Neil Cavuto is concerned,
concerned about the reputations of
billionaires that are currently
being destroyed in mass media,
particularly in movies that are
coming out on platforms like HBO.
Yes, you heard it here, folks.
We're in for another episode of
when rich men cry.
[MUSIC]
>> I care.
[MUSIC]
>> At question here is the latest
movie, Godzilla vs Kong.
As I mentioned, it was a movie that
was available or
is available on HBO Max.
So if you have that platform,
check it out.
But really, what Neil Cavuto takes
issue with is how the billionaire
is portrayed in this film.
Without giving you any spoilers,
he explains why.
>> What if I told you the real
villain in this whole Godzilla vs
Kong movie isn't Godzilla,
and it's not Kong?
It's this guy named Walter Simmons
from the movie.
He's a billionaire who runs
a company called Apex Cybernetics.
The name even sounds evil,
Apex Cybernetics.
[LAUGH] >> But my point is,
this this is not the first movie
that has characterized the villain
as a businessman or a rich guy.
Again, I don't want to give away
what's going on here, but
these two are fine.
Godzilla, Kong, they're fine,
all right?
It's what this evil billionaire is
crafting that's not fine, but
I've seen it again and again.
>> Francesca, won't someone please
just think of the billionaires,
won't they, won't they?
I mean, isn't it just so
unfair that the bad guy in this
film is the billionaire?
Billionaires have been so helpful.
For instance,
exploiting their workers and making
them poop in bags without giving
them enough time to take a break.
Or the fact that they reap all
the benefits of the country but
then refuse to pay back by paying
their fair share in taxes.
I mean, aren't they the good guys
in society, what's going on?
>> I know, and it's what's crazy to
me is that Cavuto is not happy that
there's some kind of billionaire
representation.
There's not that many of them.
A lot of minority groups,
I'm Asian American, we don't get
represented on screen very much.
You know what I mean?
So billionaires, look,
take it where you can get it.
There's not that many of you.
Yes, eat it up, soak up the screen
time, very important to have
hashtag billionaire representation.
So honestly, I don't know what he's
talking about.
But I do think it's so sci-fi, and
I I feel like, Anna,
it's not really far off from our
world right now, giant pandemic in
form of Godzilla, climate change in
form of King Kong.
And then the people that run
the world are just like, what about
the billionaires and their money?
We're like, we're dying.
Everything's being destroyed.
[LAUGH] And
then the media is just like, but
billionaires.
It's so perfect.
>> The thing that always fascinates
me about billionaires and
the quote unquote elites is they
have what I like to refer to
as F you money, right?
I mean, these are people who are in
many cases untouchable,
they seem to be untouchable
in regard to the law.
I mean, notoriously after the 2008
economic collapse at the hands
of billionaires,
there were no real consequences or
criminal charges against the very
bankers and speculators who
completely destroyed our economy.
I mean,
they get away with so much and yet
they're very sensitive.
I mean, maybe that's
admirable, Francesca.
Maybe it's admirable that they have
such soft feelings and
being portrayed in a negative light
in a movie really gets to them
really cuts to the core.
And of course, Neil Cavuto might
not be a billionaire but
he's wealthy himself.
And typically, the kind of
messaging that he's ticked off
by could lead to things like maybe
tax increases to ensure that they
pay their fair share of taxes.
I mean, that's really what's
fueling the commentary that you
hear from Neil Cavuto in
that video.
He can relate to the wealthy.
He doesn't want to be demonized and
he's probably under the impression
that he's somehow earned where he
is in life through his hard work
and intelligence.
I mean, we can tell otherwise, but
what do you think?
>> No, that's exactly what this is.
I mean, we've talked about this
before, especially with Fox News
hosts, they are doing someone
else's bidding.
I don't think that Cavuto is
a billionaire, but he clearly still
has hopes, and man, he wants to
just eat whatever crumbs, and
he currently does, of a far right
media system loaded with money.
And so yeah, he doesn't want to
bite the hand that feeds him.
But it is interesting and
this is going to be a theme I think
in a lot of the stories that you
guys cover, that we week cover, and
that have been going on recently
with what's going on with Amazon,
with Jeff Bezos.
And then with Elon Musk
just self-dunking constantly.
And there's a throughline which is,
if there's nothing wrong with all
of the money you have, if you truly
did earn all of it yourself, yeah,
let's ignore the loopholes and
let's ignore the exploitation of
your workers.
If you really deserved it,
why would you be so
sensitive about it?
Why would you care when people
criticized you about it?
You would have nothing to hide,
you'd be chill.
And it's crazy to me that as much
money as you have, you can't buy
a clean conscience, you just can't,
because you ultimately know you
don't deserve that much money.
You definitely didn't earn that
much money, and the tax structure
and everything about our economic
system is totally on its head.
>> Yeah, you make such
a good point.
I mean, it reminds me a lot of
Donald Trump following his 2016
presidential win, where his
insecurity about legitimately
winning that election was just so
apparent and
it's because he knows he knows
that he was the unlikely winner and
it's because of how incompetent and
unqualified he was for
that position.
But putting that aside, one thing
that we need to be clear about is
that this country has experienced
decades and decades and decades of
positive PR spin in favor of the
type of inequality that Americans
are experiencing right now.
First of all, I mean,
if you look at that genre of film,
I mean, there are plenty of
billionaires who are represented in
a positive light, Iron Man for one,
Batman the other.
But really, I mean, we've dealt
with decades of the myth of
personal responsibility, right?
I think it played out in media,
it plays out in the news.
There's no question about it,
where anyone who's experiencing
the other side of this inequality,
people who are not millionaires and
billionaires, have no room to
complain because it is their
personal responsibility to create
a good life for themselves in
this wonderful country where all
the opportunities are right ahead
of you, right at your fingertips.
And obviously, people have woken up
to the fact that that's a complete
myth, that's a complete lie, and
the inequality is baked into
the system.
It is not a bug,it is the feature
of that system.
And so it's just hilarious to me
that finally, people are waking up.
And look, I think that these movies
are responding to young people
voicing what they're noticing and
seeing in this country right now,
right?
And what are they
going to want to do?
They're going to want to pander to
those audiences, they're going to
want to make money.
And this is probably the reason why
we're seeing a little more of
a critique toward billionaires as
opposed to just immediately
presenting them as these
like wonderful figures who earned
everything that they did and
do crazy amazing things for the for
the country in the world.
We know that that's not the truth
because we've had case study
after case study showing us that's
not the truth.
>> Yeah, man, the writers and
producers, they're not the heroes,
but they're on TikTok.
They see that there's discussions
of socialism, BLM,
racial inequality.
TikTok is woke AF, man,
they're crazy over there, I mean,
I'm scared over there.
[LAUGH] >> I'm just kidding,
obviously, but no, but seriously,
young people, if you want people to
watch your movie, yeah, you're
going to have to have a little bit
of a critique of a billionaire, and
yeah, paint him as a bad guy,
because guess what,
they're not the good guy.