The Awokening: The Existential Risk of Billionaires and the Need for the Abolition of Wealth

Havoc Wreaked by Anonymized Donors Through Influencer Organizations

SOURCE: BuriedTruth.com, 2020-06-11
version: v01
last modified: 2020-07-03 21:29:51 -0700 (PST)

COMMENTARY (BuriedTruth)

I wrote the following as a companion article to the Wealthy Influencers subsection -- currently located in my site index.

As a general rule-of-thumb: to decipher patterns of influence, "follow the money."

The vast domain described in this subsection identifies mechanisms through which wealthy individuals, organizations, and companies shape public opinion to confuse issues, affect public opinion and discourse, and affect political appointments, policy, and legislation.

At times the agents involved are diametrically opposed along partisan lines, while at other times they collude toward achieving common purposes.

First, I itemize some of the key, malfeasant actors. I then follow with Methods, Discussion, Conclusions and Solutions.

While this article is superficially structured as an academic paper, that is merely for convenience: it's a blog post.

Malfeasant Influencers

The agendae involved (a seemingly endless list, to which I will return to and edit at another time) include, but are not limited to the following areas:
- anti-LGBT+ (including transphobia): see, e.g. American Legislative Exchange Council | Alliance Defending Freedom | American Family Association | Center for Family and Human Rights | Family Research Council | Freedom Foundation | Heritage Foundation: numerous Trump admin appointees including Betsy DeVos, Roger Severino, others culminating in: Trump Administration Erases Transgender Civil Rights Protections in Health Care] | Liberty Counsel | Secretive Right-wing Nonprofit Plays Role in COVID-19 Organizing | United in Purpose
- anti-neoliberalism: see, e.g. Heartland Institute |
- anti-socialist / anti-ecosocialist
- anti-protest legislation: see, e.g. American Legislative Exchange Council | Alberta's Anti-protestor Bill Suppresses Democracy and Violates Treaties | Alberta Bans Pipeline Protests | A Powerful Petrochemical Lobbying Group Advanced Anti-Protest Legislation in the Midst of the Pandemic
- anti-union activity: see, e.g. Freedom Foundation ["opt-out" campaigns] | Bradley [Foundation] Spent Millions on Voter Suppression, Union Busters, Climate Deniers, and Right-Wing Media in 2019 | The door-to-door union killers: rightwing foundation takes labor fight to the streets [Freedom Foundation] | Koch Family Foundations | Koch-Funded Think Tanks Are Lobbying to Send Workers to Their Deaths ("right-to-work" laws)
  | "Facebook Workplace:" Facebook Pitched New Tool Allowing Employers to Suppress Words Like "Unionize" in Workplace Chat Product
- anti-climate change / climate change denial): see, e.g. American Legislative Exchange Council | American Enterprise Institute (funded in part by ExxonMobile) | Americans for Prosperity | Bradley Foundation | Bradley [Foundation] Spent Millions on Voter Suppression, Union Busters, Climate Deniers, and Right-Wing Media in 2019 | Competitive_Enterprise Institute | Donors Trust | Exxon Mobile | Family Research Council | Freedom Foundation | FreedomWorks | Heritage Foundation | Heartland Institute | Imperial Oil / Exxon | Koch Family Foundations | Judicial Watch | Lilly Endowment | Mercer Family Foundation | Scaife Foundations | Donald J. Trump and the Deep State
  ; | [2019-10-11] Revealed: Google made large contributions to climate change deniers
- anti-ecological protection: see, e.g. Ecological Destruction | Report names the banks financing destructive oil projects in the Amazon [Citigroup | JPMorgan Chase | Goldman Sachs | HSBC | BlackRock]
- anti-Muslim sentiment: see, e.g. Alliance Defending Freedom | Center for Security Policy | David Horowitz Freedom Center [Freedom Center]
- anti-womens rights | anti-feminism: see, e.g. Center for Family and Human Rights | Eagle Forum [2018-07-06] Federalist Society: The anti-abortion conservative quietly guiding Trump's supreme court pick
- corruption of the judicial system: see, e.g. Arabella Advisors
- corruption of the legal system: see, e.g. Arabella Advisors
- frivolous lawsuits: see, e.g. Alliance Defending Freedom | Judicial Watch
- corruption of the political (legislative) system: see, e.g. American Conservative Union | American Enterprise Institute | American Family Association (boycotts) | American Legislative Exchange Council | Americans for Prosperity | Arabella Advisors; Donors Trust | ExxonMobil Got Congress to Trade Arms for Offshore Gas | Fair Lines America | Family Research Council | David Horowitz Freedom Center [Freedom Center] | Heritage Foundation | Koch-Funded Think Tanks Are Lobbying to Send Workers to Their Deaths | State Policy Network | Tea Party movement
- pro-neoconservatism
- pro-neocolonialism
- pro-neofascism (Trump White House; others): see, e.g. Autocracy
- pro-white supremacism (Trump White House; others): see, e.g. League of the South
- pro-Christian / Evangelical: Alliance Defending Freedom | American Family Association | Council for National Policy | Family Research Council | Liberty Counsel | National Christian Foundation | United in Purpose
- pro-Capitalist
- pro-voter manipulation (disinformation; social engineering): see, e.g. American Legislative Exchange Council | Americans for Prosperity | Arabella Advisors | Bradley [Foundation] Spent Millions on Voter Suppression, Union Busters, Climate Deniers, and Right-Wing Media in 2019 | Donors Trust | Honest Elections Project: Conservative 'dark money' network rebranded to push voting restrictions before 2020 election [Donors Trust] | Judicial Watch | Public Interest Legal Foundation | United in Purpose | ‘Weaponized Ad Technology’: Facebook’s Moneymaker Gets a Critical Eye [microtargeted ads]
- pro-resource plundering
- pro-war profiteering
- pro-militaristic (space; hypersonic missiles; nuclear proliferation; ...)
- "think tanks:" e.g.: American Enterprise Institute | Center for the National Interest | Heritage Foundation | Hudson Institute | Koch Family Foundations | Koch-Funded Think Tanks Are Lobbying to Send Workers to Their Deaths | State Policy Network
- ...
Methods
Again, although this article is superficially structured as an academic paper, it's a blog post -- the following was originally an "Addendum," that I moved here as a note regarding "methodology."

