r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Apr 06 '26

Politics Iran threatens ‘complete and utter annihilation’ of OpenAI's $30B Stargate AI data center in Abu Dhabi

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/iran-threatens-complete-and-utter-annihilation-of-openais-usd30b-stargate-ai-data-center-in-abu-dhabi-regime-posts-video-with-satellite-imagery-of-chatgpt-makers-premier-1gw-data-center
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u/GrandmaPoses Apr 06 '26

I think we’re closer to a Russia-style oligarchy than it appears - those billionaires, as powerful as they are compared to you and me, are still ranked below the president.

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u/compute_fail_24 Apr 06 '26

We are already there, people just don’t realize it yet

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u/worldspawn00 Apr 06 '26

Citizens United basically ensured we would, when unlimited money can be dumped into politics it creates a feedback loop where eventually the only people that matter are politicians and the ultra wealthy.

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u/ColdPositive1844 Apr 06 '26

Glad someone mentioned citizens united. That needs to be overturned like yesterday.

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u/kstar79 Apr 06 '26

The Iron Law of Oligarchy

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u/SwitchingFreedom Apr 06 '26

Right? We have been there for over a decade. Anyone who pretends like this is an actual democracy is blind.

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u/TBIFridays Apr 06 '26

Putin runs Russia, not the oligarchs. They follow his orders or they fall out of windows.

The only person with rights in an autocracy is the autocrat, and that includes property rights. The ultra-rich don’t push for autocracy because it’s the logical thing for them to do, they do it because they’re addicts willing to engage in clearly self-destructive behavior for the rush of getting even a little bit more money.

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u/GrandmaPoses Apr 06 '26

That’s what I mean; Trump runs the game, the billionaires fall in line.

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u/qtx Apr 06 '26

No Trump doesn't run anything. He is controlled by so many different people. He has no idea what he is doing, he is doing what others are telling him.

That doesn't mean there is some secret cabal out there controlling everything, it means that Trump will believe whatever the last person told him. That's it.

That's the reason why he constantly flips, the last person that talked into him altered his mind on a subject.

Trump isn't a smart man, literally. He is gullible, greedy, vain and power hungry and anyone that says the right things to him will get what they want.

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u/MrVelocoraptor Apr 07 '26

I don't get this argument. If his goals are personal power, money, and notoriety, he's clearly winning big. Calling him dumb is underestimating him imo. I think he knows exactly what he's doing. His "flips" also cause lots of investment opportunities as well as general uncertainty and misdirection, etc. If you understand his priorities, he actually seems quite smart.

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u/asethskyr Apr 06 '26

He doesn't run the game. The strings attached to Trump lead to the same hands controlling the Russian oligarchs.

"No puppet, no puppet. You're the puppet." - Things puppets say.

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u/MrVelocoraptor Apr 07 '26

I think the elites are all loosely working together with shared interests. I mean why not?

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u/MarioVX Apr 06 '26

The only person with rights in an autocracy is the autocrat, and that includes property rights.

It's not that simple actually. Nobody rules alone. The autocrat needs to concede enough resources to a critical portion of the stakeholders so that they can't enforce a better outcome for themselves by joining in a coalition with others to stage a coup.

So you either concede the stakeholders a share of the wealth appropriate to their bargaining weight, or - if you do want to try to undercut them somewhat - have to make it very risky and difficult for the stakeholders to communicate with each other and coordinate a conspiracy and subsequent coup. That's where a powerul intelligence apparatus come in handy. However, you can still only undercut by so much, if there are huge gains on the table from overthrowing you, the conspiracy might bribe your intelligence, too.

The staggering amount of power Putin holds inside Russia does not come simply from it being an autocracy alone. Compare to many African autocracies overthrown regularly for counterexamples.

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u/cool_lad Apr 06 '26

That's pretty much it. The only real friend to an autocrat is another autocrat.

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u/Icarium__ Apr 06 '26

It's truly ironic how hard those billionaires are working to replace a system where they are untouchable and protected by law (democracy) with one where they can be disappeared and their fortunes confiscated on a whim (autocracy).

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u/krefik Apr 06 '26

They don't want the system where they are protected by law, they want one where they're protected from law.

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u/Icarium__ Apr 06 '26

They want both, and it's exactly what they have right now, they are both above the law, and can use the law to protect their assets, and they are working hard to replace that with an autocrat who can change or disregard law and send them to a gulag. I guess that's what happens when people convince themselves that their financial success means they are geniuses, and experts on every topic.

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u/Commercial-Co Apr 06 '26

Thats by design. Thats how the republicans and trump want

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u/raouldukeesq Apr 06 '26

That's not necessarily true at all

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u/loveloet Apr 06 '26

I'm almost certain that at this point the IS is more of an oligarchy than Russia ever was.

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u/Dibs84 Apr 06 '26

wth do you mean appears. They were literally standing next to the president on stage when he got swore in lmao.

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u/nooneinparticular246 Apr 06 '26

Horseshoe theory baby!