PRIME Kara - and I mean that most lovingly and affectionately!! Snarky, brutally insightful, and eviscerating the fragile billionaire egos who have convinced themselves they are the only adults in the room while throwing toddler-grade tantrums. The whole conversation is dripping with the kind of sharp, unfiltered realism that makes Swisher so damn compelling.
Some Key Takeaways (And Why They’re So Damn Funny and True):
Bezos as a Midlife Crisis Supervillain:
-- Swisher's portrayal of Bezos as a man in his 60s having a toddler meltdown over "personal liberty" is gold.
-- He’s essentially weaponizing “freedom” to mean, I don’t want to be held accountable for anything, ever.
-- And of course, he’s “so poor, all he has is money.” Classic.
The Petulant Billionaire Industrial Complex:
-- The image of all these billionaires—Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg—who once played at being the wise philosopher-kings of innovation now revealing themselves as power-hungry, reactionary messes is a chef’s kiss.
-- Swisher likening Bezos’s grip on the Washington Post to “covering it in Nutella and licking it up all day” is one of those lines in the Hall of Fame of media shade.
Elon Musk: The Self-Deluded Tech Messiah:
-- She flat-out says Musk thinks he’s the main character in a video game—the most perfect summation of his delusionally grandiose worldview.
-- The part where she recounts Musk insisting he could “change Trump’s mind” on banning Muslims? Peak tech-bro hubris.
-- And then she follows it with, “You can’t change an old racist. Believe me, I have relatives.” Brutal.
Trump’s Talent for Weaponizing Billionaire Buffoonery:
-- “Bore on the floor” from Succession describes Trump making his cabinet grovel, which is exactly right.
-- Trump doesn’t need to be brighter than Musk or Bezos—he must know how to keep them useful. And he does.
Media Death Spiral & The Future of News:
-- Swisher’s optimism about independent media is refreshing, especially because she’s not wrong—people like her and Charlie Sykes have more influence than The Washington Post.
-- But she also nails the existential problem: accountability journalism has never made money, and unless billionaires feel like funding it without using it as a personal ego project (which, lol), it’s on life support.
-- Is Mark Cuban the one billionaire who gets it? Interesting. He’s become the anti-Bezos, the functional capitalist.
Final Thought: The Big Mood of This Whole Conversation
Swisher paints a picture of America’s billionaires as overgrown toddlers, clutching their money and whining that people are being mean to them. Meanwhile, Trump is playing them like fiddles, the media is imploding, and the rest of us are left sifting through the wreckage, trying to find something resembling the truth.
In other words: If you aren’t laughing, you’re crying.
Kara you are likely wrong about your position on the loss of a common news source and I believe you are biased in this area. This may be a blind spot worth checking out.
Interesting podcast. Now let’s do something that will affect the oligarchs and get then out of power, not just talk about how naughty they are. See my idea below.
Why are we allowing this to happen? If millions of us stop spending on discretionary stuff in the USA in 2025, we will create the Trump Recession and get them out of power. All they care about is their money, not their fellow humans. It is not helpful to just talk about their misdeeds. Do this and we will get their attention.
Hear hear. All of these people's "power" is derived from bullshit or money that only exists if we SAY IT DOES. If everyone who gives as many fucks in real life as they do on Reddit and Substack canceled everything associated with these cretins: got off FB, Prime, Twitter, didn't buy a Tesla: their "wealth" would evaporate. And it's a pretty fucking sorry situation that we are all going to let autocrats trash the world because we needed...
Facebook. Netflix. Google. TWITTER. TikTok. Amazon. Guys, like... really. We're all telling Marco to grow a spine and we can't cancel our streaming services.
Charlie was right in direction, but missing one of the most salient details: The new media ecosystem that Kara is so effusive about is utterly fractured.
With modern media, those who don't pay for the product , *are* the product. Free media survives on advertising , so it's all click bait, all the time. That's the real problem with Ben Shapiro - he was worth listening to until he started trying to make money, now he's just the foreman of an outrage factory.
In 2016 I began the project to subscribe to news sources I could trust, or wanted to keep an eye on, on the theory that subscriptions would be a better model than ads for honesty in reporting. One by one I've added news sites and substacks and podcasts to my media diet, and now I find myself paying about $2k a year and still under-informed.
Most people can't afford that much, and even if they could, they wouldn't - who has the time? The real result of this shattered ecosystem is an increase in news silos.
I am not a fan of the New Way. There needs to be some serious consolidation.
“…every accusation is a confession with these people.” Thank you, Ms. Swisher, for summing up the behavior of the entire “Republican” Party, starting, if course, with their cult leader. Bravo!
Kara I love how you never let these guys get away with anything but are willing to compliment them when you can. It’s a superpower I’m trying to develop but it’s a work in progress!
“Personal liberties and free markets”...the mercifully abridged version of “Atlas Shrugged.”
PRIME Kara - and I mean that most lovingly and affectionately!! Snarky, brutally insightful, and eviscerating the fragile billionaire egos who have convinced themselves they are the only adults in the room while throwing toddler-grade tantrums. The whole conversation is dripping with the kind of sharp, unfiltered realism that makes Swisher so damn compelling.
