I’m under the impression that Google deliberately hinders their YouTube platform just because you have ad-blockers. With videos taking time to buffer, seems to signal this, because it almost makes up nearly the amount of time for when ads take if you had to watch them. So since you’re ad-blocking and they don’t like that, they’ll make your experience miserable until you want to pay their service or not use ad-block.

  • DandomRude@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    Regardless of their nationality, billionaires largely pursue the same interests in order to strengthen their position of power in the political system in which they are most involved.

    This is, of course, a conspiracy theory, but the Epstein files, for example, certainly suggest this - as does the fact that billionaires’ companies are all multinational and that it is almost impossible to trace where the incredible amounts of capital in the international economic system actually come from (such as the massive concentrations of capital managed by asset managers like Black Rock).

    In short: I suspect that the biggest problem facing people worldwide lies in the power of the respective so-called elites, and I think that they coordinate among themselves in order to remain in power or to expand it further.

    This is how I explain the resurgence of Nazi ideology, which is actively promoted by billionaires in very different countries.

    • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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      3 hours ago

      Don’t the panama papers detail a lot of this and a financial trail of how they collaborate with one another?

      It seems like the panama papers had been collectively forgotten 2 years later, but they give blatant evidence of the secret elite money laundering and invisible payment network of collaboration IIRC.

      As far as Nazi ideology, fascism always goes hand in hand with corporatism, so it makes sense.

      • DandomRude@piefed.social
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        4 minutes ago

        Yes, absolutely, I completely agree: the Panama Papers already made this very clear - and the fact that not one of those who benefited most from this outrageous multi-billion-dollar fraud against citizens was ever prosecuted already showed that both the law enforcement agencies of the countries and the political leadership are so deeply infiltrated that they simply do not fulfill even their most basic duties anymore. In other words: corruption on a scale that one can only conclude that even most of the remaining democracies must be rotten to the core.

        And yes, you are also absolutely right with the second point: Nazi ideology has always been closely linked to the interests of business magnates. That is where the term fascism, as originally coined by Mussolini, comes from: autocratic rule by the economic elite.

        What I wanted to point out with the example of the US, and specifically the Eppstein affair, is simply another example of how billionaires have now apparently come to the conclusion that, thanks to their corrupt accomplices in the corridors of political power, they are untouchable - and this is precisely how the US president is acting, who should actually have been in prison for decades for countless serious crimes. Unfortunately, he is not, but is now leading the US as the spearhead of international organized crime, which is unfortunately still not called that because, despite its obviousness, it is secured by state pseudo-legitimacy.

    • janonymous@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      I forgot the exact quote, but the gist was that wealthy people don’t need to actively collude, because their interests naturally align: Lower taxes, less oversight, less restrictions what to do with their wealth, undermine any effort that might threaten existing power structures.

      That also explains why they naturally seem to support authoritarianism and facism, because those systems offer exactly that.

    • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      The question comes to mind - why work so hard to consolidate their power so thoroughly? They already have basically everything anyone could want. Why not kick back and relax?

      One plausible answer supported by some of the data: They love raping children, and need their power network to continue to feel safe while continuing to kidnap and rape children.

      • DandomRude@piefed.social
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        2 days ago

        I suspect that child abuse in these circles is something like murder or other serious crimes for less influential forms of organized crime like the classical mob (Cosa Nostra and so on): these heinous crimes serve as proof of loyalty and at the same time as a bargaining chip that the mob boss can use against his “soldiers.” That would explain why there are disproportionately more pedophiles in the GOP, for example. That may not be the only reason, but pedophilia is clearly the common denominator among those who support the authoritarian-fascist regime in the US.

        In any case, Epstein was also obviously used by Mossad to collect blackmail material against influential people.

        It seems to me, especially given the proximity of the US regime to the equally fascist Israel, that this is a fundamental strategy to prevent co-conspirators from going public with their knowledge.

        • village604@adultswim.fan
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          2 days ago

          I’m not so sure it’s actually pedophilia, as in I don’t think they’re sexually attracted to children.

          I think what actually turns them on is having the power to destroy a vulnerable person with impunity, and pretty much no one is as vulnerable as a child.

          Which makes sense because you have to be a psychopath to become a billionaire.

          • DandomRude@piefed.social
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            2 days ago

            Yes, that is certainly a motive for many of these monsters. However, the effect on the “lower ranks” or even pf all those caught in the act remains the same: because they commit a crime, and a most repulsive one at that, they are vulnerable to blackmail and manipulation if there is proof (pictures, videos,witness statements).

            So the motive hardly plays a role as long as it is treated as a “proof of trust” that every co-conspirator must provide as a “ticket to join the club” of these degenerate criminals.

            As I said, this is a classic strategy of organized crime. And since the current US system is essentially organized crime, just on a unprecedented level, I don’t see why the same methods shouldn’t be used here.

            For the US, the fact that the president’s father had proven ties to the mob and that the president’s mentor, Roy Cohn, was the go-to lawyer for various underworld figures in the 1970s and 1980s only makes this more likely.