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> but were he to take his $1 billion of assets and try to convert it to influence, I'm plenty sure he'd succeed at becoming no less influential than Glenn Green
by xyzzyz 5y ago
> but were he to take his $1 billion of assets and try to convert it to influence, I'm plenty sure he'd succeed at becoming no less influential than Glenn Greenwald.
And how would he do that, exactly? Oh yes, that’s right, by paying people like Glenn Greenwald to spread his message (or rather, paying journalists more corrupt than Greenwald is), paying NGO operatives and lobbyists to massage the public and politicians into what he wants. So yes, his billion can buy influence (maybe), but only through the actual elites who have a lot of personal influence of their own, unlike Jimmy John Liautaud.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoYup. That's the part where he'd burn the money on creating influence. After which, he would have influence - and possibly no money. Then, at some point, some other wealthy person could use him as a platform to convert their wealth to influence. Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald could launch a book and/or start a company and/or run for an office, and leverage his audience and name recognition to get into a position of wealth... most likely significantly damaging his platform in the process. An influence to wealth conversion. I don't see anything strange in here, or anything countering my point. Yes, to exchange money for $thing, you often need to give it to people already having $thing.