Some Key Takeaways (And Why They’re So Damn Funny and True):
Bezos as a Midlife Crisis Supervillain:
-- Swisher's portrayal of Bezos as a man in his 60s having a toddler meltdown over "personal liberty" is gold.
-- He’s essentially weaponizing “freedom” to mean, I don’t want to be held accountable for anything, ever.
-- And of course, he’s “so poor, all he has is money.” Classic.
The Petulant Billionaire Industrial Complex:
-- The image of all these billionaires—Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg—who once played at being the wise philosopher-kings of innovation now revealing themselves as power-hungry, reactionary messes is a chef’s kiss.
-- Swisher likening Bezos’s grip on the Washington Post to “covering it in Nutella and licking it up all day” is one of those lines in the Hall of Fame of media shade.
Elon Musk: The Self-Deluded Tech Messiah:
-- She flat-out says Musk thinks he’s the main character in a video game—the most perfect summation of his delusionally grandiose worldview.
-- The part where she recounts Musk insisting he could “change Trump’s mind” on banning Muslims? Peak tech-bro hubris.
-- And then she follows it with, “You can’t change an old racist. Believe me, I have relatives.” Brutal.
Trump’s Talent for Weaponizing Billionaire Buffoonery:
-- “Bore on the floor” from Succession describes Trump making his cabinet grovel, which is exactly right.
-- Trump doesn’t need to be brighter than Musk or Bezos—he must know how to keep them useful. And he does.
Media Death Spiral & The Future of News:
-- Swisher’s optimism about independent media is refreshing, especially because she’s not wrong—people like her and Charlie Sykes have more influence than The Washington Post.
-- But she also nails the existential problem: accountability journalism has never made money, and unless billionaires feel like funding it without using it as a personal ego project (which, lol), it’s on life support.
-- Is Mark Cuban the one billionaire who gets it? Interesting. He’s become the anti-Bezos, the functional capitalist.
Final Thought: The Big Mood of This Whole Conversation
Swisher paints a picture of America’s billionaires as overgrown toddlers, clutching their money and whining that people are being mean to them. Meanwhile, Trump is playing them like fiddles, the media is imploding, and the rest of us are left sifting through the wreckage, trying to find something resembling the truth.
In other words: If you aren’t laughing, you’re crying.
I love Kara Swisher! She is brilliant.
This was awesome. I watched it twice!
God I love Kara Swisher.
Kara you are likely wrong about your position on the loss of a common news source and I believe you are biased in this area. This may be a blind spot worth checking out.
uh... I guess I will either bite or fail to pick up on sarcasm.
Can you elaborate on this? for me? why is she wrong - and what is right? - and in what way do you think she's biased
Toddlers can be schooled: https://chris88.substack.com/p/see-elon-run
N
Kara is so on it!
Dude I freakin’ love Kara Swisher and her energy! 😂 Doesn’t pull any punches and just gives it to us straight. Keep it up! 👏🏼
Interesting podcast. Now let’s do something that will affect the oligarchs and get then out of power, not just talk about how naughty they are. See my idea below.
Why are we allowing this to happen? If millions of us stop spending on discretionary stuff in the USA in 2025, we will create the Trump Recession and get them out of power. All they care about is their money, not their fellow humans. It is not helpful to just talk about their misdeeds. Do this and we will get their attention.
Hear hear. All of these people's "power" is derived from bullshit or money that only exists if we SAY IT DOES. If everyone who gives as many fucks in real life as they do on Reddit and Substack canceled everything associated with these cretins: got off FB, Prime, Twitter, didn't buy a Tesla: their "wealth" would evaporate. And it's a pretty fucking sorry situation that we are all going to let autocrats trash the world because we needed...
Facebook. Netflix. Google. TWITTER. TikTok. Amazon. Guys, like... really. We're all telling Marco to grow a spine and we can't cancel our streaming services.
Charlie was right in direction, but missing one of the most salient details: The new media ecosystem that Kara is so effusive about is utterly fractured.
With modern media, those who don't pay for the product , *are* the product. Free media survives on advertising , so it's all click bait, all the time. That's the real problem with Ben Shapiro - he was worth listening to until he started trying to make money, now he's just the foreman of an outrage factory.
In 2016 I began the project to subscribe to news sources I could trust, or wanted to keep an eye on, on the theory that subscriptions would be a better model than ads for honesty in reporting. One by one I've added news sites and substacks and podcasts to my media diet, and now I find myself paying about $2k a year and still under-informed.
Most people can't afford that much, and even if they could, they wouldn't - who has the time? The real result of this shattered ecosystem is an increase in news silos.
I am not a fan of the New Way. There needs to be some serious consolidation.
“…every accusation is a confession with these people.” Thank you, Ms. Swisher, for summing up the behavior of the entire “Republican” Party, starting, if course, with their cult leader. Bravo!
Kara I love how you never let these guys get away with anything but are willing to compliment them when you can. It’s a superpower I’m trying to develop but it’s a work in progress!
It was difficult for me to listen to the Kara Swisher interview. Lots of interrupting and Charlie's speech seemed pressured and at times almost manic.