I have been collecting data (articles, ...) on these organizations and influencers, and in the coming months I will begin to construct a corpus, knowledge graph, data-mining and tools that will allow the visualization and understanding of these data and relationships.

As an example of the degree of obfuscation of disinformation to which we are all subjected (that I have encountered during my research), note the following.
- SourceWatch.org -- an online project of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) -- provides surprisingly detailed wiki pages on influencer nonprofit 501(c) organizations that supplements analogous Wikipedia articles (indeed, often providing pages when no Wikipedia articles can be found).
- The Wikipedia page for the Center for Media and Democracy describes it as a progressive nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization and liberal advocacy group ... However (a red flag), it also states that the CMD has received donations from George Soros' Open Society foundations.
  
  CMD's Wikipedia article also states:
  Apropos to this discussion, I append this statement to my version of the [George Soros] "Open Society Foundations" Wikipedia page:
  - Not indicated in this Wikipedia entry:
    - George Soros / Open Society Foundation is a known, very significant funder of -- or is a member of groups (e.g. Democracy Alliance) that recommend donations to -- the highly malignant fake news / disinformation campaign umbrella group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund: : refer here | here | here, and | here.
- In diametric opposition, another source -- "InfluenceWatch.org" -- provides highly critical overviews of both the Center for Media and Democracy and SourceWatch -- rather savagely attacking them as having a left-leaning, liberal bias marred by hypocrisy and dark money sources.
- That sounds alarming, so I searched Wikipedia for "InfluenceWatch" -- which, in Wikipedia, redirects to the Capital Research Center which it describes as
  That sounds good; however, later in that Wikipedia entry:
  Ouch -- those are major anonymizers, lobbyists, and disinformation campaigners!
  
  Another red flag re: InfluenceWatch.com: in a 2018-02-04 disinformation / misinformation article by the Heritage Foundation, Rebecca Hagelin attacked George Soros and his Open Society Foundations -- concluding with
  The fact that an appallingly malicious group like the Heritage Foundation and its minions refer you to those sites casts doubt on the true purpose of those sites, and the veracity of their content!
The discussion above highlights the need to question and critically evaluate all source data, comparing it to multiple sources and validating it as much as possible (discounting those sources and content known to be disreputable).

Discussion

The wealthy donors (individuals; corporations; state-backed organizations; ...) funding these reprehensible agendae hide behind nonprofit 501(c) organizations that are not required to disclose the identity of their donors. This simple obfuscating ploy impedes efforts to disentangle these networks, their members, known intentions and true intentions.

In preparing these files, I was initially more concerned with the sources, proliferation and intent of disinformation campaigns -- used, e.g., to sway the 2016 U.S. election in favor of Donald Trump, with catastrophic consequences too numerous to itemize here. However, those campaigns appear to cloak underlying, more pernicious threat agendae that provides an even greater threat.

By all accounts and appearances, the ultrawealthy -- blinded by greed and deeply cloistered from the ignorant masses -- are not concerned about the existential threats posed by neoliberal agendae, wealth imbalance, and structural violence. The shortsightedness of this amoral self-entitlement was exemplified by billionaires such as Bernie Madoff, Bernie Ebbers, who were ultimately imprisoned and thus denied the proceeds of their ill-gotten wealth.

