The current split we’re seeing in the Republican Party is not a sudden split of ‘consciousness’ or ‘doing what’s right’, but rather a split between two factions of their billionaire donors: Langone et al. vs. Mercers et al. 1/14

Policy-wise, these two groups agree on nearly everything, but there is a rift in strategy. One group funds & supports conspiracy theories, right-wing & white-supremacist extremist groups, etc.

They do so for two primary reasons: 2/14

First, people’s lives are in turmoil. Millions are food and housing insecure. Capitalist alienation & atomization is rampant. Our political system represents corporate interests & the 1% - leaving crumbs for everyone else. People are hurting. 3/14

Conspiracy theories & RW extremist groups speak to people’s pain, but rather than place blame where it belongs: capitalism, authoritarianism, racism, sexism etc. they deflect blame towards anything but the truth: immigrants, black & brown people, deep state, lizard people... 4/14

Billionaires support conspiracy theories because they keep people confused and angry at any boogeyman other than the TRUE cause of their pain & alienation: the very system that allows for Billionaires while peoples’ lives are falling apart. 5/14

The 2nd reason billionaires fund & support conspiracy theories & right-wing/white-supremacist groups are because they despise any democratic check on their power to pillage & exploit.

Democracy is always a threat to power, which is why power is always working to subvert it. 6/14

Their end-game is an authoritarian, patriarchal, white-supremacist state that exists solely to further their own interests, and has zero functional capacity to check their power to do as they please. 7/14

The second faction of billionaires mostly agree with this vision, but also recognize that not only does our current system largely already do these things, but it also provides stability via various avenues of ‘pressure-release’ from the trampled masses. 8/14

In other words, billionaires share in their hatred of truth & democracy, but some see value in the current system as it provides them stability via built-in checks on revolutionary tendencies, while others seek ever more radical overt anti-democratic & fascist institutions. 9/14

This billionaire divide can also be seen very clearly in the rift in their corporate media. On the one hand, we have the liberal & right-wing mainstream media providing & controlling an extremely narrow range of acceptable views & frameworks. 10/14

On the other hand, we have a massive network of right-wing conspiracy & extremist ‘news’ sources completely untethered by reality or truth. Using deep pockets, AI & ‘Psychological Profiling’ they work around the clock to delude & radicalize. 11/14 https://twitter.com/ArashKolahi/status/1303471724051050496

Notice how both work to subvert truth & democracy - albeit using different strategies. This is largely the same driving force between the Republican Party split we’re witnessing now. 12/14

It’s a sad conception of ‘democracy’ when a tiny handful, less than .1% of the population, control virtually all the information available to us, the acceptable framework for understanding our world & the entire political spectrum. 13/14

Extreme discrepancies in wealth & power are not compatible with democracy. We can have democracy, or we can have Billionaires. But we can’t have both. 14/14 https://twitter.com/ArashKolahi/status/1125471207086649346