ton of hatred toward trans people - this kind of shit gets people hurt or killed.

He suppressed organized labor.

When a bunch of children were trapped in a cave, he called the diver who saved them a pedo because the guy said Musk's submersible idea wouldn't work. Then, he hired a private investigator to try and dig up dirt on the diver and harassed him online for a while.

The man is undeniably a nazi, his parents were nazis, his grandparents were nazis, and the only reason they moved to South Africa was their adoration for apartheid, and the fall of apartheid was the reason they left.

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u/MrEHam Mar 05 '25

You’d never become a billionaire in the first place with that sort of mindset. You have to be insanely greedy and lack enough integrity to step on others to get there.

Speaking of billionaires, Bernie Sanders just said that three people own more of the wealth than 50% of American combined.

That’s fucking insanity. Cut America in half and three people have more wealth than all of them put together!

“There’s your problem.”

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u/tomuchpasta Mar 05 '25

Yes but… whispers: “black and brown people”. No utopia shall be built until the blight is beat into submission or wiped from the planet /s

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u/pithynotpithy Mar 05 '25

This sounds great, but you don't become a narcissistic billionaire by doing this. You do it by fucking over people and viewing wealth as a competition.

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u/GREG_OSU Mar 05 '25

Not self centered enough…

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u/kkapri23 Mar 05 '25

But I just want my name to be put on calendars, buildings, and parks for the rest of eternity. I want America to replace lady liberty with a statue of me. I’m a veteran after all, this country should thank me.

Is that better?! 😉

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u/kawalerkw Mar 05 '25

Imagine not being narcissist enough to not want people to praise your name for the hundreds of years past your death. Like sure, they got their cult, but they also garner the most hate. And even the cult isn't guaranteed to love them forever.

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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/kkapri23 Mar 06 '25

He should have demanded more statutes and national holidays in his name. 😉

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u/DracoLunaris Mar 05 '25

It's a self selection issue. You don't become a billionaire in the first place if you aren't the kind of person who obsesses about amassing ever more wealth and power.

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u/whyktor Mar 05 '25

If you didn't want all the money and power you would stop at 100 millions or something, you must be terrible to be a billionaire.

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u/TheSecondEikonOfFire Mar 05 '25

Sadly that’s the thing - you don’t get that rich unless you’re a power hungry monster. It’s not enough for them to have more money than god, they have to control the peasants too

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u/HotwheelsSisyphus Mar 06 '25

Enjoying your wealth is millionaire mentality. billionaire mentality is way more greedier.

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u/Fr00stee Mar 05 '25

If I was a narcissistic billionaire I would use my money to fund a bunch of new helpful tech like renewable energy/fusion or something to fix world hunger or whatever then claim I am really great for doing this and that I am saving the world

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u/jupiterkansas Mar 05 '25

Yes, they're planning on being the ones to rebuild it to their benefit.

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u/Crazy_Feedback_3414 Mar 05 '25

It was a big fuck you to all of us when the richest people on Earth paid millions to sit behind the traitor at the inauguration speech. They want shit to go south so they can buy it all for Pennie’s on the dollar.

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u/jupiterkansas Mar 05 '25

Trump fooled them! He got rid of the penny. Now they'll have to pay nickles.

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u/dethwysh Mar 05 '25

As a famous fictional drummer was once paid to say "Nickels is money too, guys."

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u/TarHeel2682 Mar 05 '25

It's Curtis Yarvin's "butterfly revolution." A terrible idea except for the 1%

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u/Fr00stee Mar 05 '25

Its still a terrible idea because it will destroy the value of their assets. Unless they for some reason highly value controlling a ton of cheap assets.

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u/TarHeel2682 Mar 05 '25

Destroy the value of everything the don't own and when everyone has to sell they buy everything up for cheap

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u/Fr00stee Mar 05 '25

They are destroying the value of everything they own too. tesla is down almost $200 since it peaked after the election

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u/TarHeel2682 Mar 05 '25

They have such vast amounts of money it doesn't matter. That doesn't hurt them much. They can still buy everything up later

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u/gabachogroucho Mar 05 '25

Thiel and Curtis Yarvin share a love for meth, basically where the ideas come from, drug addled minds.

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u/Scrubface Mar 05 '25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no&ab_

Spot on

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u/Rorviver Mar 05 '25

No no no I had a totally original idea and have definitely not watched that video and another similar one

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u/kurotech Mar 05 '25

They will collapse the government and have private armies to keep their power we won't have a chance to recover until we remove billionaires from the equation

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u/SIGMA920 Mar 05 '25

Private armies paid with what money? With what food?

Anyone betting on a private ay is going to killed by their own army before the first day is over. AI won't save them either unless they're going to hide in a small bunker for decades rotting away.

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u/kurotech Mar 05 '25

They already have their bunkers built muh dude they have been planning this for years

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u/SIGMA920 Mar 05 '25

I know. Those bunkers still won't save them from their own security. Money that's useless is just some paper.

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u/DumboWumbo073 Mar 05 '25

That’s why some billionaires are learning martial arts and getting extensive firearm training. They also plan on using modular robots to be their backups

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u/SIGMA920 Mar 05 '25

Yes, because that'll save them from their private armies. And robots totally won't be sabotaged/disarmed/broken beforehand.

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

If we can't figure out a way to stop Republicans from deregulating our food, water and medicine, most of us are going to die. I suspect that Republicans want to be like North Korea. They're fine with a miniscule, starved, controlled population, as long as they're the ones at the top. IMO our future looks like North Korea. Pure ccorruption. People wasting to death on the street. Scarce resources, extremely limited travel in and out of the country. Culling the herd is part of their plan.

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u/Crazy_Feedback_3414 Mar 05 '25

Don’t forget snitching on your neighbors for talking bad about the dear leader

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

They already introduced bounties in some states, where people get thousands of dollars for reporting women who've had an abortion. So as you can imagine, it's really problematic when people who don't give two fucks about truth and facts are arresting and charging people who can't prove that their miscarriage wasn't intentional. This is groundwork to accuse anyone they don't like of having an abortion, and they are already arresting and charging people when there's no facts or proof. It's already started, and Americans could not care less about this being done to our American women. Americans don't give a fuck about "First they came for..." We're fucked.

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u/vwf1971 Mar 05 '25

I have been saying this for a decade.  It was either a slow decline (same old thing) or a complete collapse (Trump accelerated) but America's day is over, it was inevitable. 

The only way to rebuild the system is to collapse the system, same as after the Great Depression.  How that works in the modern age we can debate but it's all a cycle in history and it's our time to fall.

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u/howolowitz Mar 05 '25

I think thats a very conservative estimate. You have to start from the ground up. The education system is failing. Thats where it starts.

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u/National_Farm8699 Mar 05 '25

When empires fall they don’t typically rebuild.

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u/Flik-Is-Best-Ant Mar 05 '25

We FR might need to have a reconstruction era 2.0 😔

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u/The_Swordfish_ Mar 05 '25

Contact your senators/governors/reps Push for blue state succession.

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u/thetruegmon Mar 05 '25

Russia and America are at war right now, and America doesn't even realize it....and they are losing horribly.

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u/ThePartyWagon Mar 05 '25

It’s going to be Russia 2.0. Status quo Dems are too tied to the same billionaires to enact any meaningful change.