Summary

Billionaires like Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy are spreading false claims to discredit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency protecting consumers from fraud and abuse.

Andreessen falsely accused the CFPB of politically motivated “debanking,” despite no evidence.

This rhetoric aligns with the “DOGE” project, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, which aims to slash government regulations and programs under the guise of efficiency.

Critics warn this effort will harm public services, benefit billionaires, and push privatization at the expense of ordinary Americans.

  • Floon@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    2 hours ago

    Rich people are like other rich people, more than they are like their fellow countrymen, or ethnic group, or religious group. Anything a billionaire says is good for “everyone” needs to be understood in that light: the “everyone” they see are “all the people I associate with”, meaning “other rich people”.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 hours ago

    And the Tankies and Anarchists both are cheering them on despite bullshitting to themselves that they’re opposed to the Billionaires.

    A planet overfull of people in the Age of Information and we’ve got Billions of fucking Rubes.

  • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    The government has attacked me and my people throughout my life via the war on drugs using the “justice system”.

    Kind of hard to be invested in a organization like that.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 hours ago

      You think big companies are going to treat you better once law and order is out of their way? You’re going to face more hardship than ever before.

    • pingveno@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      The CFPB and the DEA are a wee bit different, though. You can be angry at the latter and still want the protections of the former.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    20 hours ago

    All you have to do is convince the ignorant, unwashed masses that you’re speaking for them, not about them, and they will let you have whatever you want.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      18 hours ago

      People don’t want policies. They don’t even want demagogues. They want a set of jingling keys in front of their face. That’s what they’ll pay attention to.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        33
        ·
        24 hours ago

        I think this is partly why they got the stupid gomers thinking that Russia is some fantasy zone for white right wing xtian nationalists. For the oligarchs, Russia’s set up is a dream, so they have to find stupid voters to vote against their own economic interests for backwards identity politics reasons…so they make Putin out to be sympathetic towards xtians and homophobia and “whiteness” for the benefit of the rubes in the U.S.

          • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            2 hours ago

            Putin’s been in power for like 20 years, and despite putting the Russian people through hell these last two years and an actual coup attempt he’s still going strong. Arguably you could say things didn’t really change much even after Joseph Stalin died in 1953, aside from secession of several nations outside of central Russia, that it’s all just one big continuation of the same system.

    • zephorah@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      22 hours ago

      But wait, President Musk is the edge lord Id like to be, he’s also a genius, he wouldn’t lie.

      /s

  • Breve@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    98
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    I like how the only “increases” in efficiency they have proposed are to completely eliminate programs instead of actually making any of them better. Maybe we should adopt this same methodology to “solve” the problem of billionaires. 🤷

    • kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      21 hours ago

      Well the economy would be more efficient without the capitalist class, although I get the feeling DOGE isn’t going to reccomend we switch to a Syndicalist economy.

  • zephorah@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    22 hours ago

    But wait, they’re all wearing Tshirts instead of suits on these podcasts. Are you saying that doesn’t mean they’re one of us?

  • Allonzee@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Nothing new.

    Americans are easy marks. Not most of our faults, we’re poorly educated by design. Critical thinking is college level here.

    Few of us have any interest in being a society, any snake oil con man has to do is tell us we’ll be rich!.. Just fuck over our fellow humans first, lol, and we’ll come a running to that ballot box to literally destroy the very safetynet under our own feet. It’s quite pathetic to witness.

    Then we’ll spend decades kneeling in front of them waiting for golden showers of prosperity, when we’re not at one another’s throats out of the zero sum mindset this herp derp land of rugged individualism propagates.

    Our hyper individualist, disdain for the very concept of society is gallows hilarious. It’s like bragging that we’re conditioned to let one another drown. Yay? Got to hand it to the marketers on that one.

    • witten@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      13 hours ago

      I agree with you. Quite a lot. And yet… Rugged individualism can also make a person want to think for themselves and not herp derp with the uneducated masses. I’m just saying American individualism can, uh, in certain cases make one more prone to collectivism.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        4 hours ago

        I am the result of that type of backfiring, got fed right wing propaganda about rugged individualism and the founders as a kid. Turns out that that can backfire heavily into making someone who wants to be left alone, wants to tar and feather people, and thinks some type of collectivism is the best way towards that.

        Fun fact, my grandmother finds my politics annoying which makes sense given the fact she fed me the propaganda but doesnt generally argue my points since I have pointed out that she is the fucking base source of them. She copes and thinks its cause of school and not the fact that she held up violent revolutionaries and our bastard ancestors up on pedestals.

    • TimmyDeanSausage @lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      1 day ago

      Is your point that this is fear mongering, or that the struggle between classes has been an ongoing fight for most of recorded history?

      • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        ·
        1 day ago

        The latter. I mean, America was founded by a tobacco company and people so weird in their religiosity, they were kicked out of 17th century Europe.

        I do think we can solve the oligarch problem. So, part of me was like, “We’ve met this challenge before, motherfuckers.” It wasn’t meant to dismissive but I’m pretty sure I could open hand slap Elon Musk and 24 of his 38 kids would feel it.

        • CouldaBeen_TheBest@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          22 hours ago

          Wish I had your optimism. Hand it over.

          On a more serious note, I truly believe that enriching & modernizing our education system is the way to go for dethroning our billionaire overlords. We can’t just expect slap dash imploding submarines to do all the work.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 day ago

    Americans will not destroy the military or the police state. We need those to do harm against our enemies and to punish the undeserving.

    • just_another_person@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      35
      ·
      1 day ago

      You don’t understand. You make them non-functional through incompetency first, then change their purpose and voila…neither.

      Then you pay Elon Musk for fleets of Tesla robots that don’t work to do your dirty work 🤣

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 day ago

        From what I’ve seen under Eric Adams in New York, you never actually lay any of these people off. You just bring in a robot that bumbles around a subway terminal until it breaks down, while a squad of officers guard it with lethal force.

      • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        Because as it stands right now there are rules to be followed to get maximum payout. After the orange fuckwad is seated that could change but only time will tell

        • actually@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 day ago

          Sometimes history shows oligarchs breaking stuff to make more money for themselves: trade patterns, movement of people, social safety nets, previous methods of doing business.

          I think we all got so used to the modern times that it’s hard to image this still happening, but on a bigger scale.

          Or, it could be mostly empty threats now, designed to manipulate the markets. We saw Trump scares during his last term in office, particularly near the end, that would deliberately scare enough people to make bank in stocks and bonds. Scaring a nation is very profitable.

          Probably both types of things.