Co-founder and former CEO of @Mailchimp. Father, husband, designerd, mountain biker and student of Objectivism šŗšø
Joined December 2008
- Tweets 4,476
- Following 1,928
- Followers 20,857
- Likes 11,126
439 Photos and videos
Ben Chestnut retweeted
Jun 13
There is *zero* tension between wealth and democracy. Wealth is a result of productive earning, and democracy is a process of deciding political power by discussion and voting by civil people. There is, however, much tension between wealth production, on the one side, and, on the other, envy, the unjust denial of respect for achievement, and the power-lust of those who want to confiscate others' earnings.
Jun 12
Those who celebrate @elonmusk's $1 trillion fortune need to be reminded of a simple and vital truth:
That there is a fundamental tension between extreme wealth and the very possibility of democracy.
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
Jun 2
Last year: 10%. This year: 50%.
They agree in principle; they differ in degree.
More here: stephenhicks.org/2026/06/02/ā¦
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
I saw it. Now you have to see it. His name is Samuel. And heā¦is a king.
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May 29
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May 28
A guy sees 2 buildings on opposite sides of the street. One has the sign āDeterministsā Club.ā The other building has a sign āLeague for Free Will.ā
So the guy walks into the Deterministsā Club. When asked why he wants to join, he replies, āBecause I choose to,ā and he's thrown out.
Then he walks over to the League for Free Will. When asked why he wants to join, he says, āBecause I had no other choice,ā and again he's turned away.
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
May 29
āGreater goodā is the oldest costume tyranny ever wore. Once sacrifice becomes moral, every atrocity becomes negotiable and every individual becomes expendable. Rights exist precisely to forbid treating human beings as fuel for someone elseās utopia.
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
May 27
"Activism" is an engineered dead end for young people who would otherwise be getting in the game and for boomers who already won it and are concerned with the ultimate luxury good: moral superiority.
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
May 26
Billionaires exist under both communism and capitalism. Under capitalism they get rich by selling people what they want. Under communism the ruling class gets rich by controlling and confiscating property through force.
Thatās the whole point of abolishing property rights: making theft legal for the political class.
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May 21
Earth only holds 370 quintillion gallons! Regulate granola now!
May 21
Very concerned about Big Almond
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May 20
Amen. Also, love that heās doing this interview in front of one of his rocket engines.
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May 8
Sheās conflating actual wage theft (the withholding of pay to workers who earned it) and the Marxist concept of āwage theftā and āsurplus value.ā This is misleading, toxic to our culture and downright dangerous.
May 7
The single largest form of theft in America is wage theft. $50 billion a year are stolen from American workers.
If a billionaire amasses their wealth by underpaying their full-time workers so severely that they must rely on food assistance and government programs to survive, then no, that wealth was not earned by one individual - it was a wealth transfer subsidized by underpaid American workers and the public who get stuck with the bill for large corporations free-riding off our systems.
The point is less about individual morality. Itās more about how our current economic reality of shattering inequality rewards screwing over workers and exploiting essential systems at scale.
Weāre talking monopoly power. Rent-seeking. Wage theft. Profiteering. Stock buybacks. Destabilizing housing markets. Companies using SNAP/EBT to underwrite their wages. Massive government subsidies or contracts to corporations following lobbying and dark money in politics with little to no oversight or accountability.
Some people get enraged that I draw attention to this. Thatās on them. Let them call me shrill, dumb, inexperienced, girly, uneducated - these folks will say anything to distract from or undercut the truth that working people are getting screwed, and giving people a fair shake means we must have a grown conversation about reigning in abuse of power.
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May 2
Thanks for āstanding up for consumers!ā Spirit Airlines, with 17,000 employees, has ceased operations and cancelled all flights. So letās see how this leads to more flights and lower faresā¦
6 Mar 2024
I've warned for months that a @JetBlue-@SpiritAirlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares.
@JusticeATR and @USDOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation.
This is a Biden win for flyers! apnews.com/article/jetblue-sā¦
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
Apr 17
Apr 16
A simple visual for kids (and adults) to understand delayed gratification.
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
Apr 17
If you want to know the real meaning of work, read Frederick Douglass's account of his first time working as a free man.
After escaping slavery, his first job was loading coal onto ships. It was new, hard, dirty work.
Here's how he describes it:
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
Apr 16
This is a self-own.
If billionaires are the reason people struggle, then by his own logic heās part of the problem.
But instead of leading by example, donating, investing, or changing how he operates, heās asking the state to compel others.
That exposes the real move: itās not about personal responsibility, itās about outsourcing it.
And the zero-sum framing does the rest:
If his wealth is implicitly blamed for othersā hardship, then heās admitting either he shouldnāt have it, or the premise is wrong.
You donāt get to claim wealth is harmful and then keep it while asking others to fix it.
Apr 14
Billionaires like me and big corporations need to pay more in taxes, because too many Californians are struggling to get by.
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Apr 9
The multiple sphere-shaped radars on these GDPRShips jam all enemy electronics with cookie permission pop-ups. If the enemy accepts: God help them.
Europe is sending the SS Compliance to the Middle East
Someone is about to find out what GDPR means the hard way
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
Here are some ways in which the world has gotten better.
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
Apr 3
China lifted 800 million people out of poverty not through communism but by creating Special Economic Zones where capitalism was allowed to function.
Shenzhen went from a fishing village to a megacity because the government said "in this specific area, you can build freely.ā
That should tell you something about what works and what doesn't.
Even the world's largest communist country had to let capitalism in through the back door to feed its people.
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
Mar 30
If your political view is "No Kings, but Yes Ayatollahs" you are one very confused individual
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Mar 23
Because it's nerdy and email related:
Chuck Norris's email address is "gmail@chucknorris.com" šš¤
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Mar 23
When I was 15, I joined a karate class that taught Chuck Norris's flavor of Tang Soo Do. I met my future wife Teresa in that class (fell in love while sparring), so we both feel a teeny-tiny connection to him. RIP to a great, great man.
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