DOWN through the ages people have recognised that money is power. Since modern democracies arose they may have mitigated that injustice, but they have never overcome it.
But it’s when the concentration of wealth reaches extreme levels that this problem reaches crisis point, and today this is happening once again.
The billionaire class is now doing globally what corrupt elites have always sought to do; not just buying control of individual politicians, but undermining the very basis of the democratic order to ensure it can never hold them accountable.
And the global face of this dangerous oligarchy is now undoubtedly Elon Musk.
Not that long ago Musk was self-identifying as a “half Democrat, half Republican” and “politically moderate”; now he openly represents some of the most dangerous far-right and conspiracy theorist ideas in the world.
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In the last few months alone he has donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to right-wing campaigns, while using his vast platform to fuel and share disinformation, racism and prejudice.
Of course it’s not only Twitter/X that is aiding the spread of abuse, intimidation and hatred, with Facebook now in the process of lifting longstanding restrictions and ditching fact-checkers. A huge amount of social media has already become a toxic space, and it’s being deliberately made worse.
There have always been some unpleasant people on all of these platforms, but when I first joined Twitter in its early days the tone was very different, and the time I spent on it was usually interesting, funny, enlightening … a far cry from the binfire it has become.
A technology which is in theory liberating, allowing us all to reach out and communicate as never before, has become a platform for the most hateful behaviour.
I can only imagine how bad it is for young people growing up knowing that the device that connects them to their friends and family also subjects them to abuse and prejudice of every kind. It’s no wonder that so many people I know have opted for an exodus to preserve their wellbeing.
Making the personal choice to switch off is one thing, but the increasing convergence of social media platforms and political propaganda is something that should concern us all and that will make it increasingly hard to ignore.
The “techbro” billionaires and their agenda represent a real and active danger to basic democratic norms. In the US, the storming of Capitol Hill by Trump supporters was organised online, yet he awaits inauguration for a second term as US president.
It’s no use worrying that it might happen here – it already has.
The racist riots and violence we saw across England and Northern Ireland last year would not have happened without the misinformation being churned out on X and other social media platforms, and was amplified by its owner.
Musk’s wealth already made him one of the most powerful people in the world, and his toxic values made him one of the most dangerous.
Now he has been appointed to a senior role in the incoming Trump administration and he will be actively working to further Donald Trump’s far-right agenda while running one of the world’s biggest social media sites.
Although the speculation about him bankrolling Reform UK appears to have quietened down, with him now in a war of words with Nigel Farage, he clearly remains committed to boosting racist, far-right propaganda in this country and around the world.
The distorting impact of extreme wealth on our democracy has always been a threat. The super-rich have always enjoyed louder voices and larger platforms, and have either benefited from a compliant media and political class, or simply bought control of them.
Ours is not the first generation to learn that the super-rich will always be more willing to embrace fascism than risk seeing their own power held accountable.
The super-rich don’t bankroll political parties out of any commitment to values or principles. They do it to serve their own interest and achieve the kind of policies that they know will benefit them.
The plutocrats, polluters and bankers have had their voices at the heart of policy-making for far too long, and that’s left us with an economy based on exploitation, inequality and the rich hoarding wealth.
If democracy is to serve the public interest – in fact if it is even to survive at all – we need an end to vast private political donations, and we need governments with the courage to say to billionaires shouldn’t just be better behaved, but that they shouldn’t exist in the first place, because the wealth of our economy should reach everyone.
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