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"The cruelty is the point."
I see this phrase often, and I disagree with it and I'm not sure why people keep repeating it.
Cruelty: inflicting pain on others. This is not the point at all. They don't wake up every morning and say "how can I cause more pain" on individuals or the general populace.
They are almost completely indifferent to the suffering of others that they cause. They are simply greedy and selfish, they want all the money and power, so they can have it all to themselves. Fucking over everyone else is just the process to get and keep what they want. This is my opinion at least.
"Cruelty is the point" is just silly, and absolutely wrong. I also feel like it misdirects talking about the true motive, which I think is mostly greed and selfishness. Cruelty is just a side affect they don't care about.
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Except no. In reality many people make themselves feel better by making others’ lives worse. Cruelty is indeed one of the goals for many.
In this case though, I tend to agree with the previous person that it is malignant indifference. Millionaires aren't actively trying to hurt people, they just don't give a shit that they're doing it. If the same or better results could be achieved another way, they'd go the other way because it would maximize profits.
You're right that there are sadists out there who enjoy the suffering of others, but I'd wager that's a very low percentage in terms of people running companies or crafting legislation.
I think you're putting a lot of weight into greed in terms of money, and it's my belief based on watching famous rich people talk that many of them want money, power, and status. The things they say and the way they can bring other people down, those are some ways that they can demonstrate that power or status.
And that makes sense if you consider what meaning money has to the ultra rich. People who have more money than they could ever spend will probably try to get more, but that alone wouldn't be satisfying. So then they're going to look to other ways to feel like they're on top of the world. One way to create that feeling is to knock others down.
You have a good point and it almost seems more malicious this way. At least with cruelty there's a point of sorts behind the action. This way is almost indifference and feels much more sociopathic since its willful not changing those actions
I agree with you. I do think that the temporarily embarrassed millionaires who support the oligarchs quite enjoy the racist fascist cruelty that the ruling class is encouraging them to enjoy.