Trump, Musk and now UK billionaire Jim Ratcliffe – they are the enablers, making racists feel great again | Jonathan Freedland

With their profile and vile words, these malign provocateurs are tearing down decency’s guardrailsIt lacks the elegance of “greed is good”, but as a distillation of the spirit of the age, it’s right up there. “I feel liberated,” a top banker told the Financial Times in the 2024 US presidential election. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled … it’s a new dawn.”So that’s what they meant by “vibe shift”. Though, as the Epstein files reveal daily, the top 0.01% were hardly primly biting their tongues before Trump’s win, at least not in private. Those with telephone-number fortunes and great power felt able to speak, and write, to each other about women , so filled with hate – women discussed as body parts, as “less than human”, in – that they didn’t need the encouragement of a “grab ’em by the pussy” president to cast off their inhibitions.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our section, please .