Thread by @PnictogenHorses

"It is finished.

"It is finished.

"it is THE MERCY"

those are the last known words of Donald Crowhurst, an eccentric and erratic man who had failed at several ventures and who finally risked his life on a contest to sail round the world, nonstop, in a one-man boat.

(cont'd)

he was already in debt to a *successful* businessman, a millionaire named Stanley Best, who'd lent a few thousand pounds to one of Crowhurst's failed businesses. the loss was mere pocket change, to someone like Best—but enough to give Best a *hold* over Crowhurst.

(cont'd)

that's the *real* power that the #entrepreneur has. #business and #technology propaganda is full of nonsense about how entrepreneurs, people of leisure who gamble on #investment and #cryptocurrency and other sources of "passive income", are the world's creators, but...

(cont'd)

...in reality, people like @sama and @elonmusk are successful because they're good at screwing people over money.

this isn't just a matter of being good at "deals"; it's knowing how much can be squeezed out of someone in any dispute over money, however trivial the sum.

(cont'd)

for *indebtedness*, in Western society with its depraved Christian values, is one of the worst forms of _sin_. you can bet that @MattWalshBlog thinks being ten dollars behind on a loan payment is easily a worse sin than @joshduggar's sexually assaulting his siblings.

(cont'd)

this is a major reason why right-wing Christians (in line with conservative and "centrist" politicians and pundits) are so gleefully cruel about student loan debts: to them, student loan #debt is a mark of sin, and therefore the sinful deserve to carry the debt forever.

(cont'd)

undoubtedly Stanley Best put the screws to Donald Crowhurst over the relatively trivial amount he'd lent to prop up the man's failed business—and he was able to force Crowhurst into a devastating bind: "either succeed in sailing round the world, or I'll *bankrupt you*."

(cont'd)

Crowhurst was assuming *all* the real risk—Best might as well have been spending his spare change at Monte Carlo. Best was risking almost nothing; Crowhurst was risking his family, his sanity, and his life...and he lost all three, while Stanley Best lost basically zero.

(cont'd)

welcome to #VentureCapital. it's a world of comfy, *lazy* people—people like @alx and @jason and of course @elonmusk—people who have the *luxury* of gambling on other people's risks, and feeling very put-upon if the gambles don't pay off.

these people are *scum*.

~Mona Drafter.

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