The current split we’re seeing in the Republican Party is not a sudden split of ‘consciousness’ or ‘doing what’s right’, but rather a split between two factions of their billionaire donors: Langone et al. vs. Mercers et al. 1/14

Policy-wise, these two groups agree on nearly everything, but there is a rift in strategy. One group funds & supports conspiracy theories, right-wing & white-supremacist extremist groups, etc.

They do so for two primary reasons: 2/14
First, people’s lives are in turmoil. Millions are food and housing insecure. Capitalist alienation & atomization is rampant. Our political system represents corporate interests & the 1% - leaving crumbs for everyone else. People are hurting. 3/14
Conspiracy theories & RW extremist groups speak to people’s pain, but rather than place blame where it belongs: capitalism, authoritarianism, racism, sexism etc. they deflect blame towards anything but the truth: immigrants, black & brown people, deep state, lizard people... 4/14
Billionaires support conspiracy theories because they keep people confused and angry at any boogeyman other than the TRUE cause of their pain & alienation: the very system that allows for Billionaires while peoples’ lives are falling apart. 5/14
The 2nd reason billionaires fund & support conspiracy theories & right-wing/white-supremacist groups are because they despise any democratic check on their power to pillage & exploit.

Democracy is always a threat to power, which is why power is always working to subvert it. 6/14
Their end-game is an authoritarian, patriarchal, white-supremacist state that exists solely to further their own interests, and has zero functional capacity to check their power to do as they please. 7/14
The second faction of billionaires mostly agree with this vision, but also recognize that not only does our current system largely already do these things, but it also provides stability via various avenues of ‘pressure-release’ from the trampled masses. 8/14
In other words, billionaires share in their hatred of truth & democracy, but some see value in the current system as it provides them stability via built-in checks on revolutionary tendencies, while others seek ever more radical overt anti-democratic & fascist institutions. 9/14
This billionaire divide can also be seen very clearly in the rift in their corporate media. On the one hand, we have the liberal & right-wing mainstream media providing & controlling an extremely narrow range of acceptable views & frameworks. 10/14
On the other hand, we have a massive network of right-wing conspiracy & extremist ‘news’ sources completely untethered by reality or truth. Using deep pockets, AI & ‘Psychological Profiling’ they work around the clock to delude & radicalize. 11/14

https://t.co/9KlceOQRo9
Notice how both work to subvert truth & democracy - albeit using different strategies. This is largely the same driving force between the Republican Party split we’re witnessing now. 12/14
It’s a sad conception of ‘democracy’ when a tiny handful, less than .1% of the population, control virtually all the information available to us, the acceptable framework for understanding our world & the entire political spectrum. 13/14
Extreme discrepancies in wealth & power are not compatible with democracy. We can have democracy, or we can have Billionaires. But we can’t have both. 14/14

https://t.co/aFxZofC6Oy

More from Politics

39.1% of Democrats think that it's wrong to negatively stereotype people based on their place of birth... AND that Southerners are more racist. https://t.co/yp1hviLuBB


65.2% of Republicans think that people shouldn't be so easily offended... AND that Black Lives Matter is offensive.
https://t.co/znmVhqIaL8


64.6% of Democrats think that a woman has the right to do what she wants with her body... AND that selling organs should be illegal.

48.5% of Democrats think that a woman has the right to do what she wants with her body... AND that prostitution should be illegal.


57.9% of Republicans think that people should be free to express their opinions in the workplace... AND that athletes should not be allowed to sit or kneel during the national anthem. https://t.co/ds2ig1NJFr


Democrats: Men and women are equal in their talents and abilities. Also, women are superior. https://t.co/bEFSmqQguo

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"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."


We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.

Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)

It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.

Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".