Billionaires: Crimes Against Humanity

The dangers posed to humanity by the ultrawealthy and their minions include the threats to global climate and ecology, which increasingly affect billions of hapless souls -- and will likely do so for generations. Failing again to comprehend the risks from climate change, ecological destruction, and social and economic collapse, the some ultrawealthy individuals cling to the delusional belief that they can shelter in remote refugia (e.g., New Zealand) or perhaps off-world.
- End-of-Civilization Billionaire Refugia
The burgeoning commercial space industry -- funded by billionaires Elon Musk (SpaceX), Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin), Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), until recently Robert Bigelow (Bigelow Aerospace) and others -- makes this option remotely plausible, but likely not sustainable. More improbably, the erratic egocentric Elon Musk has set his sights on Mars -- apparently oblivious to the challenges involved, including perchlorate-permeated soil and toxic Martian dust (refer here, here, and here) -- plus other significantly harmful environmental hazards (solar flares; ...)

Hints of what was to come were provided in the Citigroup 2005-2006 "Plutonomy Reports," that presciently identified the unique characteristics and influence of the ultrawealthy class, and the growing wealth gap. As predicted, since then economic inequality has grown (see also Oxfam's 2020 "Time To Care" report), with a handful of the wealthiest individuals owning more money and resources than the rest of humanity.

Calls to Abolish Billionaires

There have been calls from various persons to abolish billionaires; I am one of them. In fact, I go further: no individual (or corporation) should hold any appreciable wealth, whatsoever and without exception -- and those holding such wealth should have those assets seized and socially redistributed, according to fair and acceptable practices.

Somewhat more restrained viewpoints include the following.
- [2019-02-06] Abolish Billionaires
  A radical idea is gaining adherents on the left. It's the perfect way to blunt tech-driven inequality
  - [2019-12-17] Billionaires -- Existential Threats to Humanity?
    - [2019-12-13] The corrupting syndrome of the super-rich
  - [2019-07-09] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' policy adviser makes the case for abolishing billionaires
    "The bigger Jeff Bezos's and Bill Gates's slices of the pie are, the smaller everybody else's are going to be"
    - [2019-01-30] Should Billionaires Even Exist?
      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren believe some Americans have too much money, and they're not alone
    - [2019-01-22] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: A Society With Billionaires Cannot Be Moral
  - [2018-10-16] No Billionaires
Billionaires are certainly aware of these calls for reform.
- [2019-11-07] Billionaires Have Declared All-Out War on Sanders and Warren
- [2014-{07-08}] [prophetic] The Pitchforks Are Coming ... For Us Plutocrats
Some billionaires even acknowledge the inequality of wealth imbalance, and call for reform.

In that regard, I admit that I am an admirer of Marc Benioff [Philanthropy | Social activist platforms | Forbes List], who first appeared on my radar in 2016 [I was fully immersed in machine learning at that time] when his company, Salesforce, purchased the accomplished advanced natural language processing startup, MetaMind [Salesforce Reveals It Spent 75 Million on the Three Startups It Bought Last Quarter | Salesforce just bought a machine learning startup that was backed by its CEO Marc Benioff].

I next encountered Benioff in a rather refreshing 60 Minutes interview [2018-04], in which he strongly defends women's rights, gender equality [12:28 in the video], and other issues that speak very highly of his character and his stewardship of his companies.
Hence, I was not surprised to see the New York Times opinion piece by Marc Benioff, Marc Benioff: We Need a New Capitalism [2019-10-14]. While that article provides a acknowledgement that wealthy corporations (and by inference, individuals) must engage social responsibility, remain firm in my conviction that the model is broken. The overarching objective for the vast majority of corporations is -- in addition to a lessening "primary responsibility to shareholders" [lessened, as corporate leaders now too often plunder that wealth for personal gain] -- is ever-expanding markets and profits.

We shall see.

In my opinion, that philosophy is fundamentally flawed. Beyond the need to innovate and maintain a socially responsible level of standards (infrastructure; quality; value; ...), why should any enterprise need to out-compete its competitors, or otherwise increase its dominance within a domain? At such a point where any activity acquires sufficient wealth -- or otherwise harm individuals, societies, nations or the ecosystem -- those entities (corporations; individuals; ...) should be repurposed, for the common good.

Conclusions

Having researched this topic, I draw the following, overarching conclusion, in what is perhaps the ultimate manifestation of structural violence.
Rather pessimistically, I additionally conclude the following.
- On the surface, we are subjected to a incessant and constant bombardment of disinformation from networks of disinformation agents, lobbyists, and special interest groups: "noise" that obfuscates deeper, more concerning agendae.
  
  Given the overwhelming onslaught of disinformation thrust upon us -- including agendae that sow division, derision, and antagonism -- the status quo is discord, inaction and stagnation.
  
