I was having a chat with a friend recently about the cost of living in the UK. I mentioned one issue is the wealth inequality and billionaires are the problem.

"If we do a wealth tax they'll leave!"

Sent this link https://equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/billionaire-britain-2025/ to explain how a large proportion of billionaires just extract wealth.

Not entirely sure they were convinced. They have the mentality that billionaires create jobs for everyone and are super hard workers that worked their way up.

I don't want to just sit back and call people who look up to billionaires idiots. I want to be able to have strong compelling points to make them change their mind.

Because they hope to become one of them

Or at least an "Uncle Tom" who will receive preferential treatment

Some people have the mindset - "If we take money away from billionaires now, then I'll have less money when I become a billionaire in the future!"

Don't hate them for it, because they never made a conscious decision to do it. It may be incredibly frustrating that some people are sabotaging everyone else like this, but it's not really their fault. They've simply been raised in a rotten society and brainwashed so hard their brains are literally fried.

Those of us who happened to avoid a similar fate are not necessarily better. Probably just lucky.

There are some people who are just wired to submit, and there are a lot more of them than you would think. I don’t know how to explain it, but I know some otherwise really awesome people, smart in most ways, but happily submit themselves to authority time and time again; despite it burning them over and over.

I think in some cases, daddy issues play a part in it. I know a few guys who clearly found a substitute for their lacklustre fathers in strongman figures, be they CEOs or grifters. Having a figure like this to fall into line with does seem to make them feel more secure in themselves.

I don't know a huge amount of those, but I do know a lot of men who had solid fathers who were there for them and listened as much as they spoke. They were attentive, caring and solid parents. None of those kids grew up to feel personally threatened when their favourite billionaire, CEO or social media grifter is critiqued or shown for what they are.

I think billionaires and corporations spend good money to have people comment favorably about them. Eventually, via osmosis, those opinions percolate into some of the general public and they start spewing the same lines

alot of propaganda, especially how movies and shows glorify being rich, plus als in irl, its a plus if worship white ones.

I'm here to discuss the original image. Is Jesus shooting America at a sinner? Who is the baby?

Brainwashed, mentally ill, non critical thinker.

Pick one.

A lot of lemmy and reddit comments are written by bots or marketing companies. Theres a whole industry of companies that sell the ability to influrnce others' opinions. Both political and via comments on products.

They are stupid. They dream of being one with no hope that they will even be a millionaire. They are stupid and that is all it is.

Because they're fucking stupid.

I think a Disney song might explain some of it...

• You! (Whoop dee-wit) I wanna be like you (hap du hoowee-doo) I wanna walk like you (chuu) Talk like you, too (chuu) (We-be-de-be-du-wu) you see it's true (shubbedey-du) Someone like me (scubey-dubey-dubey) Can learn to be Like someone like me (take me home, daddy!) Can learn to be Like someone like you (one more time!) Yeah, can learn to be Like someone like me Zi-de-da-bapp bapp bada dodel-dad'n dad'n dad'n dad'n dad, eh Ah-babba di-di-dibbi-di Now, I'm the king of the swingers Oh, the jungle VIP

Propaganda and "philanthropy".

Sometimes it's misinterpretation. When a post attacks something - doesn't have to be billionaires, it can be anything - calling out a sloppy argument or a low-effort anger dump doesn't go well. In a crowd full of pitchforks and torches, if you aren't jumping up and down waving pompoms for the attacker then anything you say is going to be taken as defending the target - you're an apologist or you're a shill for Evil. Supposedly we're all about Justice, but if the accused is a known Bad Guy the crowd doesn't really GAF if they're innocent in this one case, they're guilty anyway and holes in the argument don't matter. If your own sense of justice doesn't let you go along with the angry mob always being right, you're better off just staying out of those threads.

i've never actually heard anyone defend billionaires irl. i don't really know who would do that.

i think lots of people are still stuck in the 20th century mindset "if i work hard, i can make it". it just takes a while to wake up from a deep dream.

The guys with the ai warehouses and their own social networks can muddy the waters all day long. There are idiots defending them, sure, but I think/hope it is mostly fake.

They defend capital and will never own any of it

'some people'?

As if the vast majority weren't glazing 'Papa Elon' and brilliant Bezos, etc not so long ago.
While anyone could see what awful people they really were.

Hypocrite libs and their selective memory.
Now they're crying about something they helped create.

"Spending more than a billion dollars just on boats is a lot but not when daddy Gaben does it. Gaben gives me a product I like, he is therefore a good billionaire."

Crazy to see comments about how it's never seen when half the steam threads turn into a circle jerk for this guy. Imagine calling it a benzostick instead of a fire stick as a sign of affection, like the simps do with the "GabeCube".

Because being rich isn't a sin. Billionaires aren't some biblical demons ffs.

Complaining about "defending billionaires" is like complaining about public defenders defending criminals. Each argument stands alone. You just have to argue each one. The argument doesn't become valid or invalid based on who's one what side.