“The super-rich are treating our planet like their personal playground, setting it ablaze for pleasure and profit. Their dirty investments and luxury toys —private jets and yachts— aren’t just symbols of excess; they’re a direct threat to people and the planet,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.
While I agree with your sentiment, I don’t think she’s the place to start bitching. She’s one of the “better” ones in that she’s not out here actively hunting the poor on an island somewhere. You start with folks like Musk, Bezos, and Murdoch, and by shining a light on the billionaires that are stealing the wealth and resources of entire countries but staying out of the limelight by keeping their fucking mouths shut. Then we start moving towards Swift. Otherwise the message will just get drowned out by fans.
If she was a good billionaire, she wouldn’t have hoarded wealth to this degree! Yes, Bezos is 200x worse, but I would bet (less than $1B) that she will catch up in the next decade and we’ll all still be apologizing for her.
I ain’t apologizing for her now. My point is to work on the ones that are more easily hated by more people in order to raise awareness.
I disagree, this flip-flop logic is what drags down the movement and allows “no billionaires except the ones I like” idea to poison the public discourse. If we collectively stick to a unified view we have much more power in changing things.
Yes let’s take the most wildly liked billionaire and make them our example. Surely that will convince people to join us.
Personally, my goal is to challenge people to think critically about billionaires. Taylor Swift is a great example precisely because fans have put her on a pedestal where she can do no wrong. If the goal is to gather an angry mob, then sure, it’s more effective to focus on Bezos, the guy they already dislike.
The point is that there is no “better ones”. The billionaire should not be socially acceptable concept ever. Full stop.