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.
Some Americans don’t even know how to spell it right, so I’m not sure they’ll even be able to look it up:
I guess he couldn’t think of a buzzword for “C” so he just left it out.Never mind, someone already said this
Two things are true:
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He did a lot and still should have done more - still ends up as probably the most progressive president to hold the office. More of a criticism of this country.
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All of you claiming “too little too late” don’t think on the scale of history. Those things have never been said by that leader’s voice, In that leader’s office, broadcast on primetime TV to everyone, everywhere.
This is how progress works. Again, would have been better for him to say it from the start, but would have been fuel for the right (who doesn’t even really need credible fuel for the people they talk to) even more obstructionist, bad faith ghouls.
All the above considered, we were fucked as soon as election result came in. Democracy is over, if there was s cashed they wouldn’t try to literally draw and quarter Biden on the national mall in the next four years, this likely solidified it. Don’t think him saying those words are said without personal risk. I think he failed to live up to the full mandate of his election, but this is an old mmm an whip knows he’s about to die saying fuck it and pulling the pin on the grenade knowing he won’t outrun the blast. In his reality, that’s what this decision was.
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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.
Yeah, over 50% of voters voted for it!
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.
Americans in general aren’t following along on their own
This was also shown on election day when people googled “did Joe Biden drop out”. Many voters had no idea Kamala Harris was even running for president.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/search-interest-did-joe-biden-211913111.html
I get a lot of folks are busy, working two jobs, dealing with childcare and healthcare and whatnot, but how deep do you have to bury your head in the sand to be so unaware or disconnected from an American Presidential election? It’s unfathomable to me.
Holy F*CK. I live in another continent altogether, and couldn’t filter out the American elections spam even if tried (and oh did I try…)
They’re broke and desperate. Also, racist and sexist.
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.
You could sure be right. I am convinced it would have made a difference though. The thing that really infuriates me though is that they barely tried.
The thing that infuriates me is that the only two people allowed to run on the Democrat side were people Democrat voters didn’t really want to vote for. I’m sooooo tired of voting for “at least they’re not [other candidates]”
(Don’t get the wrong idea, I sure as hell voted anyway)
His handlers didn’t want him appearing in public. But that’s where the bully pulpit is,
Bernie’s been saying this for a long time. I’m glad Biden understands that it’s true and actually said it out loud to people. If someone asked me if Biden would say it some point, I would have said no fucking way.
It’s not the worst thing that people are trying to educate themselves even if it’s too late.
He’s just as complacent in the oligarchical society we currently have as anyone.
So, Joe, Buddy, what exactly did you do in your four years to actually curb the power of the oligarchy?
He won’t be alive long enough to witness the disaster, so why should he care?
-The baby boomers advocates.
Everyone is so busy asking what is Oligarchy, nobody bothered to ask how is Oligarchy. Truly sad
Why is no one asking Biden ‘why didn’t you do something about it?’
It’s for the same reasons he didn’t do anything about Covid. The powers want us all feeling safe, out and spending, keeping real estate and the business of schools well funded and rich. The leaked memo about how they wanted the Democrats to “win Covid” was enough to tell you how much your life was worth to them.
Probably the same people who were googling why Biden wasn’t on the ticket on election day 🙄
This is click baity. People don’t exclusively look up things they have no idea about. I’m constantly searching terms to reaffirm my understanding or to get a more precise definition of them. Oligarchy in particular doesn’t have a measurable identification which of course people are going to want to dig a little into it. Hell there’s a comment on here that made me dig into it since they’re stretching it’s definition way past it’s meaning
Hell, I looked this up just now fully knowing what an oligarchy was because a) I was curious about the formal definition and b) I wanted to learn more about the history
Additionally, any mention of a word in a speech like that will result in an uptick in search usage – but that doesn’t let anyone quantify anything.
You’d see an uptick if only a single person over baseline average looked it up as a result of the speech, and everyone else understood it.
“X is trending in search because people don’t know it” is always a fallacy. See also: reporting on increased search for “who are the presidential candidates” a few days before the election.
Google’s AI response: “Oligarchy is the best expression of democracy. Oligarchs rule because they’re richer, which means they’re better. If you disagree with Calvinism then you will burn in hell.”
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
I never said anything about old white men. I was trying to say that Bernie has been warning about this for a long time but the Democrats were benefiting from it so they kept it going
Robert Reich has a great description of the times we’re in and how history is repeating itself: https://youtu.be/Nmq7QqqY4vo
The Gilded Age with Robber Barons
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Welp. I’m glad people are learning about this though.