  These "superficial" distractions confound the electoral process, and ecosocialist reform.
- Behind the scenes are carefully coordinated plans and actions intended to relentlessly erode civil rights and liberties -- including but not limited to:
  - the right to unionize;
  - the right to demonstrate;
  - unfettered access to factual information needed for decision-making and voting;
  - enactment of neoliberal (pro-corporate) agendae;
  - revocation of environmental protections (e.g. rescinding EPA-advocated legislation);
  - neocolonialism (resource plundering);
  - global digital surveillance (population monitoring; control)
  - erosion of human rights (LGBT+)
  - ...
  Analogous to the efforts to stagnate the democratic electoral process, countless frivolous lawsuits corrupt the courts and the rule of law, while pervasive and pernicious forces pervert political and judicial appointments -- especially prevalent in the Trump White House -- confound and corrupt legislative and judicial systems.
- Democracy, which was always illusionary, is dead -- with any attempt at reform thwarted though stalemate, stagnation, corruption, attack, division and bullying. Hence, regardless of the source of the disinformation (domestic: Canada, USA; foreign: China, Russia, ...) the results are a cascading effect of inept, corrupt and/or amoral otherwise improbably-elected national leaders: Australia (Scott Morrison), Brazil (Jair Bolsonaro), Great Britain (Boris Johnson), and most damaging, the USA (Donald Trump).
  
  In those rare instances when substantial victories are attained that offend this paradigm, draconian punitive reprisals are meted out to those who dared to challenge this status quo. On the latter point, a prime and chilling example is Chevron's relentless "annihilation" of environmental lawyer Steven Donziger.
So, who benefits from all of this?

Firstly, everyone of considerable wealth benefits significantly. This includes the elite "ruling class:" the highly privileged politicians -- who tend to be disproportionately wealthy viz-a-viz their constituents -- who allow these injustices to flourish. As contemptuous as they are, they are merely greedy opportunists and obsequious sycophants.

Secondly, nation states (China; India; Russia; Turkey; ...) who are adversarially opposed the United States and it's perilous neocolonialist and militaristic atrocities seek to sow dissention and discord, weakening that adversary geopolitically and economically.
- [2020-06-22] Trump's misleading information enables China to sow discord among allies, research finds
  New report calls on Australia and US to strengthen ability to counter others' disinformation -- as well as their own
Some hint of the scale of those disinformation campaigns were revealed 2020-06-12 when Twitter terminated >32K Twitter accounts.
- [2020-06-12]Disclosing networks of state-linked information operations we’ve removed. | Hacker News
Predictably, that action triggered an indignant response from autocratic Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
- [2020-06-12] Turkey slams 'propaganda machine' Twitter over removal of accounts.
On 2020-06-11, Twitter also said it removed more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Beijing-backed influence operation.
More significantly, it is my contention that the prime beneficiaries to all of this are ultrawealthy corporations and individuals. Insatiably greedy, wealthy donors fund groups that stealthily lobby for repeal of existing laws and enactment of new laws and policies favorable to the privileged few, while publicly sowing disinformation, dissent discord and stagnation.

Possessing vast wealth and resources, the ultrawealthy are immune to the vagaries of geopolitics, stock markets, etc. There is a fundamental disconnect between financial markets, government spending, and fair and sustainable monetary practices. [Coincidentally, today -- 2020-06-11 -- Elon Musk tweeted "lol" and "stonks" at the stock market (image with link to story, below).]
Billionaires continue to grow their assets regardless of current events -- evident by the staggering increases in wealth among elite billionaires during this ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic).

The structurally violent practices currently in place contribute to the ever-growing wealth, power and influence of the super-wealthy billionaire class at the expense of the rest of humanity.

Solutions

Based on the totality of available information, the inescapable conclusion is that the neoliberal effects on ecological destruction and climate change by the ultrawealthy comprise the prime existential threat to humanity. To address the former (to protect the planet and future generations), we must remove the latter (egregious private wealth).

Regardless of your nationality, geopolitical status, religious beliefs, etc. this represents an existential threat to all of us. Given the deeply ingrained, pervasive and pernicious nature of the current systems -- which transcend geopolitical identities -- reform is not possible. What is required, analogous to the current George Floyd-inspired anti-racism protests that are occurring around the world, are demands for the abolition of private wealth, and a complete dismantling of existing capitalist and neoliberal structures, and implementation of sustainable, socially-just ecosocialist systems.

Return to BuriedTruth.com

The Awokening: The Existential Risk of Billionaires and the Need for the Abolition of Wealth

Havoc Wreaked by Anonymized Donors Through Influencer Organizations

COMMENTARY (BuriedTruth)

Malfeasant Influencers

Methods

Discussion

Billionaires: Crimes Against Humanity

Calls to Abolish Billionaires

Conclusions

So, who benefits from all of this?

Solutions