RetroFed Forum
Your home away from modern life.
Billionaire Cheater Steve Ballmer: “At His Level of Wealth, Societal Ethics No Longer Register”
Post Reply
AuthorMessage
artifex piefed.zip artifex@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-12-16
(edited) Quote

A finance expert and Fortune 500 therapist examine the potential motivations of billionaire cheater Steve Ballmer and his subordinates. Unsurprisingly, people who have enough money to do literally anything they want do not evaluate risk the same way as the rest of us. Just another sign that wealth hoarding is a mental illness, imo.

356   Original
Salamanderwizard lemmy.world Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-06-13
#2 · Quote Reply

I mean history has taught me tyrants know what a rope fashioned to fit around the head and tighten on the neck means.

18
Avicenna programming.dev Avicenna@programming.dev
Joined: 2025-11-07
#3 · Quote Reply

I mean history has taught me tyrants know what a rope fashioned to fit around the head and tighten on the neck means.

![](

1
Avicenna programming.dev Avicenna@programming.dev
Joined: 2025-11-07
#4 · Quote Reply

2
DarkCloud lemmy.world DarkCloud@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-05-19
#5 · Quote Reply

It's a mental illness that destroys democracy, society, and the planet.

42
Optional lemmy.world homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-09
#6 · Quote Reply

12
eestileib sh.itjust.works eestileib@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-07-01
#7 · Quote Reply

Ballmer expects that money will make this problem go away too, like everything else in his life.

11
Optional lemmy.world homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-09
#8 · Quote Reply

7
nonentity sh.itjust.works nonentity@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2024-06-12
#9 · Quote Reply

Financial obesity is neurotoxic, an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

94
DeathsEmbrace lemmy.world DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-09
#10 · Quote Reply

Financial obesity is neurotoxic, an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal. Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

The rich sociopathic class is a parasitic disease.

29
Maeve kbin.earth Maeve@kbin.earth
Joined: 2024-06-16
#11 · Quote Reply

That's a lot of words to say, "fu, I have money."

6
artifex piefed.zip artifex@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-12-16
#12 · Quote Reply

remember the good ol' days where he'd just get angry and throw a chair (I know he had denied this happened, but he's a hard guy to believe)

6
artifex piefed.zip artifex@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-12-16
#13 · Quote Reply

Ballmer expects that money will make this problem go away too, like everything else in his life.

Sad thing is, that's a pretty safe bet.

8
Optional lemmy.world homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-09
#14 · Quote Reply

remember the good ol' days where he'd just get angry and throw a chair (I know he had denied this happened, but he's a hard guy to believe)

Hey, cocaine is a helluva drug

4
EnsignWashout startrek.website EnsignWashout@startrek.website
Joined: 2023-08-22
#15 · Quote Reply

That's a lot of words to say, "fu, I have money."

"fu, I have money"

is waaaay in the rearview mirror for these folks, though.

4
Maeve kbin.earth Maeve@kbin.earth
Joined: 2024-06-16
#16 · Quote Reply

"fu, I have money" is waaaay in the rearview mirror for these folks, though.

That seems to be their entire field of vision, IMO.

1
Tango piefed.ca Tango@piefed.ca
Joined: 2026-04-20
#17 · Quote Reply

I hate the existence of billionaires as much as the next person, but it always rubs me the wrong way when journalism wears its bias as a badge of honor. Just the facts, please; trust me enough to come to the right conclusion on my own.

13
nonentity sh.itjust.works nonentity@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2024-06-12
#18 · Quote Reply

I mean history has taught me tyrants know what a rope fashioned to fit around the head and tighten on the neck means.

Guillotines, not gallows.

7
Salamanderwizard lemmy.world Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-06-13
#19 · Quote Reply

Guillotines, not gallows.

Why not both? Make it a lottery. Slow and painful choking or quick but mentally horrifying.

8
artifex piefed.zip artifex@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-12-16
#20 · Quote Reply

That's a lot of words to say, "fu, I have money."

From the article and underlying research though, it’s weirder than that. The ultra wealthy literally do not evaluate risk the same way. It’s like they’re unable to comprehend a scenario where they might be disadvantaged or endangered.

8
nonentity sh.itjust.works nonentity@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2024-06-12
#21 · Quote Reply

Why not both? Make it a lottery. Slow and painful choking or quick but mentally horrifying.

All things being equal, I agree, but the gallows have historical notions of punching down, with connections with state oppression, and hanging with lynching; whereas the guillotine invokes class struggle and punching up.

