this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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Democracy died in plain sight with the lights on.

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[–] AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Has anybody ever wondered what it is Jeff Bezos eventually plans to do with WaPo?

I think this was probably in part another fuck you to any journalists who criticized him about the FBI raiding their colleague's home (which honestly, find the likelihood he wasn't somehow behind that slim to none), but also he's probably been losing money for a while. And it kinda seems like he intentionally ran it into the ground in a very odd and spiteful way...

Idk even compared to other oligarch owned media outlets. Bezos bought WaPo in 2013, and for the most part he seemed largely hands off for nearly a decade. Then suddenly in 2024 he seemed to start aggressively asserting himself and just ran it into the ground.

Like he could have fired hundreds of people a long time ago and saved the money, or restaffed it, but he chooses to keep it going like his intention is to ruin its reputation as an American institution before he drives the stake through its heart.

Idk maybe I'm reading too much into it, but even aside from the Kyiv bureau being on the chopping block, when you're thinking about who Trump really works for, who he just hung a picture of up in the White House last week, and what that person's feelings are regarding America and Historic American institutions (especially ones that have had so many ties to different government agencies and diplomats) does it not seem obvious Bezos could have been instructed to make a show of humiliating the institution and publicly dragging it through the mud?

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Jeff Bezos has so many billions he and generations of his dependents will never, ever, be able to spend. He could easily drop a couple in a trust and the Washington Post would be funded for life and he would never feel it. None of this is about money.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Well assuming they kept their subscribers and or ads. From what I can calculate WaPo has an operating cost of like $574M for 2024, so without that revenue they would burn through 2B in less than 4 years.

Even at current 2024 losses of 100M, they would still go through it in less than 40 years. I can't believe a newspaper makes almost a half billion dollars in revenue to be honest.

[–] enterpries@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Modern journalism is such a crock of shit anyways.

You have to kiss the ass of the world's oligarchs so you can talk with their puppets.

[–] Janx@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago

But... You literally don't. They chose this! Can you imagine having all the money you or your children could ever spend and deciding to lick the boots of human rights abusers like Putin because you want more!?

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 87 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Jeff Bezos doesn't want the Ukrainian angle to the war!
This reeks of helping the Trump White House with their anti Ukraine policies.

Fuck USA for not standing with democracy!
And Fuck USA for not standing with their closest traditional allies!
USA alone it is, at least for my part it is.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For what it is worth, as an American, I consider this development to be a fucking embarrassment.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I know it's not all American, but unfortunately we have to treat USA as a collective, when the collective is acting like an enemy.
I hope somehow USA will come to their senses, and not elect a raving lunatic again, after a period of sanity.

No, I get it. This is how it needs to be played. I consider myself an outlier in that I know and care about all the insane geopolitical shit we’re doing now (in addition to the domestic situation), but there are a fuckload of complacent and/or bigoted assholes here. And the only way to shake them out of their complacency is pain and discomfort, economic or otherwise. So, genuinely, have at it. I know this is what the situation requires, and I for one really do not hold it against you. Our government is forcing your hand.

[–] _Nico198X_@europe.pub 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it takes more than hope. the US needs so much change it won't come without blood.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

USA is a very violent country, and I suspect you are right. Anecdotally the decades of refusal for stricter federal gun regulations indicate that very many Americans want violence.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You're absolutely right, and, as an American, I encourage it. These people don't stand for us, and they need to face consequences. One thing I'll always disagree with though is treating all the people as the same entity. No matter where it is, this is a class war. We need to work with people in every nation to fight against rising fascism, wherever it is. We're in this together, against them. We need allies to fight it though.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

There are lots of Americans I like very much. USA has some very exceptional people and many good people.
Unfortunately they are not the ones in power, and the ones in power are not just a little bit bad and a little bit selfish.
They are lead Trump who is a flaming malignant narcissist, with a White House filled with Sociopaths. It's an absolutely insane government that doesn't give a shit about causing harm or breaking up old alliances if they think they can profit from it.

As gravitas_deficiency wrote, the US government is forcing our hand, and we can't treat USA like 2 countries, we have to treat it as 1 country. Last time with Trump we waited it out, but Trump has made that an impossible option this time. And the American people has made it an impossible option by electing Trump twice.

[–] Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If it makes you feel any better, the US hasn't been a democracy for most of it's history. Women didn't officially have the right to a bank account or line of credit without a male co-signer until 1974, and even after that, there were many cases of banks refusing to do so. That's half the population of the country denied financial agency. I have no doubt that it affected the ability to vote independently.

Granted that most other countries weren't any better during the same time period. My point is that the US was never the champion of democracy. It might have at best just been part of the leading edge at one point.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

the US was never the champion of democracy.

True.

[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 0 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

And fuck those who fuel the USA beast, like practically every nation in the EU!

They enable the USA for a cut of the pie, some with a larger slice than others...

Being the world's top arms dealer does wonders for profits, their customers are world wide and business is booming. USA has tripled production of firearms alone since 2000, and odds are good that they arm your police and/or military.

Not one of them "stands for democracy"

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

That's bullshit, EU absolutely stands for Democracy, and so do the member states, except Hungary.

[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 40 points 1 day ago (2 children)

All these billionaire shitheads with their fallout bunkers. Starting to think that series is a futurementary.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 26 points 1 day ago

Fallout has always been a commentary about how unregulated capitalism is the ruin of everything. From the very first game.

  • Vault-Tec fleeced its customers and double dipped, selling already filled vaults to other corporations to run experiments in them
  • WestTek knowingly delivered faulty power armors to the US military, knowing full well that it would result in the deaths of US soldiers in a war which could end the existence of West-Tek itself, but they didn't care, short term profits trumped long term existence.
  • Nuka-Cola literally contained isotopes of radioactive elements as a selling point... not to mention the excessive amount of sugar and caffeine (120% of daily recommended sugar intake per bottle)
  • may I remind everyone about the FEV? A literal miracle cure for all viral (bioweapon) infection, but that wasn't enough, capitalists had to go further and think "but what if we used to mutate the entire population?"
[–] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Starting to think that series is a futurementary.

Yeah, that and Man in the High Castle streamed entirely by a company run by, of course, an obvious James Bond supervillain.

[–] j_elgato@leminal.space 19 points 1 day ago

The building in the thumbnail is the Zuul building from Ghostbusters

... Just saying

[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Sounds like him and his fleshlight of a wife need an accident during a private jet flight