An AI startup founder says he's planning a 'March for Billionaires' in protest of California's wealth tax

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/an-ai-startup-founder-says-hes-planning-a-march-for-billionaires-in-protest-of-californias-wealth-tax/

344 points · 69 comments · view on lemmy.world

69 Comments

etchinghillside@reddthat.com · 149 pts · 205d (2 replies)

I assume they just hire people to march on their behalf.

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 83 pts · 205d (1 reply)

And then stiff them on their pay.

Lodespawn@aussie.zone · 55 pts · 205d

You laugh but here in Australia when the Labor government was pushing for a Minerals Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) the big miners made their staff go attend a "protest" on Perth Foreshore during business hours.

vpol@feddit.uk · 127 pts · 205d (18 replies)

I see a bunch of billionaires in one place as an opportunity.

markz@suppo.fi · 40 pts · 205d (2 replies)

Like the guy wouldn't just pay a bunch of people to show up

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 205d

Actually came here to say this. This will be like those "supporters" that showed up to watch Pedonald come down that escalator. Paid actors.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 204d

It'll never happen, this is just performative cuntishness.

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 16 pts · 205d (2 replies)

9 out of 10 who claim to be billionaires at that march, won't be billionaires.

And the other one is lying, too.

P00ptart@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 205d

Doesn't matter to the hammer.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 204d

99,999 out of 100,000, more like.

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 205d

I think that's exactly why they probably won't have any showing up.

Or else they send proxies. If I was some assistant for one of these fuckers and they asked me to go, I think I'd call in sick that day. No way I'd want to be a meat shield for one of these dickheads.

atropa@piefed.social · 10 pts · 205d (9 replies)
[ removed ]
vpol@feddit.uk · 11 pts · 205d (4 replies)

Eggs? You guys need drones. Lots and lots of them. Now.

atropa@piefed.social · 7 pts · 205d (2 replies)
[ removed ]
vpol@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Bacon must be crispy.

atropa@piefed.social · 3 pts · 205d
[ removed ]
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 205d

Surely not like that scene in season 3 of Lioness in Mexico? We definitely should not model the approach on that scene. That would be theoretically wrong.

ameancow@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 205d (1 reply)
[ removed ]
atropa@piefed.social · 2 pts · 205d
[ removed ]
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Eggs? In this economy?

atropa@piefed.social · 4 pts · 205d
[ removed ]
nixfreak@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 205d

Yep hopefully they cluster together

in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social · 61 pts · 205d (6 replies)

I'll bring the guillotine.

AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 205d (2 replies)

Someone should have one pre-built and waiting at the end point of their march route.

coalie@piefed.zip · 8 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Why wait for the end? Corral them in at the start and funnel them into a wood chipper.

AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 205d

I like where your head's at.

Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Guillotine - The Coup

in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social · 1 pts · 205d

I miss Oakland

friendlycheese@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 205d

Bring the large suv

AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Wow.

Turns out, if you try hard enough, you can find a protest that you want your police state to crack down on.

If only one more rally ever gets tear-gassed, I hope it's this one.

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 205d

It won't. But the counter protesters will.

Formfiller@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 205d (1 reply)

We should schedule a march for guillotines that same day

Etterra@discuss.online · 19 pts · 205d

MOARbid1@piefed.social · 34 pts · 205d

Yes, get them all in one place…

ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 205d (5 replies)

“Vilifying billionaires is popular. Losing them is expensive.”

If this isn't a Honeypot it is absolutely hilarious that think that billionaires being "lost" is them leaving the country/state

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 205d (2 replies)

It sounds like yet another dumbass that had their brain scrambled by the horrible sci-fi writer named Ayn Rand, who was even worse at philosophy than she was at writing prose. Surprised they aren't just outright saying they are threatening to "go Galt". 🙄

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Atlas Shrugged is insufferably pretentious trash.

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 205d

I could not agree more. At one point, I was Libertarian and was always told what great lit it was and it would explain so much, etc. Some time later I was no longer Libertarian and doing lots and lots of reading due to a layoff and trying to find something positive (and free, thanks to good libraries) to fill my time with in between responding to recruiters and job interviews, etc.

