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I am inclined to defend the billionaires because the people going after them aren't going to stop there. Rather, they are just looking for a non-sympathetic target. I guess you could say something like "first they came for the billionaires"
Besides, I find the billionaires to be rather entertaining. I enjoy reading about their luxury bunkers in New Zealand; their mega-yachts; their mistresses; etc. No billionaire ever called me a n*gger, so to speak.
I mostly agree, and don't see all that many billionaires acting like the OP describes. FOr example:
These sorts are incredibly rare. Instead most just kinda sit in anonymity being rich and living in luxury. The ones that are public figures are often total dorks that are funny and do things like buy sports teams then cheer enthusiastically on the sidelines just like they were a 12 year old. The rare few that are actually toxic to our society and discourse are actually closer to the OP's sentiment themselves. The Bill Gates or Mackenzie Bezos types that agree with the OP that being a billionaire is something that must be atoned for, so they distribute their billions in toxic ways intending to buy social clout with influential non-billionaires. If Bill just bout a mountain chateau in British Colombia and employed a bunch of servants the world would be better off. The problem was he wanted to pretend help Africans and the like, and thats why hes jetsetting with Epstein (prurient interests aside), its because he wanted to meet people to do his fake charities and buy social clout.
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No billionaire has ever called me a nigger, but they have no idea that I exist. If I was powerful enough to be on their radar, there's a good chance that at least one of them would call me a nigger. Or whatever the modern, PC version of it is.
I tend to agree with this, but it seems to me the problem is not billionaires per se but rather what you refer to as "modern PC"
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