I’ve been thinking that ever since that dumb “submarine” sank at the Titanic. I don’t feel particularly sorry for the people who died (other than the kid who apparently didn’t want to be there in the first place), but the outright glee I saw a lot of people express online was surprising.

It seems like there was a largely unspoken agreement among the wealthiest in the West throughout the middle of the 20th century, particularly in the aftermath of the Depression, World War II, and the rise of communism, that they wouldn’t try to extract the absolute maximum of wealth from the workers and try to keep a stable, happy middle class and even lower class that had a relatively comfortable existence without feeling too at risk of losing everything. As you get to the end of that century and into this century, the wealthiest forgot why that policy existed, newcomers didn’t understand it, or they decided they wanted to see how much more extraction they could get away with thinking they’ll be able to reign in any unrest before it gets too bad; probably some combination of those and other factors. It’s a dangerous game to play, though, and it seems like explosive moments are closer than the wealthy powers realize.

Not that I think there’s any real organizing power behind the scenes, just that in the past a lot of people came to a collective understanding of a system that could bring a lot of financial stability to a lot of people.

I fully agree. If I were a billionaire, I would be "let's get a team together and come up with a strategy" levels of nervous. See, the 1% has sort of dehumanized themselves, by creating this decades-long narrative that they're this untouchable caste almost on the level of Demigods, and the closer you get to God, the further you get from Human. Now that one has been shot and killed in broad daylight in the middle of NYC, and again with the idiots on the homemade submarine, that narrative is obviously untrue. When a dragon is slain, we don't mourn its death, we cheer the Dragonslayer. So, if I were in the 1%, I'd be very worried about appearing all too human, all too quickly.

We are currently at a wealth disparity that outpaces the gap that precipitated the French Revolution and invention of the guillotine.

The meme is usually disapproval of something followed by approval of something that basically the same thing. The approval is of a CEO being murdered, but advocating violence is against the rules so the "approval" has been removed by moderators.

Drake was unfortunately turned into a meme at some point in the past. There are alternatives available. Can I offer you a laforge version for your next meme?

"Removed by mod" means the comment was celebratory response.

The "happy drake" reaction is removed by mods, like comments about it.

Nice try, NYPD

What the FUCK.

They forgot "We're going to need prior authorization."

If America went from school shootings to billionaire shootings I wouldn't be mad. Think billionaires can afford pretty good security details though.