I decided I'd finally read Atlas Shrugged. The magnum opus. The book so many Libertarians point to. I had the time and the library had the book, so why not?

And....oh gawd. What drivel. What a shitty philosophical system. I had to force myself to finish reading it. LOL. And then shortly after, I started seeing all these "who's John Galt?" and "gone Galt" stickers on cars.

Gag.

Duamerthrax@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 205d (1 reply)

They've been huffing their own farts for so long, they don't know what clean air smells like.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 205d

and having sycophants telling that they dont smell anything, or it smells good.

njm1314@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 205d

You're saying you're going to get them all in the same place huh? Excellent.

art@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 205d (3 replies)

I'm here for the march, where do I park my Cybertruck?

LordMayor@piefed.social · 26 pts · 205d

Just leave it in that bicycle lane over there. There’s room on the crosswalk.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 205d

the cybertruck doubles as a charcuterie cutter, might be useful.

qarbone@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 205d

In the middle of their march, if you could.

HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 205d

The stupidity is palpable.

baller_w@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 205d

Luigi intensifies…

henfredemars@infosec.pub · 17 pts · 205d (1 reply)

So what, there’d be dozens at best, and the rest hired? Fuck billionaire thieves. They shouldn’t exist.

nixfreak@sopuli.xyz · 7 pts · 205d

Fuck billionaires completely.

FauxLiving@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 205d (2 replies)

I'll eat my car is there is a single Billionaire spends any amount of time at these protests

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 205d

I agree. I'd be surprised if even some centimillionaires would be there...I imagine seeing counterprotesters up close and personal would be a frightening prospect for them.

AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 205d

I'm told by a neighbor, she used to live in the neighborhood where this clownshow is starting his March, that it's a reasonably affluent area and several billionaires do actually live there. I suspect you are absolutely correct and none of them will show. Wish it wasn't quite so far away, but there's no way I could get to SF quick enough to watch the shenanigans that this is gonna cause.

ameancow@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 205d
[ removed ]
peaceful_world_view@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 205d

Nuke them all from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 205d

LOL, this is going to be hilarious.

I seem to remember some group would dress up in top hats and monocles with satirical signs supporting the parasitic elite.

floofloof@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 205d

The ongoing outrage over the proposed tax is a little funny, given that it’s already been known for quite some time that the legislation has almost no chance of being enacted. That’s because California Governor Gavin Newsom has already stated that, should the bill somehow pass, he would veto it.

That's not funny. But the billionaires should still march. They might be surprised how many people will gladly come and help march them through the streets.

santa@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 205d

The march will be online of ai generative clones of 1 million Eric’s!

Rooty@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 205d

I stopped reading after "AI startup".Everything these clowns do is a publicity stunt aimed at sucking up VC money and splitting before the jig is up.

RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 205d

Someone needs to invent a launch-and-forget autonomous drone model named Luigi.

qarbone@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 205d

Beat him to death, with hammers.

Derpenheim@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 205d

The one march that wont have any threats of violence against it, because the people that do that are bootlickers

twinnie@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Didn’t I see a post earlier from someone saying they made this website to get them all in one place?

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 205d

they certainly were all in one place with epstein on many occasions.

ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com · 7 pts · 205d (1 reply)

Life imitates art https://youtu.be/hrGdEwV-efs

nonentity@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 205d

Financial obesity is an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

LoonyLenny@lemdro.id · 6 pts · 205d

nonentity@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 205d (2 replies)

Every healthy society needs a robust guillotine maintenance and repair workforce.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 204d (1 reply)

Rope is cheaper and more readily available.

nonentity@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 204d

It’s a job guarantee program, and you can only legitimately claim something is expensive when you don’t properly value what it does.

PMP@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 205d

It will be held here followed by afternoon tea and their choice of Epstein delights.

rumba@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 205d

Surely millions of people will protest on their behalf. It's not like they're going to get their fat asses out there.

Avicenna@programming.dev · 3 pts · 205d

You will get couple hundered people and thousands of new ICE recruits

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 205d

its like the guy that want a pro-rape rally, but cancelled later on because it pussied out.

dandylion@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 205d

their money is made of shit

sircac@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 205d

They may call that a walk among the plebe, the 1% march doubt could be larger than a neighbourhood meeting...