The air in Davos is notoriously thin, a fitting metaphor for the substance of the conversations occurring within its high-security perimeter. Usually, this annual migration of the over-compensated to the Swiss Alps serves as a theater for the 'Masters of the Universe' to perform their favorite ritual: pretending to care about the world they are actively looting. In years past, the halls of the World Economic Forum echoed with the hollow, platitudinous clanging of 'stakeholder capitalism,' 'climate emergency,' and 'global integration.' It was a soothing lullaby for the billionaire class, a way to convince themselves that their private jets were actually fueled by pure, distilled altruism. But this year, the script has been shredded. The high priests of neoliberalism have found a new deity, or rather, they have realized that their old one is coming back with a vengeance. The deference to Donald Trump has replaced every other intellectual pursuit in Davos, turning a summit of 'visionaries' into a support group for terrified sycophants.

It is truly a spectacle of the highest comedic order. The very people who spent the last four years signaling their virtue through diverse boardrooms and ESG commitments are now busy practicing their 'Yes, Sir' in the mirror. The shift is not driven by conviction, because these people have none. It is driven by the primal, greasy instinct of the corporate parasite to latch onto the strongest host. The 'global cooperation' they once championed was always just a fancy way of saying 'unrestricted market access.' Now that they perceive the wind blowing toward a more isolationist, transactional American administration, they are folding their globalist banners faster than a deck chair on a sinking cruise ship. The hypocrisy is so thick you could carve it with a silver caviar spoon. On one side, you have the performative Left of the corporate world, who yesterday were weeping over democratic norms and are today calculating the tax breaks of a second MAGA term. On the other, you have the moronic Right, who believe Trump is some sort of anti-elite crusader, oblivious to the fact that the elites are currently rearranging their entire worldview just to ensure they remain his favorite courtiers.

To observe the Davos crowd now is to witness the death of the 'liberal international order' not by fire, but by whimpering accommodation. These titans of industry, who lecture the rest of us on 'resilience' and 'disruption,' are themselves the most fragile creatures on the planet. They are terrified of a Truth Social post. They are petrified that their carefully curated reputations as 'thought leaders' might actually require them to have a thought that isn't focused on self-preservation. The news from the summit is clear: the talk of climate change has become a whisper, and the rhetoric of international cooperation has been replaced by a frantic, localized scrambling for favor. They aren't worried about the rising sea levels; they are worried about the rising possibility of being on the wrong side of an inauguration guest list. It proves, once and for all, that the World Economic Forum is not a place where the future is shaped, but a place where the present goes to surrender.

The absurdity of the situation is heightened by the fact that Trump isn't even there. He is a ghost haunting the buffet line, a specter looming over the fondue. The delegates speak of him with a mixture of feigned horror and practical submission. It is the ultimate indictment of our global leadership. If these are the 'best and brightest'—the people tasked with solving the world's most complex problems—then we are truly, irrevocably doomed. They possess the moral backbone of a jellyfish and the intellectual consistency of a weather vane in a hurricane. They do not lead; they react. They do not build; they hedge. The transition from 'saving the planet' to 'surviving the next administration' is the most honest thing Davos has ever produced. It reveals the WEF for what it always was: a trade show for ego, where the currency is access and the product is bullshit.

As the private jets take off from Zurich, carrying these exhausted grifters back to their respective tax havens, one can only marvel at the hollowness of it all. They will return home to tell their boards that they have 'navigated the geopolitical headwinds,' when in reality, they just spent a week in the mountains learning how to grovel more efficiently. The Right will claim victory because the elites are scared, failing to see that a scared elite is even more dangerous and manipulative. The Left will cry foul, ignoring their own role in creating a global system so devoid of principle that it collapses at the first sign of a playground bully. In the end, Davos remains the perfect monument to humanity's primary drive: the desperate, pathetic need to be on the winning side, regardless of how much dignity must be left behind in the snow.