Or maybe the smartest man in the world. Purely because he has achieved the billionaire status. And that seems to be enough nowadays.
Enough to do what he wants. Instead, he is hellbent on keep doing what for most of us would translate into a one way ticket to full destitution.
So I guess I can count as clever to focus only on money as means of exoneration.
Because it works. He can proudly perform two Nazi salutes, to ensure it can’t be considered accidental, and still gets the applause of most around me. And their excuses. I tip my hat, it did exactly what he was aiming for.
That’s what a dogwhistle is.
He probably researched it on Reddit just few days beforehand after running it once through some online incel chat group for some beamusement.
They probably knew it was a step too far, but they also knew they had the money to buy a few spots on populist media spaces and enough influencers to try to mitigate any damage post fact.
I can imagine their brainstorming session, and probably some bet over the consequences (or not) of such a daring act.
One message, three interpretations
The sympathisers will hear validation. That a billionaire with close ties to the leader of the most popular nation in the world could relight the fire of fascism without nary a repercussions. A way to embolden all those sympathisers and the ones waiting on the fence, making them feel like hiding is not necessary anymore.
All the victims, direct or indirect, of 1940s ideology would each be triggered to a state of panic, costing them days, weeks or even months of spiralling over what might come next. Wasting their precious sanity trying to convince the world that what happened it’s actually serious enough to warrant some action now before history repeats itself.
And for the rest, the millions of people that have been blissfully going through their lives without paying much attention: simple entertainment. The source of jokes at work and mild debate over what it was and what it meant. A free marketing campaign to turn Nazism into a commodity and normalise it into a watercooler controversy that sprung thousands of TikToks and rage bait articles that generate ad revenue for anyone involved.
But it’s a winning move if you ask me.
Marketing has been using this tactics for decades with all type of results. The first chapter of ‘The Necronomicon in Marketing’ is to initially garner attention in anyway possible and then manage the perception to achieve effective profit. It’s called finding the angle. Checkmate.
But if you only want to discuss efficiency in generating attention, while ignoring the means in which you get there, I think I will stop calling you a mastermind.
For me, it has become a really easy tool for discerning people: bring up the topic, and easily check in which one of those three groups everyone identifies with, because there’s only one particular group that you’ll want to belong to when the charlatans are revealed.
The writing’s on the wall
I first called him out, in 2018, over a pint with a so called friend, while talking about icons and geniuses, all because of a print on my T-shirt that said “Idols not equals”. I brought up the need to stop idolising people that know how to surround themselves and mimic those intellectuals that don’t mind their merits being kept in the shadows for the sake of doing what they love doing. He instead showed more empathy for a rich person that he had showed to me or anyone around him.
I no longer speak with this person, and I’m sure that interaction played a big part on the reason why.
Two years ago, I lost what I consider two really good friends, exactly over my stance on this so called entrepreneur. They drove me out of their house with insults and screams, because I dared to challenge their views.
They thought I was fear-mongering when I said he was a fascist. They belittle my opinion, and they called me difficult when I highlighted that a BBC documentary featuring family and friends could not be counted as a valid source on anyone’s character.
My opinion, that of a web developer with decades of experience writing code, over his knowledge on programming, was called into question and dismissed entirely.
I have to emphasise that one of those people, was my ex-boyfriend at the time, a person I had previously shared 6 years of my life with.
He went on to try to patch things up the next day by claiming that his fellow felon friend, must be president for a reason.
Hence we ought to have some respect for him. More than they had for me. Got it. And that my attitude was arrogant at the least for not letting them fanboy all over what some, e.g. me, would perceive as insider trading (passed as crypto advice).
I also remember being quite lenient over some other friend’s view of him just because she mainly operated with Tesla cars. I am literally just throwing this here to show that I truly am not a black or white person. Anyone is entitled to their opinion, but don’t drive me out by forcing me to agree with you.
I am finally done with people thinking that those out there winning by all means and at all costs, must have earned it somehow.
Little do they know that when you are prepared to sacrifice anything and anyone for what’s good for you, there’s a high chance you will eventually get what you want. And some people will be so stupid as to think that must be worth it. Like there’s not someone out there ready to do the same to you and more importantly, that there won’t be someone else ready to do it for the right reasons and it’s currently being denied the right to do so by this same pseudo-intellectuals.
They really don’t get it. That’s where the “sell your soul to the devil” myth comes from. There’s not a literal horned demon popping around people’s bedroom at night with a contract to sign. There’s no need. You can very easily agree with yourself that any price is worth it if you get rich in the process.
If you are generous enough to bribe your way into the right rooms, you can create a climate of silence loud enough to shut up any dissident views. Scout ahead for a few scapegoats, keep things in a “need to know” basis, butter them up with a cheque and the promise of power, and line them up at the ready to be the lightning rod if things ever get stormy.
And before you know it, you amass enough power to make it your full time job to play “Risk” without a board. We know the fucking template, we just decided not to use it because we know where it leads all to. And you still don’t see it?
Time is relative
I don’t have time for that shit. Our 24 hours are definitely not the same.
So yeah, please don’t patronise me by thinking I don’t know I could have somehow turned out more successful by leaving my morals at the door or charge higher prices. And don’t pity me for not doing so unless it’s for obvious commercial purposes. I know very well what that makes me. And yeah, it is entirely my choice.
As it is my choice to withdraw my respect from you if you ever align with his values, or hold them with anything else than contempt or even use it as material for your jokes.
I’m too naive for this world. I already know that.
But maybe you need me to tell you that maybe you are too cruel for the one I’m trying to build.
Because we will both get betrayed by it no matter what. You are just using survival as the reason to perpetuate the problem.
If both rich and poor are gonna end up lonely, constantly looking over their shoulder, with trust issues and possibly ostracised, I see no solace in deluding myself with a Lamborghini.
I rather walk to a park and be grateful for a beautiful sky while I spend time with my own best friend.
My clean conscience.
Feel free to call me the stupidest person in the world. I think I’ve earned it.
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