The Quiet Part Out Loud: Money and Power in the Digital Age
This blog post explores the power of money and power in the digital age, and how the wealthy and powerful are no longer concerned with glossing over their actions. It looks at how this shift has impacted our society.
Charlie Warzel
Staff Writer, @TheAtlantic. I write Galaxy Brain, the first and only email newsletter. Occasionally: @golfersjournal. charlie@theatlantic.com
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The PGA-LIV stuff feels to me like such a perfect example of what feels like a defining quality of this era: Where ppl with $ & power don’t really seem to care about spin/gloss & are just cool with saying the quiet part out loud that money wins & if you don’t like it lol fuck you
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 7, 2023 -
part of me feels like a dipshit for tweeting this bc this has always been the case with money and power (and glossing it over isn’t exactly better) but the shift in the packaging of it all feels notable. there’s just a shamelessness - who cares about seeming craven/hypocritical?!
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 7, 2023 -
the ‘late stage capitalism’ line is kinda unhelpful now in articulating the context of our lives but if there’s 1 quality of it i think it’s just emboldening actors to be as shameless as they want who cares? ppl will move on to the next outrage & also it’s fun to own your enemies
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 7, 2023 -
not saying there’s some golden age of business or anything but i think the last decade has been a real rise of this mentality - this platform being a v small example of when the $ is just too good & you cant say no so you have to get in bed with somebody who has disdained for you
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 7, 2023 -
anyhow, i think it’s telling that one of the few people who seemed to intuit where this could lead (he didn’t get it totally right obviously) was the dude who largely shook loose and exemplified this kind of shameless. pic.twitter.com/r7IsH220FX
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 7, 2023 -
i think this is right! and there’s definitely a literalization of this old concept that we see now (and tons of people who *love* to watch people use their “fuck you money” to own their ideological enemies) https://t.co/vRPWE1s1wm
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 7, 2023 -
the end result is just a feeling of powerlessness that is extra present and entrenched in every facet of participating in life. there was a good tweet i can’t find that a unifying part of being alive now is a shitty rich person buying and destroying something you like. true!
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 7, 2023 -
even feeling sheepish abt tweeting this is an effect of how pervasive the feeling is. ppl being like, ‘this isn’t new my guy’ - yeah exactly. now it’s so expected that it’s cringey to even point it out. the subtext is like, dude just learn to take it like the rest of us lol
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 7, 2023