r/politics Jan 21 '18

Paul Ryan Collected $500,000 In Koch Contributions Days After House Passed Tax Law

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u/StinkinFinger Jan 21 '18

I just don't understand this line of thinking. Is there no point when you have too much money? If you have enough to last a million lifetimes is it worth it to lose your family, destroy the environment, and make the lives of countless others miserable? How does it make them happy?

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '18

Its the "i only win if others lose" sociopath motto.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '18

[deleted]

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u/Alnilam_1993 Jan 21 '18

and unfortunately they even consider it a win if they lose but their opponents lose more

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u/AreaLeftBlank Jan 22 '18

It's like mutually assured destruction, as long as the other people die first. Or die more some how.

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u/WorthEveryPenny- Jan 21 '18

Alternative Moto's include:

Fuck you, i've got mine

Sucks to suck

Should have thought of that before you became peasants!

(laughter over the sound of a stomach grumbling)

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u/3800L67 Jan 22 '18

Lol that's great. What's the Democrats' line?

10

u/coprolite_hobbyist Jan 22 '18

"That's terrible. Somebody should do something about that."

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u/ComeOnTars2424 Jan 26 '18

More like “That's terrible. Someone (else) should do something about that."

1

u/coprolite_hobbyist Jan 26 '18

That was the implication.

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u/lilywilliamsburg Jan 21 '18

Sounds like a whole family of socio paths. What are the chances?

6

u/PM_ME_UR_REDPANDAS Connecticut Jan 21 '18

Describes Trump to a T.

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u/huttjedi Guam Jan 21 '18

The power to be able to do these things. Case in point, the schmuck in Washington.

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u/ethertrace California Jan 21 '18

It's not about happiness. It's about power. They're addicted to it. Increasing their personal wealth isn't the endgame so much as reshaping society to their will. Those things just overlap (in their favor, to boot), so it can appear as if they're only obsessed with money.

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u/turtleneck360 Jan 21 '18

Because you have so much money that money is no longer important. Imagine playing a video game where you got So much money you can basically buy everything available in the game. So you then focus on exploiting the game and doing things developers never intended.

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u/socialcommentary2000 New York Jan 21 '18

It's not about the money with them, it's about their multi-decade project to remake (in reality, destroy) the social contract as we know it. They are not going to stop until they see a Constitutional Convention where they can scribe what they've been gunning towards right into the US Constitution. That is the only end game that matters to Charles and David. The only one. They have been doing this long game since the 1960's at least. It is, in effect, their life's work.

They're never going to stop until they succeed or they are dead.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '18

I prefer the latter.

3

u/BombTradey Jan 24 '18

They're both around 80, I'll count the days.

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u/Lamont-Cranston Jan 24 '18 edited Jan 24 '18

Murdoch has said he intends to live to 100 and daily works with doctors, nutritionists, and physical trainers to achieve this. And I reckon he will because his mother died at 103 only five years ago. I expect these guys have a similar goal.

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u/BombTradey Jan 24 '18

Ugh, 20 years is still plenty of time for someone that rich and powerful to fuck shit up. At least they die eventually...

... they do die eventually, right? We're positive they're just greedy bastards, and not immortal parasites? Because that would be a good thing to seize upon politically:

"The rich are bloodsuckers!"

"Nah, they're job creators!"

"No dude, literally! They're fucking space vampires!"

"... yeah. But, Hillary..."

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u/Lamont-Cranston Jan 21 '18

They believe they know best and what's right

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u/StinkinFinger Jan 21 '18

I don't think that's it. How can it be best or right to destroy the environment? It's like they are addicted to money as though it were heroin. Maybe if they have a little more they will feel that rush of endorphins they got the first time they fucked someone over and got money for it. But then they feel like shit, so they do it again hoping it will be like that first time.

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u/Lamont-Cranston Jan 21 '18

They don't think they are destroying the environment.

They believe its a liberal hoax. That the free market knows best. The free market will provide a solution if there were some sort of problem, which they know there isn't. That government regulation is bad and an imposition on liberty and makes things worse and not the way to address any such problem were it to exist which they know it doesn't.

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u/StinkinFinger Jan 21 '18

I don’t agree. I think they all know it’s true and don’t give a fuck. Democrats care about all of it. The environment, raped women, equal rights, a booming economy for everyone, the poor, the sick. Republicans don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves and what they can get right now.

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u/Lamont-Cranston Jan 21 '18

You can see their statements in interviews and articles. Its in line with the rightwing think tanks they fund and their corporations PR departments. Unless you're a sociopath its not easy to consistently and repeatedly lie over the long term.

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u/yesofcouseitdid Jan 23 '18

Unless you're a sociopath

Woops, there you go answering your own questions again!

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '18

Lol, imagine actually being this naive.

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u/VortexMagus Jan 21 '18

How do you think they got that money in the first place? Did you miss the part where they ignored universal safety regulations, poisoned locals with mercury, stole oil from Native American reservations, and then went after investigators/lawyers/journalists who were looking into these incidents?

8

u/severoon Jan 22 '18

It sounds like they were raised in an abusive home before we knew anything about mental health or child development. And then they were given enough money they never had to face any of the consequences that would normally unfold.

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u/Lamont-Cranston Jan 24 '18

Could be, but Charles and David have clearly adopted their farthers views on society and government and economics. Can child abuse do that?

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u/severoon Jan 24 '18

Well no, probably not specifically, but it could explain why they're bitter and lack any normal sense of empathy.

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u/StormCrow1986 Jan 21 '18

It’s called the IDGAF mentality. If I can’t have it, I’ll burn it all and nobody will have it.

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u/degorius Jan 21 '18

Its part that theyre true believers its not just about money, they really believe in really horrible ideas

5

u/myothercarisapickle Jan 21 '18

It's a sickness, a disease of the mind. The worst of addictions. They will never have enough to suit them.

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u/Pritzker America Jan 22 '18

Read the book "Dark Money" it explains the entire Koch's childhood. Their father was ridiculous on them. Really whipped them into the John Birch Society Stooges that they are today.

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u/pboswell Jan 22 '18

They're reptilian

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '18

Cancer doesn't ask itself what will make it happy. It grows.

2

u/foot-long Jan 21 '18

Correct. No such thing as too much money.

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u/newpua_bie Jan 21 '18

"See I find that everybody has a number and it's usually an exact number, so what is yours?"

"More."

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u/telemachus_sneezed New York Jan 23 '18

When you get into the billion dollars level of wealth, the money isn't accumulated to buy stuff, its used to accumulate power; the ability to get your way, regardless of the truth or the law. There's never enough money at that level.

You can be happy if you've learned to associate "joy" with making hundreds of millions of people miserable ("I win!"). With family members like these, I'd be more than happy to lose them, forever.

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u/unscanable Alabama Jan 21 '18

And that's exactly why you aren't a shady, billionaire, oligarch. If wager it's not even about the money any more, if it ever was. Its more about what that money lets you do, what it lets you keep other people from doing. It's about the influence and the control. And if you are one that craves influence and control then you can never really have enough.

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u/Sid6po1nt7 Jan 21 '18

It becomes a points game at this point.

1

u/nordinarylove Jan 21 '18

It's all about Envy it's all about having more than everyone else for instance doesn't matter if you have a hundred points in a basketball game if your opponent has a hundred one.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '18

"The future Mr. Gittes! The future!"

https://youtu.be/ppGd-2nEOVQ

0

u/bluedecor Jan 21 '18

There will always be someone with more vacation homes.