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Elon and Bezos aren't more powerful than Kuwait. Kuwait is a sovereign government, with authority to write laws, raise an army, and do whatever it wants with it
by csallen 5mo ago
Elon and Bezos aren't more powerful than Kuwait. Kuwait is a sovereign government, with authority to write laws, raise an army, and do whatever it wants with its 5M+ citizens (draft them, imprison people, execute people, etc.) with pretty much no consequence unless they're absurdly reckless. There is more to power than money.
- ameliaquining 5mo agoI think the argument being made is that they don't have any meaningful power over Meta's corporate decision-makers, even if they do have power over some other people.
- csallen 5mo agoRight, but if you control access to a market of millions of people, a lot of companies will do what you say (i.e. follow your laws) in order to retain access to that market, as well as protect their local employees from jail. I would say that counts as meaningful power.
- benoau 5mo agoIn theory, but the last two years have also seen Zuckerburg, Musk and Cook openly defying the EU, one of the largest markets on the planet.
- JumpCrisscross 5mo ago> the last two years have also seen Zuckerburg, Musk and Cook openly defying the EU, one of the largest markets on the planet I think it's fair to say the chances of Kuwait acting decisively against Zuckerberg, Musk or Cook is far higher than the EU.
- stefan_ 5mo agoThey also shipped 0 barrels of oil last month, the basis for 90% of gov revenue, 50% of its GDP. Clearly their faux workforce of subsidized "natives" and "indentured servants" is heading for a fulminant blowup, with no one in charge with the faintest clue towards mitigation. So now there's no power, no money. Hence the attempts at message control. I don't think it's for Meta to soften their fall.
- kjkjadksj 5mo agoKuwait cannot do any of that unilaterally. They are a vassal state in the american hegemony.
- mountainb 5mo agoWe fought what, two wars for this vassal? Deleting an account is a pretty minor favor compared to that.
- KaiserPro 5mo agoare we talking in theory or practice? Kuwait's sovereign fund has about 1 trillion under management. A couple of phone calls about disposals and its surprising what changes. However, its my understanding that this page was promoting/representing the Muslim Brotherhood.
- nozzlegear 5mo ago> They are a vassal state in the american hegemony. Whatever happened to just calling a country an ally? "Vassal state in the American hegemony" does sound a lot cooler I guess.