r/technology • u/marketrent • Jun 18 '26

Society Jeff Bezos called Washington Post his worst investment staffed with ‘terrible’ people, before laying off over 300 — “They don’t listen. My other companies, they listen”

https://gizmodo.com/jeff-bezos-called-washington-post-his-worst-investment-and-staff-he-laid-off-terrible-people-2000773533
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u/PatchyWhiskers Jun 18 '26

They see that their companies are run like dictatorships and it saves time by not having to get buy-in from different interest groups before decisions are made. This leads them to the erroneous conclusion that political dictatorships are more efficient than democracy.

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u/Helyos17 Jun 18 '26

Political dictatorships ARE more efficient than democracies. Look at China compared to the US. The State has a free hand to mold society in whatever way it wishes at alarming speed. Sometimes for good (explosive growth of renewables) sometimes for bad (disappearing anyone who is too loud and too critical of the regime).

The rub is that good governance is not only about efficiency. If you truly believe that political power is sourced from popular will then you NEED input from the entire populace. You need democracy to legitimize State power in a system that takes personal liberty as a first principal

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u/PatchyWhiskers Jun 18 '26

They are not. Most of them are wildly inefficient.

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u/crushinglyreal Jun 18 '26

Most of them have been run by morons, the seriously unwell, or both.

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u/PatchyWhiskers Jun 18 '26

Not too far away from China's Mao, who killed tens of millions of Chinese citizens in a mass famine. This was directly related to him being a dictator: people realized he was making a mistake but could not challenge a dictator. China thinks it is past that now but they could easily get their own Putin one day.

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u/crushinglyreal Jun 18 '26

Right. In the hands of a competent leader with noble goals, an authoritarian state can be quite effective. The problem is keeping incompetent and/or evil people out of power, and maintaining the potential for damage a person like that possesses.

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u/PatchyWhiskers Jun 18 '26

That's where democracy literally excels: see Liz Truss and her lettuce.

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u/tuhn Jun 18 '26

Do not insult the lettuce, it was not her lettuce.

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u/OldWorldDesign Jun 18 '26

Political dictatorships ARE more efficient than democracies

If by "more efficient" you mean "sacrificing millions of people for the expedience of the people in the inner circle" then you're still wrong. Oligarchs in both countries have done so since the beginnings of both countries. Swift decisions on wrong information and warped worldviews is not efficient any more than driving a sports car in the wrong direction is efficient.

The growth of renewables is not something unique to China, it's responsible to it opening up control from direct party mandate. The past decades of it building up to be the world's manufacturing hub is more responsible for the stronger supply chains and manufacturing capacity than CCP which came into renewables late.

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u/OldWorldDesign Jun 18 '26

This leads them to the erroneous conclusion that political dictatorships are more efficient than democracy.

This is part of the gaslighting, the lie authoritarianism has always made. Mussolini made it when he claimed he would make the trains run on time. Talk to an Italian historian who isn't a fascist and after they're done laughing they'll tell you the trains never ran on time.

The tool of the Big Lie is a deliberate attack on the audience, forcing them to self-sort into people who will immediately stand up against the lying authoritarians and those who will at a minimum passively be complicit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting