ChromePlatedEquator
28140
1390
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A “dictatorship of capital” describes our current state perfectly.
Jul 14, 2026 3:12 AM
ChromePlatedEquator
28140
1390
15
A “dictatorship of capital” describes our current state perfectly.
tokigponny
I know two germans that wrote alot about that
withcheeseplease
The secret ingredient is Money.
EMHPicardo
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
truthputer
One of the latest plans in California is that they're trying to build data centers at eight fairgrounds all across California, including in and around population centers. In the state with the most expensive electricity, where the grid already has problems with capacity at peak times it's monstrous that they're doing this. When the AI bubble bursts I hope they all end up bankrupt and homeless.
vonHoopla
Lol nope. Privatise gains, socialize losses. That's their entire game plan. They know it's gonna go belly up, but they have a plan to take all the money and leave bill for the populace whom they know will never do anything illegal to them no matter how much they are tortured.
jackal12345
Last project my mom did before retiring was write the environmental report on a high speed rail https://www.dot.state.mn.us/nlx/ . It's been over a decade. Also notice it specifies this will be on existing track so not like it's being down from scratch.
Dannoboyo
Corporatism is the latest form of tyranny.
OriginalSyn
Musk promoted the hyperloop primarily as a way to siphon momentum and funding away from high speed rail in California. It was never meant to work
tsmckay
Essentially, not only can tech companies pay off politicians to put up AI Slop Factories fast, they can also pay off politicians to stop high speed rail projects.
lildude52ca
oooooh all the other country's have been saying this shit for years and these dumb fuck yankee's keep voting for it like the idiots they are
Kittenman15
get get
TomWest61
This is the greatest weakness of the democratic: They buy the politicans. Oligarchs and big companys are the enemy for every citizen. And the best: The workers make a company great. And the profit goes: To the shareholders. This is zynical.
Imadethisaccounttopost
Don't forget, a techbro is the reason high speed rail growth is so stunted in the U.S.
Elon propoaed the Hyper Loop as a similar mass transit, but had no aims to complete the thing.
Instead, it was to stop production on high speed rails because he hates public transport, and it hurts his other businesses.
kaijuuGold
data center only needed to pay off a few people high speed rail needed to payoff thousands of people over 25+ years still greasing the gears
michiyl
Oh, und but there are heavy consequences!
TheDefective
CharlesTooke
This is great! What's it from?
QSteele
get get
narcoleptiKnickers
But what if they were AI driven pods - well then - we'd be cooking with steam.
jridley
In the case that happened near me, AFAIK they didn't pay off the politicians. They did it in a rural township that had a small budget, like a couple million a year to run the township (which is basically nothing). They just walked in and demanded permission, or they would be sued into oblivion. The township officials didn't want it but they couldn't really stop them.
Since that, townships in my state have been scrambling to add regulations allowing them to place moritoriums that are court safe.
davethecowboy
Same as it ever was,
Clockworkdancerobot
This about Google and San Jose putting up a new datacenter but not calling it that? I heard Something.
Clockworkdancerobot
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-jose-research-facility-data-center-debate/
NullSecc
idiotsonfire
This is the end goal of capitalism. Preservation of capital.
idiotsonfire
Capitalism wants you dead as fast as possible, it doesn't want you to have freedom of movement via high speed rail. You're a product.
Grimlinnan
Ukraines solution to the problem of a dictator.
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
txinjing9000
We could just call it the end state of capitalism.
truthputer
You're forgetting gerontocracy - ruled by old people who won't retire or fucking die.
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
and kleptocracy - A government characterized by rampant greed and corruption.
aeroldoth
What you're looking for is "plutocracy", rule by the wealthy.
EroticZombiePants
So, a Kakichristofascoplutocracy then.
IamIntoleranceIntolerant
USA! USA! USA!
KillingTlme
We're number one!
Zeterai
There's actually a very well done documentary that gave this a name about twenty years ago. Unfortunately, it significantly underestimated the sheer hatred and vitriol that a real idiocracy would require.
NayaTaylor
If Mike Judge was too realistic it wouldn’t have been a comedy..
ps238principal
Trump and the techbros showed us things can be done quickly.
Mamdani showed us you can do things quickly and have them benefit the majority of people and not exclusively oligarchs.
MediocreExtremist
and the American people show us the destructive effect of the bystander syndrome
Baalzak
We just have to stick (and vote) together.
AShartInTheWind
Don't forget that it's not just Trump and Republicans, these data centers and mass surveillance systems are being constructed with the blessing of both sides of the aisle.
bertchstudio
They are forts for the tech wars
TomahawkJackson
China also showed the world that things can be done quickly, if there's the will to do so.
Example: The US currently requires approximately 759 GW of electricity peak demand in summer heat.
China added 429 GW of capacity in 2024 - 86% of that was renewables, and it's equivalent to 35% of the entire US grid (in one year)
If you include 2023? 790 GW. 64% of US entire installed electric generating capacity, and 104% of our need. Still overwhelmingly Solar, Wind and Hydro.
...in just 24 months...
KillingTlme
China doesn't respect their own laws when they decide to build something like a bullet train. The reason it is taking so long in California and is over budget, is because of the lawyers and the land owners overcharging.
TomahawkJackson
As old as I am, I'm in camp "it's a tough line to walk" On one hand, I want to go from Seattle to San Diego on HSR in my lifetime.
On the other hand, I think we learned a lot in the last couple decades about how we fucked up the urban sections of the Interstate Highway System, what it cost us 50 years down the road, and are endeavoring to not repeat that mistake...
darthnerdus6236
China is also financing one of the fastest solar revolutions in Cuba. They are finding a lot of goodwill globally along the way.
TomahawkJackson
Yeah, it's China, and they're fuckers on SO many fronts. Human Rights, Worker Rights, etc., and I'm 100% with you there.
But on the other hand, the US has, like... Nevada. Just sitting there, with all that sunshine, and Wyoming with all that wind...
catsociety
Biggest difference is they have a one party system and most importantly public and large projects are built by state owned building contractors. So there is no time wasting as far as finding a contractor going through plans etc.
ToSisPoS
Their corruption is much more efficient and regulated as well.
Bobbobbobobbananafanafobob
To be honest, I'd rather have a "for the people, for the country" corrupt one party system than a "for me and my pedo rapists" corrupt one party system.
Either way ethics are out the window but the news isn't 24/7 examples of how screwed my kids are with one of the options.
alcaray
Who is the quote from?
FetteredJuvenescence
Reminder that situations like Taylor, Texas, where the authorities systematically blocked every legal avenue of redress for the populace, are what lead to torches, pitchforks, guillotines, and lynchings.
tschallacka
Technocracy is the word
twickster5000
Why put quote marks without a source? For funsies?
Ver0
it's called an oligarchy
TheDefective
OrkenMork
I was reading that in the washington DC area, they expanded the ABOVE ground metro rail system to a nearby suburb for about 8 miles. Those 8 miles cost $18B. This tells me that it costs 2 billion dollars per mile to put railroad tracks on the ground. That's an annoying price...
Astramancer
The cost isn't 2 billion per mile to lay tracks. It's 2 billion per mile to buy up land in one of the higher cost markets in the country. It would cost significantly less to run 8 miles of track through middle of nowhere kansas.
Hyzenthlay021
In this country public transportation projects are solely there to allow those in power to milk the budget for their own enrichment.
whatsisname
They didn't pay 2 billion to "put railroad tracks on the ground", they paid maybe a hundred million tops, the rest went to paperwork, basically.
GravyEducation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Green_Line_Extension_(Minnesota) under 3b for 14 miles of track. Idk what sort of rail they used in DC. But yeah.... I remember when old folk put yard signs out opposing the extension. Only answer I ever got was they were concerned about noise maybe? Its a light rail not a fucking freight train
OrkenMork
If I remember correctly, the DC one was the a new extension called the Silver Line through 2 counties.
Pokegeologist
My town won't even let the metro bus line in because all the NIMBYs are convinced the second they get connected, all the area cities are going to fill the buses with junkies, rapists, and gangbangers on one way trips to be dumped on us. They live in an alternate reality.
GravyEducation
99.99% people trying to get to work. Or to see family. Or their girlfriend (Who's Magic Bus.) Yeah homeless people and high people can sometimes hop a train or bus easily. Solve the root problem of them not getting the help they need to have to resort to hopping just to stay warm. Etc. I did a homeless stint in a blizzard once w/ no way home, last bus didn't come. the light rail wasn't running all night but it was running just enough that I didn't have to constantly be cold. And station warmers
Pokegeologist
You don't want to hear the comments on my city's public complaint page reference the camps. It's soul crushing to hear what normal surburbanites think.
NKato
They were more worried about their property values than the noise, honestly. A lot of semi-retired and retired people use their homes as collateral for their retirement.
GravyEducation
I know you're just explaining it to me and not championing it, but I was in SLP years ago taking that Uptown bus to transfer to Minneapolis for work. That shit would've cut my commute down by half an hour at least. The root cause is why they need to put up that collateral to begin with (again probs preaching to the choir, Kato)
Harbltron
Ironically, easy access to public transportation should /increase/ property value
OrionRex
"But it would let *those* people come here! We all know that *those* people destroy value just by existing!" - some NIMBY Karen
SofaH3ro
It's just NIMBY, you can't make sense of it. They say it will bring criminals, make noise, drop home values, raise the plagues, anger the spirits, blot out the sun, etm.
GravyEducation
And I said in another comment, I lived in St. Louis Park which my Jewish friends confirmed called it St. Jewish Park. Just a bunch of old Jews or just old people in that area for years being like "eh I don't care for it" like DUDE its a GOOD IDEA https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1ZHRkd3d2bmd6dXR2amwxODY0eDJvaGlvOGR6dmVvYjA4dWlvcDB6aCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/v0eHX3n28wvoQ/200w.webp