We Don’t Need Billionaires Like Elon Musk

BY PARIS MARX

Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter in the name of free speech is the latest example of his hubris. It’s not just that Elon Musk shouldn’t own Twitter — billionaires shouldn’t even exist.

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On Thursday, ten days after revealing his 9.2 percent stake in Twitter to the public, Elon Musk delivered an ultimatum: either the board accept his offer to buy the company for $43 billion and take it private, or he’d “reconsider” his position as a shareholder. Such an acquisition could have huge implications for how we communicate online, and the entire affair presents troubling questions about the power Musk is able to exert over our society.

For all its problems, Twitter is central to cultural and political life in the United States and beyond, and Musk has long been one of its most prominent users. He wields it to preach to his adoring supporters, slam his critics, manipulate financial markets, and provide the media with fodder for endless clickbait. But his attempt to use his power to capture Twitter and reshape it for his own ends is serious cause for concern.

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If Democracy Ends? Inside The Economics of Fascism

Richard Wolff was asked what happens if a fascist like Trump takes over the White House again. What happens if a strongman government destroys what is left of American democracy? Professor Wolff response is shocking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciHf4SQ14Jo

What are the economic effects of strongman governments, what fundamental changes take place to our economy when fascists run it? Or what if the changes are miniscule and fascism is much closer than you thought? Richard Wolff joined Thom Hartmann to discuss the first, secondary and tertiary changes that take place in the American economy when fascists take over. Economist / Co-founder, Democracy At Work / Author of numerous books including, most recently, The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself.

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Will Pandemic Failures Radicalize Gen Z?

Krystal and Kyle Kulinski for Krystal Kyle & Friends talk with teenage activist and Gravel Institute co-founder Henry Williams about how the pandemic will affect Gen Z politics.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnrBSYriREQ

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How Do We Avoid the Politics of Despair?

Democrats have struggled to deliver on their progressive promises—even ones that are wildly popular—but voters don’t have to wait for the upcoming midterm elections to push them to follow through.

BY MARC STEINER

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Even with majorities in both the House and Senate, conservative Democrats fought and removed parts of the Build Back Better plan that were wildly popular with voters—voters who elected Democrats expecting them to deliver things like paid leave, universal pre-K, and expanded Medicare coverage. As those voters continue to face real struggles, what options do they have when their representatives won’t even defend their agenda against members of their own party? 

On this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, longtime labor organizer Bill Fletcher Jr. and Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage discuss how voters need to organize and counterattack with litigation, ballot initiatives, and mass action to confront voter suppression and gerrymandering, and pressure Democrats into action—and not just wait until midterm elections “for the meteor to hit.”

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