The Culture War is actually the Battle of the Billionaires.
Cancel Culture and Black Lives Matter have been accused of diving the nation. The political landscape is more polarised than ever and observers are talking about a Culture War happening right now. Who is behind this?
Who knows the Koch family? While almost everyone knows Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, we rarely see anyone from the Koch family in public. Most of us know that the Waltons are the richest family in the USA, but we don’t talk much about them. There are many more of these billionaires that prefer to stay out of the public eye.
This does not mean that they are politically not involved. The Koch, Walton, Schwab and DeVos family are very engaged in politics. Betsy DeVos became secretary of education in the Trump administration, but besides that most billionaire republicans prefer to let their money talk.
Charlie Kirk could not run his “Turning Point USA” organization without the generous donations given to him by Foster Friess. Looking at all the donations Republicans receive, we see a lot billionaire families behind them.
I can already hear my conservative friends shouting: Democrats also get money from rich people!
That is true, but if we look at these donors we see a difference. On top of the list, we see Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer and George Soros, but there are many more billionaires like Bill Gates that have a huge influence on society with their donations that indirectly support liberals.
“Battle of the Billionaires” was not only the title of Wrestlemania 23 with Donald Trump participating. It is the best way to describe what we are seeing right now.
We have two different types of billionaires today. One of them inherited most of their wealth (Koch, Walton), while the others are what I call “first-generation billionaires”. All of them are incredibly rich, but born into a certain family or being an entrepreneur comes with different views of the world.
In 2020 we see conspiracy theories bashing liberal billionaires, while nobody talks about the conservative donors shaping Trump’s decision process around opening the economy.
One type of billionaire profits from the lockdown, while the other loses money. Tech-entrepreneurs are having a good time at the moment, but families making money with crude oil not so much. Jeff Bezos’ Amazon made more money than ever before during the lockdown, at the cost of Walmart and the Walton family.
The “New Normal” opened the door for many entrepreneurs to kickstart companies that help us deal with the shutdown, but some influential families are not interested in changing the way we live. They want to reopen everything and go back to normal because otherwise, it puts their status at danger.
This conflict of interest gives us an idea of why conservatives like to support any conspiracy that denies the seriousness of Covid-19.
“Plandemic”, “Out of the Shadows” and other conspiracy movies are professional productions that bring up one big question: Who paid for them? Looking at the Qanon cult one might wonder how that all started? Who is profiting from that narrative?
Let’s have a look at the major conflict line in US politics at the moment:
Lockdown & funding science vs. Reopening & support for corporations.
It is not about the angry Floridian rejecting face masks and the cautious intellectual that is staying at home for months. The conflict is not between parents that want their kids to go to school and teachers that are afraid of getting the virus.
The confrontation is between “old school billionaires” that want to go back to normal as soon as possible and “new school billionaires” that profit from the crisis.
The public faces of that clash are Donald Trump and Bill Gates.
The real estate mogul that inherited his privileges and the tech billionaire that has been driving innovation throughout the last four decades. Trump represents all the corporate families that used to control US politics with their money and Gates is one of the new players that are endangering the status quo.
Donations always played a huge role in elections, but the system did not see the rise of “new school billionaires” coming. People like Zuckerberg, Bezos, Gates and Elon Musk are competing for power, they want to shape the future of the country. There is no lack of money to do that and “old school billionaires” are scared of them.
That is why they use their money to support Trump and alt-right networks that are allying with the “working class”. Every person following Qanon that blames Bill Gates is one less that might look at the Walton or Koch family.
Creating the MAGA cult was one of the most genius things Donald Trump ever did in his life. He sells himself as the savior of poor people, while actually helping his billionaire buddies. Unfortunately, his supporters are not able to see this and direct all their hate towards entrepreneurs, celebrities or athletes that speak up against racism and corporate power.
It is the perfect setup. The Waltons don’t engage in public fights with Bill Gates, they let their customers do the job. Envy is a strong emotion that the alt-right movement has used from the beginning to engage with its supporters.
Portraying every intellectual or entrepreneur as a potential child molester is evil on many levels, but it mainly feeds the idea of immoral elites. All these tech billionaires are public figures because we all witnessed their rise to the top.
We never talk about the families that had been controlling the republican party for decades.
These billionaires stayed out of the public for generations and use their money to support groups like “Turning Point USA” or “America’s Frontline Doctors”. They let others do the work for them.
Many of these people are like Charlie Kirk or real estate agents, they are young and want to get their fair share for supporting the rich families. The dream of becoming part of this upper conservative class that is ruling the USA since day one.
The black family facing eviction next month and the unemployed steelworker are not enemies. The truck driver and the teacher are members of the same community. The progressive student and the frustrated craftsman are dealing with the same struggles.
All these people are hard-working citizens that are hoping for the American Dream. They want to be healthy, safe and live in prosperity.
We all want this crisis to end, but we should be careful about the agendas behind certain ideas.
Not taking the virus seriously and putting a priority on the economy was the worst decision made by any President ever. We all know his advisors and friends.
Maybe we should direct our frustration towards these influential families in the background and not at hard-working citizens, friends or family that are dreaming the same dream as we do.