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If billionaires were half as smart as they think they are, we'd all be a lot worse off.
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TrackenDaKracken lemmy.world TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-09-29
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JustPlainDave lemmy.zip JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-09-09
#2 · Quote Reply

Would we though? Actual intelligent people tend to consider the greater good.

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remon ani.social remon@ani.social
Joined: 2024-09-25
#3 · Quote Reply

Would we though? Actual intelligent people tend to consider the greater good.

Exactly.

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one_old_coder piefed.social one_old_coder@piefed.social
Joined: 2026-02-08
#4 · Quote Reply

I'm confused. They think they are smart, let's say an IQ of 150. If they were half as smart, they would have an IQ of 75, but it's the IQ they already have, there would be no difference.

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realitista lemmus.org realitista@lemmus.org
Joined: 2025-07-19
#5 · Quote Reply

Would we though? Actual intelligent people tend to consider the greater good.

If they considered the greater good, they wouldn't be billionaires, catch 22.

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aphonefriend lemmy.dbzer0.com aphonefriend@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-03-20
#6 · Quote Reply

I'm confused. They think they are smart, let's say an IQ of 150. If they were half as smart, they would have an IQ of 75, but it's the IQ they already have, there would be no difference.

The implication is their IQ is currently well below 75.

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Jay lemmy.ca Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2023-08-07
#7 · (edited) Quote Reply

Problem is they pay people to be smart for them. Most of them are just selfish dumbasses.

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damnthefilibuster lemmy.world damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-05
#8 · Quote Reply

Would we though? Actual intelligent people tend to consider the greater good.

Actual intelligent people by IQ or by education? Those are the ones working for the Billionaires, pushing shit ads to our eyeballs and enshittifying platforms for us.

Actual intelligent people by street smarts are pushing for democracy, better technology, better education, but their voices are being drowned out by the wave of hate caused by lack of adult education.

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remon ani.social remon@ani.social
Joined: 2024-09-25
#9 · Quote Reply

I'm confused. They think they are smart, let's say an IQ of 150. If they were half as smart, they would have an IQ of 75, but it's the IQ they already have, there would be no difference.

They think they are smart, let’s say an IQ of 150

I think the point is that they are a bunch of narcissists that think they are way smarter than that.

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GregorGizeh lemmy.zip GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2023-08-15
#10 · Quote Reply

Would we though? Actual intelligent people tend to consider the greater good.

There is a probematic split, probably due to capitalism favoring stem education, between what we consider intelligent and wisdom. The latter is cultivated from engaging with "idle" topics such as philosophy, art, history and cultures, all that stuff that doesnt make any money and takes time spent not working.

So naturally these arent things the oligarchy engages with in any way that is conducive to the development of actual ethical beliefs, morals, or feelings of social responsibility. This is reinforced by the fact that those ethics would conflict with their entire existence and role in society, and self interest wins out.

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JustPlainDave lemmy.zip JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-09-09
#11 · Quote Reply

Actual intelligent people by IQ or by education? Those are the ones working for the Billionaires, pushing shit ads to our eyeballs and enshittifying platforms for us. Actual intelligent people by street smarts are pushing for democracy, better technology, better education, but their voices are being drowned out by the wave of hate caused by lack of adult education.

Education doesn't mean intelligent. There's plenty of educated idiots.

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NoxAstrum lemmy.ca NoxAstrum@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2025-02-11
#12 · Quote Reply

Billionaires are aggressive, their drive to dominate is what makes them rich, not their intelligence. When you're not concerned about consequences or how you're perceived, it's very easy to step over people without losing sleep.

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Widdershins lemmy.world Widdershins@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-04-04
#13 · Quote Reply

Those robots look like they would be a lot of fun to drag out into a field and smash with bats and pipes like a printer.

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damnthefilibuster lemmy.world damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-05
#14 · Quote Reply

Education doesn't mean intelligent. There's plenty of educated idiots.

Completely agree. And that’s why the second part of my comment. Actually intelligent ppl are protesting the world over right now.

