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[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 44 points 2 days ago

Ruthless mockery.

Probably won't work, but at least you'll get a laugh out of it.

[-] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 5 points 2 days ago

Could work tbh. If you show ppl the mirror of reality of them living in dirt conditions while their favourite billionaire buys their dog a 3rd 100 sqm house, they may wake up.

Havent seen alot about musks, gates, etc spending sprees. Bezos had that wedding. Zuckerberg is buying up Hawaii. This needs to be way more prominent.

[-] LarryBetraitor@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

I like that answer.

[-] sunsofold@lemmy.zip 31 points 2 days ago

I sound like a broken record but, BAN ADVERTISING. Along with all the pretty well established secondary bad effects of advertising, the most basic direct effect of it is lying to people. If people weren't deluged daily with lies about how they should think of this or that company, they wouldn't be so readily deluded into thinking of a company like a person with a positive effect on their world.

[-] potato_lemon@feddit.nl 7 points 2 days ago

This. ☝🏻 We gotta ban advertising.

[-] squirrel@cake.kobel.fyi 2 points 2 days ago

This. ☝🏻 We gotta ban advertising.

[-] village604@adultswim.fan 3 points 2 days ago

It's so bad that when JC Penny tried to stop deceptive pricing they almost went out of business.

When I worked in retail, the store had different price label flags for different sales, discounts, etc. One of those was "Every Day Low Price." If something had they price it would never go on sale because they were loss leaders, even big ticket items. The prices on those were below the sale price of competitors.

Far too many times I had a person ask if something already in their cart was on sale, I'd give them the above spiel and even comparison shop for them, and every single time they'd put it back.

It was truly frustrating.

[-] Rothe@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago

But this is kind of circular logic. We need to convince people to stop defending trillionaires in order to be able to ban advertising or make any meaningful change at all.

[-] MushuChupacabra@piefed.world 24 points 2 days ago

You're three bad months away from being homeless.

You will never be three good months away from being a billionaire.

[-] Greg@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 days ago

I think I could become a billionaire if I started off as a trillionaire

[-] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

Naaah. If you were a trillionaire, you'd have activated the cheat code to be wealthy for at least 4 generations, and who cares about your great-grandkids really?

[-] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

Education. But you can clearly see the defects of the last 40 years of defunding and deriding education.

[-] SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today 16 points 2 days ago

Platforms like twitter and facebook (and many "news" companies) brainwash their users, mostly by providing multiple different lies. Users pick whichever lie appeals to them the most, and they pretend they have found the truth.

To combat this, we need to emphasize the importance of thinking critically and verifying claims.

State the facts. Correct their misconceptions. Emphasize that billionaires are intentionally killing us all; lazy thinkers might reconsider if there is a possibility their life is at stake. I'm not saying threaten them, but we are all threatened by human greed.

The people you're talking to might not listen, but someone else might. Sometimes it just takes repetition to get through to someone, hearing the same clear message from multiple different sources.

[-] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 6 points 2 days ago

Shame. Cultural norms and taboos are reproduced through shame.

Look down on them. Call them bootlickers. Be clear that you think you're better than them. Make jokes at their expense. Roll your eyes. Leave them out of things.

That's how a culture exercises soft power against manners we think are unacceptable.

[-] Nomad@infosec.pub 5 points 2 days ago

Mostly independent media. Throw in a ban on advertising if you are already at it. Probably not realistic, maybe just much harsher rules on obvious lies and political influencing campaigns in media. Much harsher prosecution.

[-] Equinox1289@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days ago

Advocate for stakeholder socialist policies like worker and consumer coöps that would render billionaires impossible.

[-] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 days ago

This. Arguing with people online is -- with all due respect -- a complete waste of time if your goal is to change the world.

Ignore the people who have dumb opinions. It isn't as though if you win 500 arguments Elon Musk donates all his money to Socialism.

Go join a tenant's union or a mutual aid society. Go build the alternative world that doesn't transfer all our money upward.

(Also, though, if you do this long enough there will likely be a revolution. But that part comes after you feed and shelter enough people that it begins to become a threat to capital. It's downstream. Either way, don't bother trying to persuade strangers on the internet,)

[-] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

How much do you want to invest in ammo and a solid backing wall?

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 2 days ago

you would have to stop all the MSM from airing news in a certain way, like no tabloid/opinion pieces.

[-] Steve@startrek.website 4 points 2 days ago
[-] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago

That's the fun part. You don't. It's human nature, at least for neurotypical hominids to submit to confident icons, even when that confidence is unearned and grounded in hubris, not competence. Wealth makes people very confident, even about things they don't actually understand. You're not going to educate them into abandoning millions of years of human instinct. What you can do is make people angry enough at the current crop of billionaires they're ready to put them up against the wall tell them you have a way to keep terrible people from getting that obscenely wealthy again, and then do it... with the knock on effect of making that level of obscene wealth disparity systemically impossible for anyone. That's going to make people angry too though, you're probably going to end up crucified for it, because you know, it's a country of temporarily embarrassed billionaires.

[-] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago

It's easy! Simply eliminate all people.

[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 days ago

And how do we that?

It's simple, we kill The Batman.

