• ccunning@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It all sounds well and good but I have a hard time swallowing any Billionaire advocating for ethics.

    • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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      They’re all pretty shitty, but Cuban is at least one of the less shitty ones. His work on reduced cost pharmaceuticals has been life-changing for some people, and is a really nice break from big pharma constantly trying to fuck you as hard as they can.

      Yeah he’s probably dying in the revolution, but towards the end. Assholes like Musk or Shkreli are far, far worse.

    • abysmalpoptart@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Compared to the other Uber wealthy, he at least seems to have some sort of a code of ethics from what i can see, which is obviously limited. He’s still in it to make money (obviously), but his actions seem to suggest that he won’t go to the extreme of hurting everyone else just for money.

      I started liking Mark more when he opened cost plus drugs. It’s a pretty decent endeavor to try to reduce pharmaceutical costs for the consumer

      • frezik
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        3 months ago

        Mark seems like the best of the Sharks. This is a very low bar, but there you go

      • frezik
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        3 months ago

        Mark seems like the best of the Sharks. This is a very low bar, but there you go

        • DragonTypeWyvern
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          3 months ago

          General rule of thumb is that if you posted a comment, even if Lemmy tries to tell you it failed it probably went through so don’t try and recomment

          • frezik
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            3 months ago

            I don’t. My instance seems to do this on its own for some reason.

      • frezik
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        3 months ago

        Mark seems like the best of the Sharks. This is a very low bar, but there you go

      • frezik
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        3 months ago

        Mark seems like the best of the Sharks. This is a very low bar, but there you go

    • Modva@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I wonder if there’s any value to considering the point he makes on its own merits.

      And billionaires are also bad.

    • lolrightythen@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      He isn’t the most conservative of billionaires, but hell yes he’s a greeeeedy fuck face.

      Has helped folks a bit tho. And profited

  • Poayjay@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    God I hate the circle jerking of Cuban. There is no “good one.” His PR team is working OT to paint this completely BS image. Fuck him.

    • Orbituary@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Absolutely came here to say this. There are no ethical, innocent, or good billionaires. None. You cannot make that much money without disregarding or hurting people.

      We need to stop blocking for and idolizing these fucks.

      • becausechemistry@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Billionaire evil is a sliding scale from normal rich guy evil to comic book villain evil. He’s less bad than his peers, even if the stuff he does (like the cost plus drugs thing) are maybe just for PR.

        We eat him later than others. But we do eat him.

        • WHYAREWEALLCAPS@fedia.io
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          3 months ago

          You think she’s ethical, innocent, or good? Yikes. She works hard to present a non-offensive to either side persona, that doesn’t make her ethical, innocent, or good.

          • Nastybutler@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Sounds like you think all people are terrible. What a sad way to go through life. I feel sorry for you

              • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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                3 months ago

                Wow a random blogger has an opinion? You automatically win the argument, congrats.

                • subignition@fedia.io
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                  3 months ago

                  There was more than one link in my comment. Also, that’s just a sampling of the search results; you’re sure to find more compelling stuff out there if you put more effort into looking than I did.

                • Random123@fedia.io
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                  3 months ago

                  You cant say shes a “good” billionaire and then dismiss it as everyone is imperfect.

                  Look i like swift and i believe its possible for there to be a “good” billionaire but swift is definitely not it

                • subignition@fedia.io
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                  3 months ago

                  Yep as expected you’re just trolling. What a sad way to go through life. I feel sorry for you

  • Monstrosity@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    See, I, like millions upon tens of millions of others, were not fooled for even one nanosecond by that Orange Fuck’s obvious horseshit so, you’re kind of undercutting your own credibility there, champ.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The only way to become a billionaire is to solely work in your own best interest, and steal the value produced by the labour of your employees.

    Fuck off, cuban. youre one of them

    • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      The only way to become a billionaire is to solely work in your own best interest, and steal the value produced by the labour of your employees.

      How exactly did Cuban do that? All he did was be on the winning end of an incredibly bad transaction by Yahoo, and parlayed that into being on TV a lot.

      • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Do you think he just magicked up an investment? He built a company bought by yahoo. How do you think he created the company broadcast up to that point? By himself? Or did he perhaps have employees who did the hard work?

        • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          Building the company isn’t what made him a billionaire. Yahoo grossly overpaying for it is what made him a billionaire.

          • sudo@lemmy.today
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            3 months ago

            And who profited, disproportionately, from the company’s acquisition by Yahoo? The employees who worked to build it into what it was?

            Did they get their fair share of that ‘grossly overpaying’ by Yahoo?

            They didn’t? <Shocked Pikachu>

            • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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              3 months ago

              Did they get their fair share of that ‘grossly overpaying’ by Yahoo?

              If they owned shares, yes. If they didn’t, then why should they? The owners of the company sold the company at a massively overinflated valuation, so the shares were “worth” a lot of money. This really isn’t a complicated situation.

                • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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                  3 months ago

                  Work and ownership are not the same. If I hire a plumber to fix something in my house, does he become a part owner of it?

              • grue@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Because the only ethical kind of company is a worker-owned co-op. It should not have been possible for employees to not own shares, but it was, and that’s bad.

                • save_the_humans@leminal.space
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                  3 months ago

                  I personally try to avoid absolutes. I would have probably said, “a more ethical kind of company…”, but totally agree. Also really wish more people understood and supported co-ops.

            • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              I sort of agree with you that you can only become a billionaire by stealing someone else’s money, but in this case I think your argument is kind of bad.

              If Yahoo overpaid, it’s not the employees of his own company that Cuban took the money from, but rather indirectly from Yahoo’s employees (former and current up to that point).

              I also have to say, as far as ethics goes, there is enough indirection there that unless you were a dyed in the wool communist you would have problems finding fault with it. The shell game sufficiently blurred where the capital originally came from and it looks more like winning the lottery than exploiting your employees to the people receiving the big paychecks.

              Similar things can be said about venture capital recipients. They get money, and obviously it’s money that the people who gave it to them did not do sufficient work for them to have gotten it themselves, but the source of that money is so convoluted that it might as well be gambling profits.

        • Nastybutler@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          And those employees also made a shitload of money. GTFO with this communist agenda propaganda

              • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                None of those investors were employees. I know exactly how it works.

                Beyond a vague “any employees who had shares…” which, yeah, obviously. Which they would have had to purchase. Which anyone could do, regardless of being an employee

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            3 months ago

            TLDR: NastyButtler fails to support their specious argument and Breadsmasher refutes each point reasonably. Argument won by the latter

  • InAbsentia@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Bro is just now getting around to critical thinking? MANY people were of this mindset 8 years ago…

    • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Oh he wanted to make more money first. Now he’s worried us poors won’t be able to buy his shit. Fuck this guy.

    • Clent@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      There is a reason he is able to keep grifting. There are a lot idiots who think they’re the exception. These people need to touch the hot stove before they understand why we don’t do that.

      Perhaps it’s because they’ve touched the stove many times but never when it was at its hottest and develop this idea that they are special, but the reality is they are just really really dumb and don’t understand the basic mechanics of life.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I could vaguely understand the allure of Trump the first time around (outside of the racist anti-immigrant stuff). There was actually something slightly refreshing in the first Primary debate he had against other Republicans that year (~2016), when he was still just a joke. He was saying things that politicians in general don’t normally say, he wasn’t following “the script”. It only took him opening his mouth and his stupid policies after that though for that feeling to turn to disgust, but for a brief shining moment it seemed like he might’ve been a semi-positive influence that could’ve shaken up US politics for the better. Instead, he’s just shown himself to be the absolute worst person possible for the position.