10
No1 aussie.zone No1@aussie.zone
Joined: 2023-06-21
#22 · Quote Reply

Developers! Developers! Developers!

AI! AI! AI!

12
Salamanderwizard lemmy.world Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-06-13
#23 · Quote Reply

All things being equal, I agree, but the gallows have historical notions of punching down, with connections with state oppression, and hanging with lynching; whereas the guillotine invokes class struggle and punching up.

Fair enough. Didn't think of it that way.

2
Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ piefed.zip Sxan@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-06-18
#24 · Quote Reply

Financial obesity is neurotoxic, an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal. Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

I like þis term, "financial obesity." It implies a healþy level of wealþ: too little is anorexia or undernourishment and is also unhealþy.

It doesn't quite capture þe collatoral damage, but it's a nice metaphor.

-4
Maeve kbin.earth Maeve@kbin.earth
Joined: 2024-06-16
#25 · Quote Reply

From the article and underlying research though, it’s weirder than that. The ultra wealthy literally do not evaluate risk the same way. It’s like they’re unable to comprehend a scenario where they might be disadvantaged or endangered.

Because they aren't, is my point.

5
spacegoat lemmy.world spacegoat@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-28
#26 · (edited) Quote Reply

Guillotines, not gallows.

It’s 2026. How about slowly lowered into a vat of acid, feet-first

1
nonentity sh.itjust.works nonentity@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2024-06-12
#27 · Quote Reply

Fair enough. Didn't think of it that way.

All good, you’re one of today’s lucky 10,000.

3
Salamanderwizard lemmy.world Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-06-13
#28 · Quote Reply

All good, you’re one of today’s lucky 10,000.

I like that.

It fits into my motto about questions.
"We're all idiots, it just depends on how much of an idiot you wanna be."

1
lyrial anarchist.nexus lyrial@anarchist.nexus
Joined: 2026-04-29
#29 · Quote Reply

Why not both? Make it a lottery. Slow and painful choking or quick but mentally horrifying.
[deleted]
3
Brainsploosh lemmy.world Brainsploosh@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-10
#30 · Quote Reply

Developers! Developers! Developers! AI! AI! AI!

Cthulhu fhthagn?

7
Salamanderwizard lemmy.world Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-06-13
#31 · Quote Reply

[deleted]

Who said we were gonna do this "correctly"

2
ChunkMcHorkle lemmy.world ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-15
#32 · Quote Reply

Hate to break it to the noobs, but Ballmer has ALWAYS been an asshole, I mean like from the first day. He probably punched his mama in the face once he was out. That's why Gates put him in charge, mistaking sheer arrogance (which he had) as managerial ability (which he absolutely did not have).

He's been a brutal bastard for as long as he's been in business, and had the authors talked to anyone that worked at Microsoft in the 90s they'd have known it. Instead, they write the entire article as though this is just recently happening, which is odd as fuck. It makes me wonder who they are trying to convince, and why.

It's hard to blame acquired wealth when a motherfucker never had an ethic beyond bullying and "fuck you I got mine" anyway.

40
Sims lemmy.ml Sims@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-06-08
#33 · Quote Reply

I hate the existence of billionaires as much as the next person, but it always rubs me the wrong way when journalism wears its bias as a badge of honor. Just the facts, please; trust me enough to come to the right conclusion on my own.

trust me enough to come to the right conclusion on my own.

The whole western information sphere, and most people are already mind-colonized, by attitudes like this. Any uncertainty in facts is claimed as 'Conspiracy thinking' and boxed in with stories of Aliens and shit - just to make it embarrassing to believe in. It's a real playbook from the elite.

The US elites are constantly manipulating what 'facts' is, and muddles/hides all evidence. They can prosper for centuries behind this 'Hard facts only' mental shield, where all the lesser deductive and abductive facts are being downplayed/ridiculed and ignored.

It IS a badge of honor not to have succumbed to US elites constant propaganda narrative, and as long as they DO seek the facts - as all real journalism should - I think it is quite okay to try and correlate all the other types of facts (inductive, deductive and abductive facts) into a coherent and likely picture that connects the dots and show everyone how this current mess came about and works.

Let critical investigative journalism explore and try to connect ALL the dots - as they are supposed to.

3
Sims lemmy.ml Sims@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-06-08
#34 · Quote Reply

I mean history has taught me tyrants know what a rope fashioned to fit around the head and tighten on the neck means.

I agree, but we need to update our elite-destroying tools a notch ..or two.