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Fleppensteyn sh.itjust.works Fleppensteijn@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2025-12-20
#15 · Quote Reply

Usually there's something wrong in their brains. Most people don't like to screw over other people, but they do, and they think they're so smart for finding a "loophole".

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TrackenDaKracken lemmy.world TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-09-29
#16 · Quote Reply

I'm confused. They think they are smart, let's say an IQ of 150. If they were half as smart, they would have an IQ of 75, but it's the IQ they already have, there would be no difference.

Billionaires think they have an IQ of 1000.

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0xDREADBEEF lemmy.dbzer0.com dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-12-18
#17 · (edited) Quote Reply

Would we though? Actual intelligent people tend to consider the greater good.

"actual intelligence" doesn't exist. There's just educated people

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godsammitdam lemmy.zip godsammitdam@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-05-05
#18 · (edited) Quote Reply

[removed by moderator]
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Tattorack lemmy.world Tattorack@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-10-28
#19 · Quote Reply

[removed by moderator]

Dude, they ARE the capitalist propaganda. I don't believe for a second they don't know what they're doing. Dilusional, yes, but still understanding.

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Vandals_handle lemmy.world Vandals_handle@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-14
#20 · Quote Reply

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SirSamuel lemmy.world SirSamuel@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-08-05
#21 · Quote Reply

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YappyMonotheist lemmy.world ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-04-26
#22 · Quote Reply

Thank God they're mostly just broken, weak, hedonistic and distracted men with daddy issues without remarkable intellects and not a group of Henry Kissingers. 🥲

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YappyMonotheist lemmy.world ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-04-26
#23 · Quote Reply

Would we though? Actual intelligent people tend to consider the greater good.

Actually wise people*, you can be intelligent and remain a selfish, sociopathic waste of skin.

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JustPlainDave lemmy.zip JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-09-09
#24 · Quote Reply

"actual intelligence" doesn't exist. There's just educated people

Nonsense.

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QueenHawlSera piefed.social QueenHawlSera@piefed.social
Joined: 2026-07-14
#25 · Quote Reply

I dunno, if Elon Musk was actually a genius, he wouldn't do shit like hire people to play Diablo 4 for him and he'd be trans affirming.

Stupidity and Evil are mutually exclusive, no one's smart and evil because smart people realize being a dickbag hurts everyone even themselves.

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Tollana1234567 lemmy.today Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
Joined: 2025-06-04
#26 · (edited) Quote Reply

billionaires arnt actually smart, they had a silver spoon since thier birth, so they have expensive education. even soros merely took advantage of favorable conditions at his disposal.

plus they come out of school enititled and elitist from private schools, which is not indicative intelligence.

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adjectivenoun lemmy.world adjectivenoun@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-09-19
#27 · (edited) Quote Reply

billionaires arnt actually smart, they had a silver spoon since thier birth, so they have expensive education. even soros merely took advantage of favorable conditions at his disposal. plus they come out of school enititled and elitist from private schools, which is not indicative intelligence.

Inheritance is only one way the ultra-wealthy gained their status. There's also exploitation, luck, predatory business practices, corruption, ....

Some gained wealth legitimately, but they usually fall under the luck category and should have been taxed at a higher rate for decades.

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Xerxos lemmy.ml Xerxos@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-11-19
#28 · Quote Reply

If they were half as smart as they think they are, they would enjoy their lives in luxury and leave the rest of us alone.

The smart ones are the ones we have never heard of.

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0xDREADBEEF lemmy.dbzer0.com dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-12-18
#29 · (edited) Quote Reply

Nonsense.

Name an intelligent person who's not educated. Just literally one. Education is the only thing an 'intelligent' person has. They recall what they know. Their education. I'm not talking about university, I'm talking about knowledge. I don't care about formal education. One's education is just their accumulated knowledge. Manifesting accumulated knowledge is intelligence. The only thing I can imagine is 'intelligence' is capacity for pattern matching.

A baby learning to cry for food has accumulated knowledge. A feral child surviving in the woods has accumulated knowledge. These are 'intelligent' beings no matter their environment. They're smart as hell and can pattern match to live. There is no such thing as 'intelligence' because all living animals exhibit it. Life itself is intelligence, sure. I'll admit that. "Actual intelligence" is just being a DNA based organism apparently. Sure. I agree.

