An email I received from the Detroit Edison (DTE) Energy Company today. The text reads:
How it works:
Installation*: DTE will install the device on your electric meter in less than 30 minutes. No need to schedule an appointment or be at home. Your home is protected as soon as the device is installed by our technicians.
Protection and Warranties: The warranty coverage provides $5,000 per event for appliances and $1,000 per event for electronics to repair or replace your household items in the event the device fails to protect against damaging surges.
Stay Connected: Your surge device comes with a FREE 20-foot power cable. In the event of a power outage, you can connect your generator to the surge device with the power cable to power your home up to the generator’s capacity. Easy access for your generator – you won’t have to run extension cords from your generator into your home.
Learn more | Enroll now
*There’s a one-time installation fee for a surge protection plus device of $49.99, which is a limited time offer and will expire on December 31, 2024. After the expiration date, the installation fee will return to its normal price of $99.99. To access the Surge Protection Plus program’s Terms and Conditions, visit dteenergy.com/sppterms.
and of course that URL is hyperlinked with a big long tracking string on the end of it so I won't be sharing it
I think it just takes quite a few moral failings to even achieve that level of wealth in the first place in the vast majority of cases.
Here specifically, these people are authors and IP holders in a society that places a lot of value in ignorance and in very chauvinist and racist ideas. By hook or by crook, they've made something original. They have some merit, and you would expect them of all people to see those societal failings for what they are. To not comment on them, or to uphold them, or to mask them, (arguably all the same thing) is a decision they made in their work. I think we vastly overestimate how easy it is to do that across an entire body of independent work if it doesn't align with your beliefs.
It makes sense that a person who has the merits and will to do something like that, again, entirely without challenging such obvious failures (as most in their position would), would be chosen to win the broad favor of a society that desperately does not want to be challenged or its failings acknowledged (esp ruling class, the ones with something to lose and wealth to spare to push these things), and would gain a lot of its wealth. Especially in ye old early-internet world when people weren't discovered as easily. Then, when their platform is secure, the mask slips.
It's not a conspiracy or an aberration, it's survivorship bias. These people are a product of our society. We have to reckon with that.
edit: I realized I could expand on what I meant in a few places so I sprinkled a bit more in.