# Why certain billionaires are lionized (how patriarchy works) (Part 1 of 2) Date: 2024-12-06 Next Part: https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/why-certain-billionaires-are-lionized-how-patriarchy-works.part2.md --- --- ### Why certain billionaires are lionized (how patriarchy works) What the lionized Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and others have in common is that they are white males not exhibiting any skills other than dominating others through a combination of privilege, luck, ruthlessness, and taking credit where none was due. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg (yes there is a movie but Mark is an anti-hero in it) are not lionized cause they partially made it on engineering skills and are also Jewish. Ma Huateng and Jensen Huang again partially made it on engineering skills and are also Asian. Jack Ma has no engineering skills and maybe is lionized elsewhere but not in America since Asian. What about a white male billionaire that partially made it on engineering skills? That would be Bill Gates and there is no cult of Bill Gates like there was for Steve Jobs and others. There are at least two, very flattering, major movies about Jobs and none about Gates. Another white male billionaire with engineering skills that is not lionized is Michael Dell. Dell has a net worth 7 1/2 times greater than Peter Thiel, but you’ve probably heard of Thiel’s book *Zero to One* but never heard of Dell’s book *Play Nice But Win*. **Any white man can try to improve his standing by being an asshole, but not every white man can have skills.** The same principle, minus the exclusion of Jews, applies even in science. J. Robert Oppenheimer has a major movie about his very unearned credit for atomic weapons, and not his actual scientific achievements. Richard Feynman is famous for being a rogue misogynist even though the stories are [likely made up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc&t=1s), but again not for any of his science. ![Oh and this guy, James Webb, has an enormous telescope named after him solely for being an administrator](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/why-certain-billionaires-are-lionized-how-patriarchy-works-df6181d663.jpg) *Oh and this guy, James Webb, has an enormous telescope named after him solely for being an administrator* Admittedly there is the counterexample of Stephen Hawking, but he is part of a tradition of super smart mostly male, mostly white characters with crippling impediments: Gregory House from House MD ( painkiller for leg injury addiction), Sheldon from Big Bang Theory (autism), Shaun Murphy from The Good Doctor (autism), Chidi from The Good Place (inability to make decisions), Dr. Strange (car accident removes ability to do surgery and then the Blip removes his sorcerer supreme status), Mike Ross from Suits (practicing law without a degree), Sherlock Holmes (drug addiction, ennui, and on some spectrum), Data from Star Trek (discrimination for being an android), Walter White (cancer), Adrian Monk (autism), Spock (trouble fitting in cause mixed species), Tony Stark (palladium poisoning, hemochromatosis, maybe PTSD), Bruce Banner (dissociative identity disorder), Dr. Who (sometimes outcast or at least estranged from his kind and sometimes last of his kind), Steve Urkel of Family Matters (Steve Urkel syndrome for lack of a better term), Professor Farnsworth (extreme old age), Batman (never got over murder of his parents), Lisa Simpson (loner, outcast, and little girl in a man’s world), Ross Geller (three divorces against his will, anger issues, jealousy issues, infidelity issues, dating a student, unwanted advance on his cousin), Professor X (crippled), Jesus (crucified), and Rick of Rick and Morty (old, substance abuse, wife’s murder PTSD). Learning and having your own skills don’t pair well with patriarchy, because patriarchy is about the “genius” of dominating other people. Athletes are accepted in a patriarchal system only if their skills are considered purely physical. Scientists are accepted in a patriarchal system only if their discoveries enrich businessmen or the military. Groups of people working together without the credit flowing up a hierarchy is highly discouraged. Even family can only be reconciled when the credit goes mostly to a dominant father. Very rich people that fit the patriarchal mode, like Donald Trump, must be hero worshipped because they are the pinnacle of making it without skills. As Trump says in Art of the Deal: > Perhaps because my father never got a college degree himself, he continued to view people who had one with a respect that bordered on awe. In most cases they didn’t deserve it. My father could run circles around most academics and he would have done very well in college, if he’d been able to go. It doesn’t matter that people like Trump and Musk come from money, because they come from money made by dominating or taking credit from others. Trump’s wealth mostly started with his grandmother’s real estate company Elizabeth Trump & Son. What Trump’s father, Fred, brought to the table, according to his daughter Mary Trump, was being a “high-functioning sociopath.” She writes: > Financial worth was the same as self-worth, monetary value was human value. The more Fred Trump had, the better he was. If he gave something to someone else, that person would be worth more and he less. He would pass the attitude on to Donald in spades. You can honor a person like Fred Trump or a person like Albert Einstein but not both — it’s zero sum because you either respect skills or sociopaths. So patriarchy must engage in an eternal propaganda war to convince society that sociopaths serve a purpose. Part of this war is lionizing sociopath billionaires. Another part of this war is the list of maimed intellectual characters above — a well adjusted, successful, intellectually skilled person starring in a show is a threat. Superman dominating others with physical power is okay. A superman succeeding with brain power must be a villain and noticeably less human looking as shown in the movie *Megamind*. A third part of this war is suppressing intellectuals that don’t play by patriarchy rules. Germany can have a chancellor Angela Merkel with a doctorate in quantum chemistry but patriarchy in America must fight against that. The only American president with a PhD was Woodrow Wilson in history and political science and that ended in disaster for patriarchy as Wilson helped pass women’s suffrage. Mercifully though the only American president with an MBA was George W. Bush. Why isn’t patriarchy just a club for sociopaths instead of selecting for race and gender as well? There again it’s a lowest common denominator appeal: **All white men can try to improve standing by dominating those who are not white adult resident males, but not every white man can dominate other white men.** A patriarchal system needs designated losers as feudalism needs surfs. Otherwise those higher up in the hierarchy have nothing to offer their vassals but an endless fight to remain on top. This is a key aspect of any hierarchical system; even ones that purport to be based on merit. Whatever the selection process, it has to be a one time test and afterwards you are in permanently. Confucian scholar, made man, academic degree, accomplishment, tenure, whatever allows you into the upper hierarchy has to be something you do once and arrive or it’s too exhausting. From the patriarchy’s point of view inability to keep women in their place means some men will lose their positions in the hierarchy. Therefore flat out violence is [encouraged](https://www.splcenter.org/news/2021/02/01/patriarchal-violence-misogyny-far-right-mainstream): --- **[Continue reading Part 2 of 2](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/why-certain-billionaires-are-lionized-how-patriarchy-works.part2.md)**