2
jestho lemmy.zip jestho@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2025-12-12
#35 · Quote Reply

Hate to break it to the noobs, but Ballmer has ALWAYS been an asshole, I mean like from the first day. He probably punched his mama in the face once he was out. That's why Gates put him in charge, mistaking sheer arrogance (which he had) as managerial ability (which he absolutely did not have). He's been a brutal bastard for as long as he's been in business, and had the authors talked to anyone...

Yeah, I think they got it in the wrong order. All billionaires are psychopaths, but not all psychopaths are billionaires.

11
ParadoxSeahorse lemmy.world ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-29
#36 · Quote Reply

Financial obesity is neurotoxic, an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal. Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

In this specific case though, he was always an insane narcissist egomaniac, his father may have been cocaine

4
Akasazh lemmy.world Akasazh@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-24
#37 · Quote Reply

All things being equal, I agree, but the gallows have historical notions of punching down, with connections with state oppression, and hanging with lynching; whereas the guillotine invokes class struggle and punching up.

Why not crucifixion?

1
gravitas_deficiency sh.itjust.works gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-20
#38 · Quote Reply

Why not crucifixion?

Because this isn’t a religious struggle

I’m not giving the nationalist Christians a pass - just refusing to lean in to their persecution fetish

1
artifex piefed.zip artifex@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-12-16
#39 · Quote Reply

Hate to break it to the noobs, but Ballmer has ALWAYS been an asshole, I mean like from the first day. He probably punched his mama in the face once he was out. That's why Gates put him in charge, mistaking sheer arrogance (which he had) as managerial ability (which he absolutely did not have). He's been a brutal bastard for as long as he's been in business, and had the authors talked to anyone...

So maybe it’s a cyclic problem. You have to act like a psychopath to become a billionaire. And becoming a billionaire makes you act like a psychopath.

4
P03 Locke lemmy.dbzer0.com p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2023-06-23
#40 · Quote Reply

Hate to break it to the noobs, but Ballmer has ALWAYS been an asshole, I mean like from the first day. He probably punched his mama in the face once he was out. That's why Gates put him in charge, mistaking sheer arrogance (which he had) as managerial ability (which he absolutely did not have). He's been a brutal bastard for as long as he's been in business, and had the authors talked to anyone...

Gates was also an asshole. Fucker bought the rights to what was literally called (internally) as QDOS, or Quick and Dirty Operating System, then turned around and sold it to IBM, as if it was theirs. We got stuck with that shitty foundation for decades, with the many iterations of DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 9x, etc.

9
P03 Locke lemmy.dbzer0.com p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2023-06-23
#41 · Quote Reply

In this specific case though, he was always an insane narcissist egomaniac, his father may have been cocaine

his father may have been cocaine

Must be hard to get a job when he's a white powder.

2
P03 Locke lemmy.dbzer0.com p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2023-06-23
#42 · Quote Reply

I like þis term, "financial obesity." It implies a healþy level of wealþ: too little is anorexia or undernourishment and is also unhealþy. It doesn't quite capture þe collatoral damage, but it's a nice metaphor.

unhealþy.

So, why are you talking like this again?

1
a_non_monotonic_function lemmy.world a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-10-22
#43 · Quote Reply

Hey, cocaine is a helluva drug

Word is that his mutant power is to absorb all of the cocaine in a 5-mile radius to recharge his red face.

2
Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ piefed.zip Sxan@piefed.zip
Joined: 2025-06-18
#44 · Quote Reply

unhealþy. So, why are you talking like this again?

"Again"?

3
yermaw sh.itjust.works yermaw@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2025-07-10
#45 · Quote Reply

"Again"?

I think hes asking the question again, not saying you stopped and then started again.

3
ChunkMcHorkle lemmy.world ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-15
#46 · (edited) Quote Reply

Gates was also an asshole. Fucker bought the rights to what was literally called (internally) as QDOS, or Quick and Dirty Operating System, then turned around and sold it to IBM, as if it was theirs. We got stuck with that shitty foundation for decades, with the many iterations of DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 9x, etc.

No argument there. Those two were best friends for a long time, and Gates' daughter is following in her daddy's amoral footsteps. It's not accidental Gates was friends with Epstein. They're all alike.

4
P03 Locke lemmy.dbzer0.com p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2023-06-23
#47 · Quote Reply

So maybe it’s a cyclic problem. You have to act like a psychopath to become a billionaire. And becoming a billionaire makes you act like a psychopath.

Yep, pretty much. It's made even worse with peer re-enforcement.

1
Post Reply
Back to top