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JustPlainDave lemmy.zip JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-09-09
#30 · (edited) Quote Reply

Name an intelligent person who's not educated. Just literally one. Education is the only thing an 'intelligent' person has. They recall what they know. Their education. I'm not talking about university, I'm talking about knowledge. I don't care about formal education. One's education is just their accumulated knowledge. Manifesting accumulated knowledge is intelligence. The only thing I can ima...

My dad is pretty intelligent and didn't even graduate highschool.

Intelligence pertains to ability, not education.

Or do you think that intelligent people didn't exist until education? Because if that's the case, who created education?

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0xDREADBEEF lemmy.dbzer0.com dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-12-18
#31 · (edited) Quote Reply

My dad is pretty intelligent and didn't even graduate highschool. Intelligence pertains to ability, not education. Or do you think that intelligent people didn't exist until education? Because if that's the case, who created education?

Everyone has ability. Knowledge of possibilities is literally the only limiting factor in ability, all other things equal. You can do incredible things if you just knew about it and developed the neural pathways your brain literally is designed for. But you don't know about them, you haven't developed the neural pathways for them, therefore you think you can't do it. But you could if you have the capacity for doing all of it. The only limiting thing, really, is your ability to pattern match, which more things to pattern match against in your brain, the more things you can pull from to learn new things. Someone who can take their knowledge of piano and transfer that to guitar is as 'intelligent' as a person who can transfer knowledge from haskell to ocaml or from biology to chemistry or from history to politics.

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JustPlainDave lemmy.zip JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-09-09
#32 · Quote Reply

Everyone has ability. Knowledge of possibilities is literally the only limiting factor in ability, all other things equal. You can do incredible things if you just knew about it and developed the neural pathways your brain literally is designed for. But you don't know about them, you haven't developed the neural pathways for them, therefore you think you can't do it. But you could if you have t...

Everyone has ability.

Idiots don't.

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0xDREADBEEF lemmy.dbzer0.com dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-12-18
#33 · (edited) Quote Reply

Everyone has ability. Idiots don't.

It's their choice to not utilize their ability that makes them idiots. Idiots have the capacity and don't utilize it. A person who lacks the ability is literally neurologically damaged. A person who's educated by a village of dumb idiotic, propagandized, indoctrinated people then what do you think they will pattern match from to the world around them?

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UnderpantsWeevil lemmy.world UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-14
#34 · Quote Reply

Billionaire: "We paid some college kids to build a robot that doesn't immediately tip over when it tries to move."

Internet Slacktivist: "Black Mirror! Terminator! The Matrix! It's game over, man! We're all gonna die!"

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UnderpantsWeevil lemmy.world UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-14
#35 · (edited) Quote Reply

If they were half as smart as they think they are, they would enjoy their lives in luxury and leave the rest of us alone. The smart ones are the ones we have never heard of.

That's been the Jeff Bezos gambit for nearly a decade. He's still an absolute POS and we all know it.

The smart ones are the ones we have never heard of.

Behind every great fortune is a great crime.

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UnderpantsWeevil lemmy.world UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-14
#36 · Quote Reply

Inheritance is only one way the ultra-wealthy gained their status. There's also exploitation, luck, predatory business practices, corruption, .... Some gained wealth legitimately, but they usually fall under the luck category and should have been taxed at a higher rate for decades.

Some gained wealth legitimately

Nobody gets truly rich by playing within the rules. Show me a billionaire and I'll show you a list of crimes.

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JustPlainDave lemmy.zip JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-09-09
#37 · Quote Reply

It's their choice to not utilize their ability that makes them idiots. Idiots have the capacity and don't utilize it. A person who lacks the ability is literally neurologically damaged. A person who's educated by a village of dumb idiotic, propagandized, indoctrinated people then what do you think they will pattern match from to the world around them?

So if education equals intelligence, who invented education?

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0xDREADBEEF lemmy.dbzer0.com dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-12-18
#38 · (edited) Quote Reply

So if education equals intelligence, who invented education?

