Control Without Consent

The rise of the "Broligarchy"

Musk, Thiel, Bezos, Ellison, Zuckerberg, and Murdoch on Mt. Olympus

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt

The United States is no longer governed from Washington, D.C.; it is ruled from private jets, islands, and encrypted boardrooms by a handful of men armed with insatiable greed and demented ideas. They gaze down on us from mountains of accumulated wealth, seeing not citizens but ants scurrying to and from our tiny homes. Elon Musk calls us “NPCs”—non-player characters, meaningless pixels in a simulation he imagines he controls.

Jeff Bezos calls this an age of optimism: “I don’t see how anybody can be discouraged who is alive right now.” He can afford that optimism; he’s building a future where millions may live in space while millions on Earth struggle to live at all.

“I don’t see how anybody can be discouraged who is alive right now.” — Jeff Bezos

In 2024, Elon Musk poured nearly $300 million into Donald Trump and the GOP—an investment in deregulation and indulgence masquerading as what the corrupted SCOTUS would characterize as "free speech". Musk is a textbook case for a global wealth tax. (and he also provided worldwide support for right wing extremists such as Germany's AfD).

"The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy." — Elon Musk

Peter Thiel bankrolled candidates whose contempt for democracy rivals his own demented concepts linking regulation and societal protections to apocalyptic end times.

“The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism.” — Peter Thiel

Larry Ellison has written large checks for Trump, the GOP and for his friend and war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu. Now Larry and his son David are building a media empire on the foundation of wealth created at Oracle. The $8 billion merger of Paramount (which includes CBS) and Skydance, was approved by Trump/Project 2025's FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, placing David Ellison in the CEO chair. And Larry Ellison is the leading contender to take control of Tik Tok.

“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” — Larry Ellison

Joining the Ellison's (Paramount/Skydance, Oracle, Tik Tok), Musk (former Twitter -now X), Murdoch (Fox "News"), Zuckerberg (Facebook/Meta), and Bezos (Washington Post), overwhelm the legacy and social media space, constraining the flow of unbiased news and eviscerating an important pillar in any meaningful attempt at democracy. (See "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky)

Together, Thiel, Musk, Ellison, and their peers form a new pantheon—part venture capitalist, demented part prophet, part monarch. Add Koch, Mellon, and Barre Seid (who dropped a cool billion into transforming the entire judicial system), and the picture is clear: democracy cannot coexist with an overwhelming concentration of wealth.

The "Broligarchy" operates on a simple creed: rules and regulations are for others. They celebrate unilateral action and speed—the opposite of democratic deliberation. Thiel dismisses consent, Ellison glorifies surveillance, Musk mocks regulation and touts his own genius (except when he speaks). When societal protections impede their ambitions, they write checks—to inaugurations, to Epstein Ballrooms, to Mar-a-Lago dinners—and the obstacles magically vanish.

Their "Move fast and break things" worldview collides with democracy’s slow, deliberative work. In the corporate world of Wall Street, bold CEO directives are celebrated as leadership and innovation. In government, such directives annihilate societal protections and accountability. The more they normalize exemptions for themselves, the more they delegitimize the very democratic institutions (theoretically) meant to uphold justice and equality.

A fraction of their combined wealth continues to subvert democracy as they buy exemptions at will. Trump, the GOP-controlled Congress, and a Supreme Court that equates money with speech have transformed representative democracy into a "Pay to Play" authoritarian plutocracy. Justice “Clearance” Thomas and the Roberts Court are its loyal cheerleaders.

"Clearance" Thomas and the John Roberts Supremely Corrupted Court of the United States

It should be obvious to all (it certainly is to the "Broligarchs", Putin, Netanyahu, Orban, MBS, Qatar, the UAE, and others) that Trump is readily manipulated by providing a compliment and some side crypto. Should Putin attend a future meeting with Trump wearing $400 Trump sneakers, Trump would probably hand Alaska over to Russia.

In this new Olympus, wealth is power. Some, like Ellison and Bezos, began with innovation and risk. Others inherited fortunes, exploited labor, and shifted their costs onto the public. Now they finance legislation and buy candidates to ensure the cycle continues. As Senators Sanders and Warren say, the system is rigged.

They call their world efficient, innovative, disruptive—but beneath the sleek language lies the insatiable greed that drives them to build an authoritarian society in which they possess: Control without Consent.

Democracy moves at human speed—through debate, compromise, and consensus. To men who measure time in fiscal quarters and product launches, that slowness is intolerable. Musk dreams of ruling Mars. Thiel funds movements to prove democracy obsolete. Ellison bankrolls candidates who promise order over liberty.

Around them swarm acolytes—Vance, Bondi, Noem, Hegseth, and others—eager to convert ideology into governance. The greater danger, though, is in our own acquiescence. Legacy media and influencer culture turns democracy’s decay into a spectator sport divided by red and blue. We are treated not as citizens but as users; our attention is mined, our voices quantified, our future collateralized into massive national debt.

History will not remember this moment like Trump's violent January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt.

The Powell Memo of 1971, Reagan’s deregulation, and decades of GOP tax cuts for the wealthy have led us here—not to a coup, but to a slow, quiet suffocation of democracy. Each day, the "Broligarchy" tightens its grip, erases another guardrail, and leaves us to fight over the crumbs left behind in their wake.

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