The 21st century has been repeated instances of "the man behind the curtain" getting completely caught in the curtain, yanking it down, causing a small fire, pissing himself a little bit, and then standing up, waving his hands and yelling at the gathering crowd "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" while the fire begins to grow.

The world wouldn't be so frustrating if it wasn't so clear that so much of leadership (corporate, especially so) has no fucking clue what they're doing, certainly no more in depth clue than their own workforce, and they've been coasting on things like stock buybacks for the better part of three decades. They continuously fail but they use their absolutely massive wealth to constantly shield themselves from liability, or any responsibility really, from their near-constant fuck-ups that piss off consumers, poison the environment, and harm workers.

Anyway, much like with their constant fucking-with-the-consumer on Windows 11, they're just barrelling down the "fuck the people who invested in our hardware ecosystem" path because "fuck consumers, amirite?" They mostly cater to other businesses now, which is part of why it's a lot easier/cheaper to get a Windows license than it used to be (although that's been changing). This is the same with so many businesses now, they mostly just serve... other businesses, that's where the real money is... because they've bled the US consumer dry and so they're prioritizing corporate clients, who have deep coffers.

It's much like what's going on at Warner Bros, where shitcanning a movie and deleting it entirely is more "cost-effective" to a movie studio than releasing it. They don't give one flying fuck how much it pisses of consumers or the people who made it, all they're worried about is the numbers in WB's and their own bank accounts. They couldn't give less of a fuck about what's in consumers bank accounts or the laborers and artists who made the films bank accounts.

They've fully insulated themselves, the aristocracy never left. They just use the power of money to control and influence the power of the State instead of being a King themselves. They're simply dictators of their own little feifdoms.

The worst part is how many of The Aristocrats live up to the worst versions of the joke.