I already said—DNA. It's an algorithm. It's gotten very far in keeping itself going, don't you think? The DNA-based tree of life has yet to go extinct after all of these years.

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JustPlainDave lemmy.zip JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-09-09
#39 · Quote Reply

I already said—DNA. It's an algorithm. It's gotten very far in keeping itself going, don't you think? The DNA-based tree of life has yet to go extinct after all of these years.

DNA isn't education. What do you mean by that?

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0xDREADBEEF lemmy.dbzer0.com dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-12-18
#40 · (edited) Quote Reply

DNA isn't education. What do you mean by that?

I said education is the accumulation of one's knowledge. The ability to acquire knowledge is from the DNA algorithm. The inventor of education is DNA. DNA is a stateful thing that changes over time.

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JustPlainDave lemmy.zip JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-09-09
#41 · Quote Reply

I said education is the accumulation of one's knowledge. The ability to acquire knowledge is from the DNA algorithm. The inventor of education is DNA. DNA is a stateful thing that changes over time.

I said education is the accumulation of one's knowledge.

By that metric, everyone is educated.

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myyass lemmy.world myyass@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-09-02
#42 · Quote Reply

I think it's ironic that since buying power dropped by, what? 50%? Then does that mean a person with a billion is just a millionaire?

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TrackenDaKracken lemmy.world TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-09-29
#43 · Quote Reply

Usually there's something wrong in their brains. Most people don't like to screw over other people, but they do, and they think they're so smart for finding a "loophole".

That something is that money = power, and power corrupts.

They start out with perhaps a little less empathy than normal, maybe due to being raised by rich, entitled parents, but as their wealth and power grows, the lose it all.

I think virtually everyone, save the Mr. Rogers and Dolly Partons of the world, would soon fall into the same trap, if handed a billion dollars. It's human nature. We're not poor because we're better, we're better because we're poor.

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partofthevoice lemmy.zip partofthevoice@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2025-10-26
#44 · Quote Reply

Some gained wealth legitimately Nobody gets truly rich by playing within the rules. Show me a billionaire and I'll show you a list of crimes.

Gonna throw a ball and just see where it lands… Azim Premji.

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MonkderVierte lemmy.zip MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2025-05-30
#45 · Quote Reply

"actual intelligence" doesn't exist. There's just educated people

Called "book-wise".

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captainlezbian lemmy.world captainlezbian@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-29
#46 · Quote Reply

That something is that money = power, and power corrupts. They start out with perhaps a little less empathy than normal, maybe due to being raised by rich, entitled parents, but as their wealth and power grows, the lose it all. I think virtually everyone, save the Mr. Rogers and Dolly Partons of the world, would soon fall into the same trap, if handed a billion dollars. It's human nature. We're...

Yeah, power damages your brain. I suspect by breaking the feedback loop between actions and consequences

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ieightpi lemmy.world ieightpi@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-26
#47 · Quote Reply

I think it's ironic that since buying power dropped by, what? 50%? Then does that mean a person with a billion is just a millionaire?

The old billionaires must be fuming because so many new billionaires keep popping up. Theirs wealth just doesn't matter anymore

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chewypoops lemmy.world chewypoops@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-02-05
#48 · Quote Reply

The old billionaires must be fuming because so many new billionaires keep popping up. Theirs wealth just doesn't matter anymore

The latest South Park America episode is about this exactly.

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Chaotic Entropy feddit.uk ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk
Joined: 2023-07-06
#49 · Quote Reply

Life continues despite their best efforts.

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0xDREADBEEF lemmy.dbzer0.com dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-12-18
#50 · Quote Reply

I said education is the accumulation of one's knowledge. By that metric, everyone is educated.

Everyone has an education. What that education is is obviously case-by-case

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myyass lemmy.world myyass@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-09-02
#51 · Quote Reply

The old billionaires must be fuming because so many new billionaires keep popping up. Theirs wealth just doesn't matter anymore

They must be fuming with all the desperate pushing of AI and data centers. Tech in general looks like the titanic except everyone is turning a blind eye to the sinking part.

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