I’m not so sure whether the super-rich and powerful were really that different in the past. I just think that, at least in the West, they were much more tightly regulated back in the 1980s and even the 90s: It doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me that the rollback of government regulation coincides with the steady growth in the wealth of the richest one percent.

So I think these people have always been degenerate and antisocial; it’s just that they—or rather, those who profit from their wealth—have managed to infiltrate the political system to such an extent that nothing can stand in their way today.

To me, the best example of this development is, again, the U.S.: I find it inconceivable that a government as blatantly criminal as the current one would have been possible even in the 1990s. I mean, it’s very obvious that this is nothing but organized crime. The Epstein case, for example, leaves no doubt in my mind—and this is just one absurd scandal among many that, even twenty years ago, would have forced the government to resign, even in the U.S. Compared to these people, Nixon looks like an innocent schoolboy.

I think this is possible only in a failed state—and the reason for its failure lies quite obviously in the actions of the richest one percent, because they have the greatest stake in it and now even openly advocate this goal, for example, with pseudo-intellectual concepts like "Dark Enlightenment," which forms the "theoretical" basis of their politics —the goal is the abolition of democracy and a return to, or rather a pseudo-modernized interpretation of, the class-based society of the Dark Ages.

So in short: I think there can be no doubt that the billionaires are completely degenerate, but I believe their kind has always existed in this way. Today, however, they have so much power that they believe they can get away with anything—which unfortunately is indeed the case—and that is why they no longer even bother to keep up appearances.

The wealthy now outsource all of their brains. This used to happen too, but at least the powerful usually had to at least have a brain for numbers or organization. Now we have entire machines that are designed to keep any idiot propped up like weekend at Bernie's. Running solely on the will of hundreds of people who just don't want to lose their paycheck.

Honestly the time this is most reminiscent of is medieval kings and rulers who were the 4th in a lineage and were so inbred and not educated that they couldn't string a sentence together.

I've got very little evidence/knowledge, just "common sense" guesses, but i think there'll be a lot of survivor bias in that. We hear about the titans of industry who shaped mankind with revolutionary techniques/inventions, and we see the statues of people who made massive impacts on the world, but we don't hear so much about the "made shitloads by reallocating resources creatively, spent it all on child sex-slaves, what a bastard"

The wealthy have always been stupid. You don't need smarts if you've got money.