I understand that, but it seems pretty stupid to me, considering human history. Rubbing your citizens noses in how you’ve captured government and make them follow rules you don’t have to follow doesn’t usually end super great for the leaders.

Partially because corruption leads to the country failing to meet its basic obligations, and thereafter citizens will riot because they can no longer feed their starving children.

It certainly feels like they think they’ve got citizens cowed enough, and for the moment, they surely have. However, with inequality spiraling way beyond where it was in the Gilded Age and the French Revolution, and with many instances of “let them eat cake”-like gestures and statements, I find it hard to believe that this won’t bite the people “running the show” in the ass in the Muammar Gaddafi kind of way.

Quality of life is way down, cost of living is way up, it’s not sustainable without pushback from people who begin to starve, and the “flexing” just gives them more reason to build guillotines. Like I said, pretty fucking stupid to not know history and not know how your inane bullshit is going to cripple the country eventually, leading to riots and death.

You would think conservative politicians would be more aware of this considering it wasn’t that long ago that a bunch of Republican voters stormed the capital, smeared shit on the walls, and built a guillotine while chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”