• @masquenox
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    21 year ago

    Why do you think billionaires aren’t currently just doing whatever they like?

    I hate to be the one to break the news to you… they already are. See this…

    bulldozer down whatever buildings are in his way

    Show me a building that Elon couldn’t just buy with his pocket change - and then bulldoze - whenever he damn well felt like it. He could easily buy the building you’re in right now - and guess who would be the ones throwing you out of that building for him?

    Quite naive.

    Then show me how the police prevents Elon from doing whatever he wants. This should be easy for you - if there is any evidence to back up what it is you are saying.

    • @[email protected]
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      31 year ago

      Elon Musk had to discuss endlessly with the authorities in my country to find a spot he was allowed to build his factory in. When people protested he had to wait until the protest was over and couldn’t just continue building because it could have been dangerous for the protestors. He has to pay a fine now and change his gray water waste handling. He doesn’t just do it anyway because he know police and judge would arrest him.

      Another example: a person owning casinos wanted to build a casino in the neighborhood where I live. He bought a property under false pretences and when the government learned he wanted to build a casino they denied that and forced him to pay a fine and now he will have to sell property again. The reason why he isn’t just bulldozing down the building and build casino anyway is because he know police will stop him and his workers.

      Shall I go on? There are thousands of things happening everyday that police and the state is doing. Who is going to stop rich or more powerful people if you abolish police and state?

      • @masquenox
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        11 year ago

        Shall I go on?

        Feel free… I will happily point out the gaping flaws in your reasoning with any example you could care to provide.

        Elon Musk had to discuss endlessly with the authorities

        Of course he did - he knows the people in authority are his friends… so why wouldn’t he? It’s the people in authority that protects his exploitation… it’s literally the reason capitalists invented police. Why wouldn’t Elon work within the system that is designed to benefit him at the expense of poor people?

        When people protested he had to wait until the protest was over

        So you are saying that it was protestors - not police - that was putting up resistance to the rich’s exploitation?

        You don’t say.

        he know police and judge would arrest him.

        No, they wouldn’t. Do you see police choke-holding millionaires and billionaires to death in the streets? Yes? No?

        Another example

        The exact same factors apply. This capitalist didn’t work within the very system that protects capitalist exploitation… and got a mild little slap on the wrist for it as opposed to a death sentence - which is a de facto risk for any poor person forced into an encounter with the police.

        Who is going to stop rich or more powerful people if you abolish police and state?

        Again… police and state exists to enable the rich’s exploitation - not prevent it. This means the assumption underpinning your question isn’t grounded in reality but in fiction.

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          Wow you are very naive. He had to discuss because he wasn’t allowed to just bulldoze a village and put his factory wherever he likes. You gracefully ignore that part.

          Without laws and without police someone who is stronger than you and/or has more resources than you will just fuck you over. That’s exactly what you are criticising about the current system but you ingore that without laws and structures like police in place they would just fuck you over more. Because then nothing is stopping them.

          You romanticise people by believing they would side by side storm Elon Musks factory, take his stuff and then be happily singing Kumba Yo.

          What would actually happen is that he would pay people or promise them stuff to build his factory on the village, give his community weapons and shoot everyone down who comes near his property.

          So maybe you have weapons as well and you win this fight. Now you are the group with all the weapons. What’s next? Maybe you want to distribute them around the other villages as well. What if not everyone in your group agrees? What if someone in your group thinks: “Great, now I can finally get that nice house I always wanted that my neighbour is living in.”

          • @masquenox
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            11 year ago

            He had to discuss because he wasn’t allowed to just bulldoze a village

            Yes, he could - it is simply cheaper and easier for him to work within a legal framework that is already designed to benefit him at the expense of the people he wishes to exploit. To use your parlance - you gracefully ignore that part.

            Without With laws and without with police someone who is stronger than you and/or has more resources than you will just fuck you over as this is literally the current system we exist under right now.

            Fixed that for you.

            people by believing they would side by side storm Elon Musks factory, take his stuff

            Yes. We would. That is why capitalists invented police.

            give his community weapons and shoot everyone down who comes near his property.

            You mean… literally the history of how the institution of police was invented?

            “Great, now I can finally get that nice house I always wanted that my neighbour is living in.”

            There won’t be any police around to help him do exactly that, would there? He’ll have to deal with the community first… who now has all the guns - as you envisioned.

            • @[email protected]
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              21 year ago

              Do you live in a country without police, btw? How about you move to one without and see how well it works out for you.

              • @masquenox
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                21 year ago

                So far, you’ve offered nothing to justify the existence of police except canned liberalsm and worn-out media tropes based on pure copaganda.

                Do you have anything else you wanna try running past me or will that be it?