Summary
In his farewell speech, President Joe Biden warned of a growing “oligarchy” in the U.S., where extreme wealth and power threaten democracy.
Comparing modern elites to 19th-century robber barons, he called for reforms to hold the wealthy accountable, as done in the past.
Biden also criticized a “tech-industrial complex” concentrating power and spreading disinformation, weakening democracy.
His remarks sparked a surge in Google searches for “oligarchy.”
The speech comes amid rising concerns about policies favoring billionaires, like Trump’s tax cuts and potential cuts to social safety programs.
it’s been made abundantly clear that a lot of americans have no fucking idea what anyone is talking about
I genuinely can’t believe that there is any overlap at all with the maybe 500 people who actually listened to his speech or even read an article summarizing it and those who don’t know what the meaning of “oligarchy” is.
How does anyone get engaged enough in the political process to watch a speech from Biden and not recall Bernie Sanders saying this every day of his life for the last 30 years?
I follow these things closely on my own time, as I assume is common for nearly everyone on lemmy.
But I saw coverage of Biden’s farewell address randomly at the gym. And also at a local restaurant. The media now is putting that word “oligarchy” in front of people’s eyes, as a summary of his speech. I would guess most people googling it are checking if “the oligarchy” is a country in the middle east or something
“Who the fuck is Ollie Garky?”
“Klepto crazy? Never heard of the guy, must be Greek or something”
Ye’s best start believin’ in oligarchies.
Yer in one!
What we call laws are more like guidelines than actual rules we abide by…
Nah, laws are the things that bind the working class while not protecting them; and at the same time protects the oligarchs without binding them.
Laws? Down to the depths whatever man that thought up… laws!
That would be the Romans, sir. Maybe even people that preceded them, but they Romans perfected it.
If only he and his party was in power for some years and could have done something about it…
Growing? We’re already there buddy and you helped speed it up.
He was taking orders from rich people too just different ones than the next guy lol now he thinks it’s an issue but when they all pushed Bernie out it was fine.
Assholes
Lemmy : get old white men out of politics!
Also Lemmy: vote Bernie!!
Pick a lane
Funny how Jews are white when it’s convenient, and not white when that’s convenient.
Convenient for the speaker, I mean; generally the opposite of convenient for the Jewish person in question
What the hell have Jews got to do with anything?! It wasn’t even hinted at!
How is this not in !nottheonion@lemmy.world ?
Because it doesn’t look like an Onion headline?
really? That in the richest country in the world, a large part of its population does not know the meaning of a word like oligarchy, doesn’t that seem like a fucking joke to you? Maybe in Europe we have to lower expectations about the USA
Huh, this actually seems legit. Compared to my ultra-scientific Google trends comparo it was half as popular of a search as Taylor Swift at its peak, which seems pretty big.
Oh damn, just comparing it to ‘oligarchy’ and it’s much bigger.
Just to add, this proves:
- that Americans in general aren’t following along on their own
- that Biden could have influenced the discourse and been a force for good IF HE HAD BEEN COMMUNICATING LIKE THIS ALL ALONG. Unfortuntately they decided to ‘show not tell’ and let Trumpism fill the communication void with their lying bullshit for four years. Joe’s biggest failure and one we shouldn’t forgive him for.
I swear he could have been communicating like this all along and it wouldn’t have mattered. The average person tuned out election coverage completely and even if they didn’t, the news would have hardly covered it.
The average person in the US was too busy trying to figure out how to get a 500 dollar paycheck to cover 300 in groceries, 200 in rent, 100 for electric, and 200 for gas to get to work. While also paying 300 for baby formula.
Anyone who is only making $500 a paycheck needs to look for a new job, that’s just self owning themselves.
I think we have definitive proof that the American public, in general, are idiots.
Want definitive proof?
There are 244m eligible voters in the United States.
77m voted for Trump. Idiots.
2.6m voted 3rd party. Idiots.
90m didn’t vote. Idiots.
90+77+2.6 = 169.6
That means 170m of 244m eligible voters are braindead stupid. That’s 69.7%. So we essentially have a 70% failure rate amongst eligible voters for maintaining our democracy.
Yeah, Americans, in general, are STUUUUUUUUUPID.
Yeah, we’re in a declining nation and it’s probably not going to get better anytime soon.
I don’t think your math quite works out. Voters who voted third party or didn’t vote and live in solidly blue states had no bearing on Trump’s election.
If you don’t vote or vote 3rd party in a presidential election, you are an idiot whether you end up being responsible for the outcome or not.
If you don’t exercise your right to vote, especially in an election like this, you are an idiot.
If you vote 3rd party when a 3rd party has absolutely no shot at winning, you are an idiot.
