Social media comments by Tobias Lütke, the right-wing CEO of the Canadian online shopping site Shopify, in which the multi-billionaire attacks universal suffrage have been met with outrage in Canada and internationally.

Lütke declared that voting rights should be stripped from those whom he termed “dependents”—based on their payment of income tax. This would disenfranchise wide swathes of workers on low wages, elderly pensioners, the unemployed, students and the infirm. These proposals were met with support from within the Canadian capitalist oligarchy and international financial elite, including from the fascist Elon Musk.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
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    11 days ago

    Not all sociopaths are billionaires, but all billionaires are sociopaths, and sociopaths should be afforded zero influence on the structure of society.

      • boywar3@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        “Influence on the structure of society” is a pretty nebulous concept, albeit one that very few people have any capacity to actually change - Im not really sure it would qualify as “Having basic rights taken away.” Unless “basic rights” includes the ability to create a massive company that exploit human beings for profit.

        • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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          9 days ago

          One requires the other. You can’t prevent someone from participating in society without taking away most of their rights.

          • boywar3@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            Did the comment that sparked this specify that “they should have all their rights taken away?”

            All that was said is “maybe we shouldn’t let them have massive influence on how society functions.” I fail to see how that means anything but “dont give them power” (which frankly, should probably apply to a lot of people…humans kinda suck)

      • Natanael@infosec.pub
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        9 days ago

        The sociopaths who don’t feel the need to hurt people like these billionaires does will not actually be impacted all that much.

        If they don’t act like hateful assholes then nobody will know and they won’t be targeted, and they’ll have nothing to fear, but if they do act like hateful assholes then they’ll deserve the response.

  • 20cello@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    All billionaires should be stripped of their money because no human being need that much,it’s all greed ,money stolen from the poor thanks to laws made by corrupted politicians.

  • Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca
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    11 days ago

    Shopify preys on the weakest and poorest in society. Shopify is a program that allows you to make a purchase online and pay in installments via your debit card. It’s essentially a payday loan company with better interest rates. No surprise that this is the trash falling out of the mouth of their CEO.

    • psycotica0@lemmy.ca
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      10 days ago

      I mean… I don’t love Tobi or Shopify, but this is a bit disingenuous.

      Yeah, Shopify Pay offers an installment paying option, and yes those suck. But you can be a Shopify merchant without using that feature, and that feature didn’t exist for most of the company’s lifetime.

      It’s shitty, yes, but if that feature went away Shopify would still exist and Tobi would still be a billionaire, it’s not, like, where the money comes from.

      • Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca
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        10 days ago

        I didn’t say, “shopify merchant.” I’m not demonizing retailers that decide to use shopify as a payment option.

        • swelter_spark@reddthat.com
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          10 days ago

          Shopify isn’t primarily a payment service, I think is what they meant. It’s an online storefront that can be set up to handle payments as one of many optional services.

  • Kirp123@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    I have a feeling he wouldn’t be allowed to vote either if we based it on income tax. If it’s one thing billionaires have in common is tax avoidance.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
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    11 days ago

    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 trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

  • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@feddit.uk
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    11 days ago

    The same CEO that only stopped Kanye West from selling swastika shirts after people complained? That Nazi sympathiser also hates voting rights? There’s got to be some mistake, this makes no sense!

    /s

    • Flamekebab@piefed.social
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      11 days ago

      I really don’t think you need to label your jokes when they’re that obvious. This board is for taking the piss out of billionaires, there’s no realistic chance of anyone thinking you were sincere.

      • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@feddit.uk
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        11 days ago

        The curse of doing jokes on Lemmy, always having to choose between shitty remarks about not signposting your humour or doing it too much. Nobody’s ever been like “haha yes perfect amount of internet laugh track”, so when I do bother it’s always sarcastically obvious

        • Flamekebab@piefed.social
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          11 days ago

          You’re not posting to a general discussion board where there might be some nutter who supports these billionaire parasites, we all know you’re mocking them.

          Sarcasm tags are a scourge, although not as bad as these miserable money addicts.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    11 days ago

    thats how it works. people only do not pay taxes in relation to what they get because of wealth disparity. once you have captured enough wealth say that those without wealth should have no say. happening in the us to.

    • BillyTheKid2@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      We (Canadians) keep voting for politicians that allow this. If we don’t vote differently then we shouldn’t be surprised.

      • Yuccagnocchiyaki@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Please learn from us in America, once these traitors get in, things get dismantled FAST.

        Also, never let them take Canada’s education. You don’t understand how many people truly need basic education. Again, please learn from us.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      9 days ago

      Yeah shopify is bloody awful. Also for the other stuff as well I guess, but most of the shopify thing.

  • Smaile@lemmy.ca
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    11 days ago

    Yah can we throw this guy out of Canada? Straight up trying to strip rights just so he can abuse people he views as lesser and trying to cut them out of socity when they’ve ban angling to steal the most wealth from said people’s pockets.

      • psycotica0@lemmy.ca
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        10 days ago

        I mean, he came to Canada from Germany as an 18 year old or something, he could return there maybe…

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          I still suggest just dropping him off north of Nunavut and saying he can’t come back, but it’s y’all’s country and all I can really say is please not here

    • Cheebus@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      cut the head off the snake before it fucks your country up, speaking from experience and regret