An inordinate amount of our attention is afforded to absurdly rich children
What the fuck is happening over at OpenAI? Reading the latest development in the saga, I found myself literally sighing out loud. A bunch of emotionally unregulated people with too much money decided to play a little Game of Thrones. It’s all very dramatic. And very stupid. It almost makes you wonder why we give so many shits about these dumbasses in the first place!
The one (and there is only one) benefit of social media is that these attention-starved dorks show their whole asses to us on a daily basis, with Very Important Business Tweets that read like the AIM away messages I posted in high school when I wanted nothing more than my crush to finally notice me.
The one time I wish he cared about capital.
We’re supposed to revere these people? Really? This is the culmination of five days of petty posturing. Tantrum upon tantrum upon tantrum upon tantrum upon tantrum, with Microsoft pretending to be the adults in the room in a desperate attempt to save face with investors because god forbid it appear as though their over-inflated company value could dwindle.
Is it too reductive to say “it’s all Capitalism?” Actually, no, it’s not too reductive to say, “it’s all Capitalism,” because, let’s be honest, it’s all Capitalism.¹ So much time, energy, and money invested over the span of decades to convince us that there is no greater indicator of intellectual and moral superiority than by how many magical dollars one company (or one person!) manages to amass. To be wealthy is to flaunt your big, big wonderful brain.² And as a result of our inherent tribalism, we are beckoned to cheerlead for rich dickheads. Like if we simp hard enough, we, too, will find ourselves infused with the superpower to manipulate stock prices, at which point we… win society? I dunno. If the end game is possessing the ability to impulse-purchase social media companies because my dad didn’t love me and now the only validation I can get is from my army of obsequious right wing shitasses,³ I guess I’d rather just Fargo myself into a wood chipper.
But this is what we get when the foundation of our entire modern society is built on the odious notion that the only thing that matters is money, and everything else, like empathy or providing a benefit to society or having fulfilling relationships, is but a mere distraction from making more and more money. We have a generation of repugnant dullards with zero regard for humanity who mistake their gratuitous wealth as the same thing as having a personality. In their relentless quest for more, they’ll step on anyone, thrust their useless, flaccid products at us, and spout lies, lies, and more lies in an effort to bolster their company’s perception for shareholders. Fuck doing something useful. Fuck creating sustainable companies. Fuck ethics. Fuck the world. Burn it all down for the quick hit, it’s all mine for the taking. More more more faster faster faster. If I don’t get what I want, I’m going to throw a fit!!!!!!!!1
It all feels like asking children to wait to eat marshmallows.
¹ CAPITALISM ALL THE WAY DOWN.
² Wow! You’re so, so, so smart I’m so proud of you, honey, you did it, you got the big number! Who’s my big rich, beautiful boi? You are! You are!
³ Dude’s will literally drop $44 billion to buy a website instead of going to therapy.
