So I have a bit of a different tack about what is going on here, which is that the main reason the “billionaire access” or LEGO CEO example etc bothers people so much is that it forces them to confront their own lack of relative status and power. But the issue is that in any society with any large N of people - capitalist, communist, socialist, whatever - there just always is going to be some comparatively extremely small N-X of people meaningfully influencing the behavior of political leaders. Maybe it’s because of wealth; maybe it’s Politburo membership; maybe it’s because you’re a weird bearded sorcerer-ballerina-priest who miracle-cures the regent’s kids. But the fundamental inequity here is never going away, since the nature of power is that it isn’t equally distributed (else it wouldn’t be power).
It’s good political messaging heading into a midterm where you want emphasize the cronyism and corruption of the party in power. You are obviously overthinking a slogan to the point that nearly all political messages would fall apart under the level of scrutiny.
Political science is on your side on this issue. I summarize that literature in chps 1 and 2 of my 2024 book on energy/climate politics, “Climate of Contempt.”
So, for some reason this episode isn’t coming to the podcast feed in my podcast app (Pocketcasts if it matters) like all the previous ones have…
Hi, we are experiencing some technical issues and are working on getting the episode distributed to podcast feeds ASAP.
The episode is now up on all platforms!
Same problem. Overcast, for me.
The episode is now up on all platforms!
Hi, I wrote this above, but we are experiencing some technical issues and are working on getting the episode distributed to podcast feeds ASAP.
Yup, I use PocketCasts and it’s not there.
Same. I can't find any version of it anywhere that's just audio
Apologies for the inconvenience. The episode is now up on all platforms!
So I have a bit of a different tack about what is going on here, which is that the main reason the “billionaire access” or LEGO CEO example etc bothers people so much is that it forces them to confront their own lack of relative status and power. But the issue is that in any society with any large N of people - capitalist, communist, socialist, whatever - there just always is going to be some comparatively extremely small N-X of people meaningfully influencing the behavior of political leaders. Maybe it’s because of wealth; maybe it’s Politburo membership; maybe it’s because you’re a weird bearded sorcerer-ballerina-priest who miracle-cures the regent’s kids. But the fundamental inequity here is never going away, since the nature of power is that it isn’t equally distributed (else it wouldn’t be power).
He wants to form the vanguard party of the bourgeoisie like they have in China
It’s good political messaging heading into a midterm where you want emphasize the cronyism and corruption of the party in power. You are obviously overthinking a slogan to the point that nearly all political messages would fall apart under the level of scrutiny.
Political science is on your side on this issue. I summarize that literature in chps 1 and 2 of my 2024 book on energy/climate politics, “Climate of Contempt.”