    • Icalasari@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      And considering how the average person doesn’t pay that much attention and often needs to see the person in action, it’s why I don’t fault people for voting for him in 2016

      After that, however, there was no excuse

      • Nastybutler@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I also wanted a non politician to take the presidency, but when it turned out it was Trump who would get the nomination for 2016 my reaction was

    • jwiggler@sh.itjust.works
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      I’m about to throw a word salad out here about how I can sympathize (never thought I would say that) with Trump supporters in a sense. Hopefully someone chimes in and can challenge a couple of my views here, because i think they could probably be honed a bit, or explained further, but…

      It’s very easy to blame his allure all on racism, all on stupidity, all on nationalism, because certainly Trump espouses all of that. But his populism is also due largely to working-class people seeing (rightly) the Democratic party as corrupt. They see people like Gates and Soros, Hollywood elites like Clooney hanging out with Pelosi and, understandably, get upset seeing all these ultra rich people walking in and out of the private/public sector. They see political dynasties like the Clintons and the Obamas and Bidens as antithetical to the idea that anyone can serve their country in politics, and rightly so. Even Harris – it was essentially “her turn” for the nomination – and they see that as undemocratic and bullshit, which – can I blame them?

      Now, where they go wrong (and, ironically, where hardcore Democrats also go wrong) is thinking that their party isn’t also participating in the same bullshit. Trump isn’t anti-establishment, he’s literally a billionaire property magnate. He is part of the ruling class in America that consists of landlords, bankers, and company shareholders. Both parties would uphold our current system of rule by the few, and back up that rule with the monopolization of violence by the police.

      This isn’t to say the two parties are completely the same. In terms of willingness to uphold capitalism (ultimately the extraction of money from labor), the military-industrial complex (see, Palestinian genocide), and American hegemony internationally (again, genocide), and police violence, they are similar. But then you also have Republicans trying to ban books, surveil women’s bodies, control what people do in the bedroom, or medical care they receive, espouse various forms of hate, etc. So I do see them as worse, but think you’d be hard pressed to find a person in the US, democrat or republican, who didn’t agree with the statement that “all politicians are corrupt.” It’s just the nature of our political system, which has essentially legalized bribery.

      Being able to say to my conservative-ass family, “Yeah, dude, Obama bombed Syria and bailed out the banks – I feel what you’re saying,” gives us that little bit of common ground to start a conversation about the drastic change that needs to happen in the US.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Hilary Clinton, ok sure I guess, but how are the Biden’s and Obama’s political dynasties? That’s just one guy in politics.

        • jwiggler@sh.itjust.works
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          In those cases, maybe dynasties isn’t the right word – although I do sort of see Michelle Obama as a bit of a politician, herself, even though she hasn’t held office. She at least has more power than, say, you or me. Still, I’m more thinking about Obama and Biden in the sense that I am thinking of Biden and Kamala – it was sort of Joe Biden’s turn. Conservatives see that sorta stuff – they rightly see these people as elites, and it gives them more reason to think the Democratic party is corrupt. The reality is it would be difficult to find a politician who isn’t corrupt in a system that has legalized bribery and has necessitated the solicitation of those bribes by our “leaders.”

      • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
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        Do you understand what the word “dynasty” means? It isn’t “famous family”. Definitely not “famous because dad got elected to high office”.

        • jwiggler@sh.itjust.works
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          Hey, no need to be rude. I’m using the word colloquially, not in the technical sense. Besides, in another comment I admitted maybe dynasty wasn’t the right word, at least for Obamas and Biden. It’s more appropriate (though, you’re right in that it is still not technically accurate) for people like the Clintons and Bushes.

      • Random123@fedia.io
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        Youre completely right and this should be the essential example of two group of idiots fighting for the same cause but too brainwashed to realized theyve become tribal and dogmatic with their differing ideologies.

  • orcrist@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    All of the conservatives who are coming out against Trump now are just bad liars. Everyone knew, at least for the last decade, how bad of a human being the man was and is.

    I understand that sometimes you have to make tactical alliances for politics, but to come along later and say that you don’t know a certified scumbag is in fact a scumbag, that’s just unbelievable. I would prefer if they come up with a plausible lie. For example, they could say that they knew he was bad personally but they thought his policies were constructive, or they believed that he would try to clean up the swamp, or they thought Hillary was going to be a disaster so they needed to oppose her by any means necessary, or anything that might have a grain of truth to it. Those things might also be lies, but at least give us something. Show some decency.

