Broligarchs against democracy: my new essay in @TheAtlantic, based on my forthcoming book, "Offshore: Stealth Wealth & the New Colonialism."

They're high-tech's ultra-rich opponents of democracy & their motto is: "Liberty, oligarchy, & fraternity."
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
They're quick to run to Washington when it's time for a taxpayer-funded bailout, but actually paying taxes is an affront to their liberty & what they see as their innate superiority & right to rule to the rest of us.

To offset the incandescent outrage I'm feeling at this NYT op-ed, let me tell you abt the incredibly moving experience I had today attending the naturalization ceremony for 91 new US citizens from 41 countries. I was expecting a formality, but it provided an infusion of hope. 1/x A few highlights of the event:
1. When the judge presiding over the ceremony said the US is "a nation of laws, where none are above the law," the whole 500+ crowd (new citizens + guests) burst into spontaneous, extended applause. No mention of 45 or SCOTUS, but all understood.2/x

~12 yrs ago, I read this profile of EM's 1st wife & decided never to buy shares in any biz he ran. Why? Bc men who treat women like this are malignant narcissists & biz disasters.
My version of "short everything that guy has touched" from "The Big Short."
marieclaire.com/sex-love/a5380… Reference: the scene late in "The Big Short" when Mark Baum meets a CDO manager, finds out how he does business & is so disgusted that Baum instructs his team to bet against everything the CDO manager has touched. Key line around 6'05".

A very insightful read on the inner workings of our new overlord. Come for the humor ("the perfect living embodiment of the Simpson’s monorail man"), stay for the mic drops on crypto, verification ("the site becomes a platform organized around fraud"), etc.marginalcall.substack.com/p/cluster-b-li… Damn. The proof of concept on this strategy was Peter Thiel's immolation of Gawker (hi, Palantir bros!).

This tracks with @ruthbenghiat's analysis.

Our world is being turned upside down by billionaire versions of South Park's Eric Cartman, all seeking revenge bc we did not respect their authoritah!
Putin is Cartman-in-Chief, unleashing Trump when HRC & Obama made him feel small;now he's working out his issues via war crimes. Trump is Cartman junior, still tantruming over inauguration crowd sizes & an infinite list of status injuries to be avenged by burning down 250-year-old institutions.

Now Twitter. More collective punishment to teach us all a lesson for mocking He Who Shall Not Be Mocked.

🧵What was the point of making Russian oligarchs international pariahs & seizing the yachts, private jets & villas they used to get friendly with Western elites?

Sanctions based on stigma & shame can bring down dictatorships, as I explain in @ForeignAffairs, w/@CooleyOnEurasia. Followers who found me via my 🧵on stigma & shame motivating COVID denial & vaccine refusal may find this interesting: it applies the same sociological ideas in a very different setting.
This also draws from @ruthbenghiat on strongmen & @eosnos on elites.
foreignaffairs.com/russian-federa…

My career in 2 pix, via 2 generations of students, 22 yrs apart.

L: the yr 2000 course reader from the very 1st econ soc course I taught as a brand-new prof @BrownUniversity.Carefully saved by @frankhajdu.

R: econ soc books from my course at @dartmouth via @daniel__kramer '21. These pix make me so happy bc they represent my highest aspiration as a teacher: not to get positive student evaluations at the end of term, but to impart analytic tools that students can use to make sense of their world for the rest of their lives.

Oligarchs: what & where they are🧵
1.They're not just Russians. They're everywhere-even Canada, as today's news shows-& they're not "just rich ppl."

They're a subset of rich ppl who want to be an intl ruling class: shaping politics, markets & media outside their home countries. 2. Oligarchs often support 1 another, bc they share an agenda: they "have more in common with each other" than w/ppl of their own countries, said a wealth manager in my book.

The agenda: unlimited power & wealth. They undermine democracy & media bc those impose accountability.

Yes &:
Behind those forms of capitalism are 2 forms of authority, at war in a much broader arena than the biz world.
It's a war btwn what Max Weber called expert authority (based on merit) & traditional authority--patriarchal, senescent, the power of mafosi, oligarchs & warlords.

https://twitter.com/katforrester/status/1485300093486080001

Why this matters: because the traditional, warlord form of authority is ANTITHETICAL to democracy & modernity itself.

Family firms--not all, but many--are infamous for putting incompetent ppl in charge & for engaging in corrupt practices w/no accountability.

THREAD:
As news stories drop about COVID+ pandemic deniers & anti-vaxxers ranting defiantly from ICU beds, let's review what fraud research suggests abt the responsibility we should attribute to them for their condition & the ms they send.

Are they victims we should pity? 1/x One of the recurrent problems in US popular discourse on the proper response to crises is that it's often assumed there are only two options:
1) crack down hard, damn the consequences (usually assoc w/RW)
2) "just be kind; kindness is everything😊🌈❤️" (usually assoc w/LW)
2/x