I've long wanted to put some money into an eco terror fund.
It would buy controlling interests in all the companies that make some critical, specialized and heavily patented piece of modern internal combustion engines or coal turbines. Then, it'd wreck the factories, and patent troll everyone else into not producing.
Money is speech, and that would be protected political speech, right? :-)
As my wise auntie says,”You can’t see clearly through the bottom of a pint glass.”
Are you not drunk on energy? Warm or cool at will, well fed and clothed, able to travel and communicate?
There’s no collecting if you bet on the apocalypse.
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>There’s no collecting if you bet on the apocalypse.
That's just not true. Misery and suffering is it's own reward, to some. This is arguably the main point of Orwell's 1984, when O'Brien explains to Winston Smith why they bother torturing people before killing them. O'Brien says that to knowingly cause suffering in someone is the ultimate expression of power, and it is axiomatic to him that power is good in-and-of-itself.
Honest question: if something is patented, sure China could manufacture it, but wouldn't patent protection prohibit importing the counterfeit good into the USA?
I've never actually thought about whether patent protection covered just the sale, or the manufacture, or exactly what, so thanks for bringing that nuance to my attention!
Once it had demonstrated enough success to instill fear in the hearts of wall street bankers, I think it could start turning a profit. It would announce targets ahead of time, tanking the stock. On the way down, the companies would reinvest the money they make selling themselves for parts back into the fund.
You're not going to tank a stock by publicly telling people you're going to buy a bunch of it. A bunch of people will try to get in front of you and bid you up.
Hey, if a DAO can raise enough money to almost buy the Constitution, maybe you don't need to wait for Someone Else™ to start the slush fund required to pull off that stunt /s (but also not /s) -- err, specifically I meant the "fund" part, not the "wrecking factories" part, unless you meant economically wrecking, in which case I think it's still plausible
It would buy controlling interests in all the companies that make some critical, specialized and heavily patented piece of modern internal combustion engines or coal turbines. Then, it'd wreck the factories, and patent troll everyone else into not producing.
Money is speech, and that would be protected political speech, right? :-)