3 ms·
> What makes you think a mafia boss would be stupid? Wouldn't street smart be exactly the kind of trait that would put you in the upper echelons of a mafia sta
by civilitty 3y ago
> What makes you think a mafia boss would be stupid? Wouldn't street smart be exactly the kind of trait that would put you in the upper echelons of a mafia state such as Russia.
What makes you think a mafia boss would be smart? Their defining features are ruthlessness and brutality, not intelligence or "street smarts". Putin for example is known for bombing civilian apartment buildings to get into power and very publicly poisoning traitors with polonium and nerve agents, not to mention entering a disastrous war and tanking the Russian economy.
Those upper echelons are only there as an accident of history. They were in the right place and the right time to loot the Russian state during privatization while killing, imprisoning, and controlling all their opposition.
- anthony_d 3y ago> Those upper echelons are only there as an accident of history. That seems like an awfully bold assertion. Mafia bosses have a different set of rules than most of us, but to think they survive by repeatedly flipping a coin and being lucky is preposterous.
- civilitty 3y agoThat’s literally how all the Russian oligarchs got their power. By being in the right place at the right time to buy up all the privatized industries for a tiny fraction of what they were literally worth. Those that flipped tails are dead or in prison.
- ethbr1 3y agoIf you pick 100 people off the street, line them up for a race for a million dollars, and fire a starting pistol... the one who crosses the finish line first doesn't do so by luck.
- Gud 3y agoSo you do not believe intelligence played a role? It was inconsequential how smart a person was?