    • beejboytyson@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Ikr? Like as soon as he started running people knew all his dirty laundry.

      I talked to a few people and they would just look me in the eye and say no.

      Cons don’t care about facts.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Yeah so here is a question…

    We knew all that BEFORE he was elected the first time, yet you -aparently- voted for him anyway. You knew he was dumb, that was obvious. You knew he was a self centered serial liar, that was pretty much his call sign. You knew he was a disaster of a human being, that he was petty, unstable, narcissistic and a sociopath. Yet you voted for him.

    Why?

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Mark Cuban is a classic Dumb Guy Who Got Rich Fucking Over Others. If he fell for Trump’s shtick, it’s likely because he saw an older and more crotchety version of himself.

      Also, Republicans cut taxes for rich people. And after that, very little else actually matters.

    • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      He voted for him because he thought that would make him richer and more powerful. We don’t need to look into it further than that.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      Because they are dumb, self-centered, lying human disasters. They’re petty, unstable, narcissistic sociopaths. And they vote.

      The ones that only meet a few of those criteria are going RFK.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    we should stop giving a shit what billionaires say. if they have anything important to say they should save it for the inevitable guillotines as their last defense.

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      You quasi-leftist internet nerds and “the guillotines.” It’s the new Guy Fawkes mask. So cringe. 🙄

      Hate to break it to you, but most guillotines won’t fit in your mom’s basement. You’ll have to go outside.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        i mean I’m open to alternatives but it’s just easier than the hassle of implementing taxes over 100%

        also the guy fawkes man never did anything. guillotines famously did. so I’m suggesting tried and true policy here.

      • Emmie@lemmings.world
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        Yeah I mean it’s all over lemmy and I am fine with it. it’s harmless shut ins and I have seen much worse 4chan stuff. It’s still a cozy place compared to watch people die tv.

        After all there’s no shortage of extremists and ted-pilled righteous cucks online. We have the mildest formations here. Usually other reddit alternatives are much worse and not so easy on the eyes.

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        So they’re listing MP as one of his low points? Hilarious if so. I do see the irony that I made such a fuss about him.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Mark Cuban has definitely made a life of getting his end over others (through his long career in business). Like any billionaire he made his riches off the backs of others. The Yahoo deal is Mark receiving the fruit of the labour of the workers at Yahoo, with Yahoo management squandering it to him and his crew for cheap.

    I still can say Cuban is a bit different than the bunch of billionaires who inherited generational wealth or political power and above-average opportunity (Trump, Musk, Gates, Jobs, etc.). He might have the capability of understanding what it’s like to be a lower to middle class person even if he is insulated from it now.

    Like him or not, even the worst person you know can make a thoughful quip once in a blue moon.

  • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    Aren’t all billionaires conservative? I don’t think about them for my own sanity’s sake, but I cannot imagine a progressive billionaire.

  • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    You want somebody that has hired

    In other words - a capitalist

    You want somebody who’s first inclination is not to do what’s in their own best personal interest.

    In other words - not a capitalist.

    Can’t have both, and we know which one we have.

    Would you hire somebody that has a long history of stealing from people - of being unethical?

    So - a capitalist, just like you (Cuban).

    This is the kind of bullshit billionaires say to try and legitimise their existence to us, but mostly to themselves. He really believes he is an ultra ethical person who looks out for the interests of others before his own, because he works hard at telling himself he is. Harder than at most things I would wager.

    • Random123@fedia.io
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      Whether or not he believes hes ethical, hes capitalist, a piece of shit, whatever; you cant dismiss the point hes giving.

      Everything he mentions is something that we need to value as a society because all this blind animosity leads us away from the truth and results in repetition of a cycle.

      Now if only we could actually hold on to the sentiment and apply it to our decision making.

      • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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        Of course I can dismiss his point, because there is no value to it, he’s full of shit and is only looking out for his own interests while criticising others who do exactly the same. Fuck “Stepfords”, fuck “job creators” fuck make believe “ethical capitalists”, none of the things he values are things I value, nor should society at large.