The ideology of the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement, which has transformed politics in the United States, is having an impact in the UK. But how is this influence being transmitted?
I am constantly amazed at how easy it is for techbros to ‘snow’ politicians with whatever the latest shiny new thing promises - and almost never delivers. AI is but the latest example.
The bigger danger lies in the affinity with Thiel and his mates. What politicos completely miss is that the
techbros only care about the pursuit of power and winning. Everything else is secondary.
Even to the point where Larry Ellison famously cancelled his keynote speech at Oracle OpenWorld in 2013 in favour of watching his racing team win the Americas Cup in San Francisco. That equates to sticking two fingers up at the 60,000 attendees.
If you can do that and still end up the richest man in the world in 2025 then what does that say about power and wealth?
Excellent article, well researched and clearly joining the dots of the normalisation of extreme right ideologies and the role of foreign billionaires in funding “influencers” in the UK.
But what can we ordinary citizens do about it? As I see it the political system is rigged by the Parties who filter out anyone who might be a troublemaker and want to take on the oligarchs who have captured the parties and the party elites.
One of the major problems is that some people have been allowed by the political system to become obscenely rich and therefore able to buy influence, determine the issues and the answers and capture politicians and, in effect, capture government to work in their interests and not that of the majority and certainly not in the interests of the least advantaged citizens - hence the attacks on welfare while leaving the rich with all their tax breaks.
So, 2 things could be done (at least) - put a cap on personal income and wealth and take big private money out of politics entirely by restricting political donations to, e.g. £1000pa.
To achieve that kind of political revolution would be as likely as turkeys voting for an early Christmas.
I am constantly amazed at how easy it is for techbros to ‘snow’ politicians with whatever the latest shiny new thing promises - and almost never delivers. AI is but the latest example.
The bigger danger lies in the affinity with Thiel and his mates. What politicos completely miss is that the
techbros only care about the pursuit of power and winning. Everything else is secondary.
Even to the point where Larry Ellison famously cancelled his keynote speech at Oracle OpenWorld in 2013 in favour of watching his racing team win the Americas Cup in San Francisco. That equates to sticking two fingers up at the 60,000 attendees.
If you can do that and still end up the richest man in the world in 2025 then what does that say about power and wealth?
Excellent article, well researched and clearly joining the dots of the normalisation of extreme right ideologies and the role of foreign billionaires in funding “influencers” in the UK.
But what can we ordinary citizens do about it? As I see it the political system is rigged by the Parties who filter out anyone who might be a troublemaker and want to take on the oligarchs who have captured the parties and the party elites.
One of the major problems is that some people have been allowed by the political system to become obscenely rich and therefore able to buy influence, determine the issues and the answers and capture politicians and, in effect, capture government to work in their interests and not that of the majority and certainly not in the interests of the least advantaged citizens - hence the attacks on welfare while leaving the rich with all their tax breaks.
So, 2 things could be done (at least) - put a cap on personal income and wealth and take big private money out of politics entirely by restricting political donations to, e.g. £1000pa.
To achieve that kind of political revolution would be as likely as turkeys voting for an early Christmas.