[-] FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe 4 points 2 days ago

You have to instill class consciousness in them, which is extremely difficult to do, especially in the usa bc our public education system in many places lies and says that this is a meritocracy when it's not. So people believe that if they just work hard and do what they're told then they'll get rich. And when that obviously doesn't happen, the republican party points towards whatever minority group they've selected for that election cycle and says "it's their fault"

Like I said, actually getting people to understand that they have more in common with the poorest, queerest, immigrant than they do with a white cishet billionaire is really difficult, but the best way to do it is to redirect the conversation from minority groups to the actual problem. For example, if someone complains that immigrants are stealing their jobs then don't start with a denial or disagreeing with them. Say, "you're right. Companies hiring undocumented immigrants for less than or just minimum wage does depress wages for Americans. Companies that do this should be adequately punished and we should streamline our process for getting documents for undocumented immigrants. That way companies can't take advantage of them or depress the wages of americans either." Some people won't listen bc they don't want to learn, but if you keep trying eventually some people will listen and learn

Also try to get them to understand just how much money a trillion or even a billion dollars is

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 2 days ago

Puch them square in the jaw

[-] plyth@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago

More power, more reputation. People automatically flock to trillion dollar companies.

If you want to stop people you have to stop it for all companies. You have to make brands less important.

[-] lmdnw@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago
  1. Stop allowing cuts to education and stop advancing kids who can’t comprehend the material for that grade. The world will always need ditch diggers. Telling a future ditch digger that they’re smart enough to graduate when they can’t read and/or comprehend at their grade level, if at all, is doing that child and society as a whole a disservice. Not only does it set up that child to then become an arrogant adult, but it deprives society of the documentation, or lack thereof, that this person is not, and should not be, considered any sort of authority on anything other than ditch digging.

  2. Understand that some people are actually evil and don’t deserve to live.

stop comparing them to people with reasonable retirement savings and actually make good points instead of bullshit "evil" and "facism"

[-] AlecSadler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

Guns and ammo. Voting isn't sufficient. Peaceful protest isn't sufficient unless you can organize a national strike - which won't happen.

[-] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 days ago

"Defending" when accused of what? The question is somewhat meaningless without knowing that.

[-] LarryBetraitor@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago

I just hate the idea of someone defending a billionare or trillion dollar company for any reason. There is no legitamite reason for them to even exist, since there's no way to obtain THAT MUCH ammount of money without unethical deeds. And anytime you criticize them on ANYTHING, people will still do mental gymnastics to defend these evildoers to act like unpaid PR.

Example: "So what if shipping isn't ACTUALLY free? They HAVE to bake shipping costs into the actual product in order to make a profit!"

Like, congradulations! You are correct! What did that acomplish for you? Other than the fact that you succesfully defended false advertising and ripping people off and terrible customer service in general. Why even care that they make more profit to begin with?!

[-] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I just hate the idea of someone defending a billionare or trillion dollar company for any reason.

Then you have a very simplistic worldview. There are many disputes where different large companies are adversarial to each other, so if you have an opinion about them at all, you need to defend one of them.

For example occasionally media companies will try to get laws passed in various countries to make social media platforms pay for linking to journalistic articles. A stupid and nonsensical idea for many reasons, but by calling it that, I may have just "defended" Meta?

[-] SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org -1 points 2 days ago

Don't bother answering a purposely daft question.

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 days ago

You mean OP's?.

Because it is. Right out of the gate he doesn't define what he means.

Are we saying defend in the legal sense when accused of a crime? Because damn right I want that person properly defended against government accusations. Otherwise we're just behaving like a mob, and that goes nowhere anyone wants to be.

[-] Astronut@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

You can’t because you can’t fix stupid! The people that do are beyond ignorant and don’t want to be informed of the truth!

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago

I have not seen this behavior outside of maga politicians and corporate c suite types.

[-] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

There's a halo of genius around rich people because they're rich. Like the guy that invented the pet rock.

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago

that like sounds like trump talk. I don't pay taxes cuz im smartz. Many have talent to some degree or another but no man is worth 1000x the least of men.

[-] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'm just saying your social experience doesn't map onto the rest of society. If rich people are dumb, that means poor people can be smart, and that would mean that we do not live in a fair world. So for this to be a just world, rich people have to be smart and if they're really rich they have to be super geniuses. Keep an eye out for articles about rich people giving their opinion about shit they know nothing about; the undergirding assumption is that we should listen to what they have to say because they must be smart if they're rich.

This is how we got Elon Musk, who, as far as I can tell, is good at some aspects of business, but really masterful at pretending to be smart before extremely guillible audiences.

I know you don't watch new media, but Angela Collier has more than one video complaining about rich people who claim they could have been physicists. "What's stopping you? You have the money. You can take time off and even run your own research lab and hire the best professors in the world to teach you."

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

I mean anyone who thinks we live in a just world is kinda dumb.

[-] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

Well, you know what Adlai Stevenson said when someone told him he had the vote of every thinking American?

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

I did not. But I looked it up. Nice. Little embarrased I did not know.

[-] Sibshops@feddit.cl 1 points 2 days ago

Any shareholder group like memestocks, even crypto lately is all about defending Blackrock.

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 0 points 2 days ago

I would group them in the same group. shady. like probably popular in buy gold and increase your testosterone crowd.

[-] AskewLord@piefed.social -3 points 2 days ago

You don't. If you can't handle someone having different opinions/ideas than you, you're the fascist.

[-] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

There are times when there are objectively bad opinions. For instance - and very on-topic, showing support for a conglomerate that is actively acting against your best interests.

Stop letting them participate in society. Shun the fuck out of them.

this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2026
82 points (88.7% liked)

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