It doesn’t matter whether you live in a blue state or not. If for no other reason than contributing to the popular vote.
In 2016 we could at least say Trump lost the popular vote. Before this election Republicans had only won the popular vote once since 1988 and not since Bush Jr. The more the will of the people clearly gets ignored and the loser of the popular vote becomes president anyway, the more pissed off Americans are going to get about that, and the more support we get from Americans to pressure our representatives to fix this shit electoral process.
Not to mention these idiots could live in a state that’s blue but not solidly blue and that state could possibly flip red because they assumed blue was safe in their state. Do you think non-voters and 3rd party presidential voters are smart enough to keep an eye on that kind of thing?
Being in a solidly blue or red state does not absolve non-voters and 3rd party voters from being idiots.
Not to mention these idiots could live in a state that’s blue but not solidly blue and that state could possibly flip red because they assumed blue was safe in their state.
That’s why I used the word “solidly.”
Do you think non-voters and 3rd party presidential voters are smart enough to keep an eye on that kind of thing?
Some of them? Sure. Maybe not all of them. But it doesn’t matter for purposes of this discussion. I was just making the claim that your math was including some voters that had no possible effect on Trump getting elected. And I still think that’s the case whether or not a number of people in purple states decided not to vote because Harris didn’t really speak to the economic realities they face everyday. Now we’re just quibbling over how wrong your math is.
To your broader point about the popular vote: I agree that people not voting or voting 3rd party impacts the popular vote, and the popular vote is indeed often used as a proxy for a national mandate. But Trump didn’t even break 50% on the popular vote—hardly a Reagan-style sweeping mandate despite initial reports to the contrary. So in this particular election, your point doesn’t even come into play. You’re calling people idiots for how they voted because of a theoretical outcome that didn’t occur.
Yes, voting in the U.S. is basically harm reduction. But what’s the point of voting to reduce harm if it doesn’t actually have much chance of doing that in your state? To be clear, I’m not advocating not voting. I’m advocating giving people a little grace if, via their vote, they didn’t materially contribute to the rise of fascism or whatever. In fact, you could say that someone voting third party in a solidly blue state has just as much impact on the election as someone voting blue in a solidly red one. It’s just numbers.
That’s why I used the word “solidly.”
Cool. That still doesn’t absolve them from being idiots for not voting or voting for a candidate that literally, as in literally, cannot win.
your math was including some voters that had no possible effect on Trump getting elected.
I didn’t say they did. I said they were idiots. My math was calculating how many idiots there are in America to determine how fucked we are. And I stand by my math.
But Trump didn’t even break 50% on the popular vote
But he still won the popular vote. The first Republican to do so in 20 years. Which alters the discussion about the will of the people not wanting Republican leadership. And non-voters and 3rd party voters helped to make that happen.
You’re calling people idiots for how they voted because of a theoretical outcome that didn’t occur.
Lol. No I’m not. I’m calling non-voters idiots for not exercising their right to vote, which people throughout history have killed and died for. I’m calling 3rd party presidential voters idiots for voting for a candidate that LITERALLY CANNOT WIN. Those are both decidedly idiotic things to do. And again, my math is calculating how many idiots are in America, using this election as a litmus test. And I’m stating those idiots affected the popular vote, which they did. And I’m stating that, for all they knew when they made their idiotic decision, they were making the difference between who won.
I’m advocating giving people a little grace if, via their vote, they didn’t materially contribute to the rise of fascism or whatever.
Your logic is like saying “well, the boy threw the kitchen knife at his sister, but it didn’t end up eviscerating her, so let’s just drop the subject and let the boy off scott free”. Again, they went into the election, making their stupid decisions, not knowing if they were going to make that difference or not. That is some idiot shit.
I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree here. We’re not even on the same page in terms of first principles. A voter voting blue in a red state is voting for a candidate who literally cannot win, and by your logic they’d be an idiot too. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. People should be able to vote how they want—especially if their vote isn’t likely to sway the election.
Oligarchy, like when Nancy pelosi sets herself up as a defacto leader using insider trading… Or is it only oligarchy when the Republicans do it?
when Nancy pelosi sets herself up as a defacto leader using insider trading
Dude. You should put down the bong long enough to read up on what was covered in the high school civics class you slept through.
What is oligarchy?
Something you live in.
Maybe you should have fucking Googled it sooner.
To be fair, high school government/civics classes are probably so gutted that I’m happy when people understand the three branches of government.
I still think those classes are a myth, I never heard of anyone taking a civics class when I was in school 20 years ago.
2005 grad here. I definitely had a civics class.
2002 here, same, in 8th grade.
Getting bugged that that’s the median and not the average/mean
