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.
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.”
If only he and his party was in power for some years and could have done something about it…
I like blaming Biden and all but let’s be real we are in this mess because a bunch of the people that occupy the underclass with us are actively fighting against us and for the rich ass rulers.
And the reason to blame for that is that Democrats have shown they don’t really care about working class people. So these people end up falling for the propaganda of the right since there’s no real counter to it, especially with the Democrats capitulating on issues like immigration during this election. We need an actual progressive or labor party to bring these people away from the right. But the Democrats continue to refuse to become that party and without better voting systems a third party will only really work on the local level.
Given the choice between kids in cages, outrageous nepotism and kakistocracy, insurrection, blatant authoritarianism, and LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE, nobody should need to convince you to choose “anything else”. It should be self evident.
Democrats may suck, but “I voted for pre-hitler because you didn’t sell something I wanted to buy” looks way worse on the voters who just can’t see the value or the difference. You are right we should have better options, but I reject the idea out of hand that the rise of trumpism rests solely on democrats not being exciting. Likewise I wouldn’t say they are the ones voting against their own interests.
If progressives were as united as the bigots the ratchet could turn the other way but it won’t because their are so many voters that are too busy cutting off their nose to spite their face while hiding behind false bravado that doesn’t accomplish anything.
Yeah, just needed cooperation from some Republicans to make that happen through the house and senate.
The DNC is complicit and has been for years… But betraying Bernie was the inciting incident for the US’s most recent foray into authoritarianism.
we coulda had a bad bitch 😭
I love how public education removed civics and history to make room for… let me check my notes… Social Studies.
Social Studies is civics and history. If you think they should be separate classes, fair enough.
Social studies was history? And civics and economics and religion/philosophy and geography. It’s just the overarching name for the study of human society.
Yea i don’t know what the above is on about. Social studies included civics and history.
He’s just as complacent in the oligarchical society we currently have as anyone.
Hey now - he was perfectly fine with the plutocracy that has ruled for hundreds of years. It’s Republican legislation that led to this – think Dodd-Frank.
Democrat leadership is happy to skim some off the top. Republicans will strip it to the bone.
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.
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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Love Carlin. Hate this quote.
- “Half of them are smarter than that” is just as true but doesn’t have the same zing.
- The zing is that the regurgitation makes everyone feel as though they are on the right side of the distribution and thus superior.
Truth is, we are all closer to chimps than Einstein. And Einstein still left some lingering questions for us to solve.
That’s the distribution. Not “Everyone is stupid except me and you, dear reader.”
Getting bugged that that’s the median and not the average/mean
True. However both should sit on the same spot on top of the bell curve for IQ distribution. Also the majority of people is not aware of the difference between the two. You’d have to explain to more than half of your audience what a median is (essentially killing the joke this way).
Average can also refer to median. It’s a better measure of central tendency than mean in this case.
Biden became a good president… in his last month in office.
Or to be blunt: He’s being performative now when it doesn’t matter
Biden was a good president. And then he enabled Israel to go on a spree of war crimes, and also allowed Trump to, uh, live.
The Supreme Court: Nothing the President does is illegal
Everyone: Even ordering Seal Team Six to Mar-A-Lago
Biden: Cool, goes for ice cream and does nothing with this information
I don’t count any of them as “good president” with a 800B annual military budget. Or the rest of the totalitarian federal budget they rubber stamp without fail. There’s a lot of shit baked into the federal government that they never, ever veto in the budget, dark as all fucking hell, that Americans just ignore.
I would say, the genocide revealed who he already was, in a very clear way, but the signs and the evil deeds were already there.
“Look at all those slave masters posing on your dollars.”
What is oligarchy?
Something you live in.
Maybe you should have fucking Googled it sooner.
People think that voting either doesn’t matter, or that it’s like choosing to be a fan of a certain football team. They won’t realize their mistake when the rug gets pulled out from underneath them…but they might when they hit the back of their head on the polished concrete floor.
Unfortunately, we (the world) are paying for their medical bill. Climate change policy will regress. Trade and economic policy, too. Peace will be undermined. And regional wars will flare up and get worse as people fight for water and other resources.
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.
Yeah, over 50% of voters voted for it!
See also: Police State
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.
Username checks out along with the math.
You might be downvoted but you’re absolutely correct.
I actually consider this really positive on a few fronts.
Firstly, people are trying to learn. That’s great.
Oligarchy is not a common word if your English level isn’t great and that’s true for lots of people. Even if you read books a decent amount it’s not something I think you’d come across frequently.
Also, for folks who don’t know what an oligarchy is, for them to find out they’re possibly living in one may change their world view.
I’m sure there are more.
That’s a very… generous interpretation, but I’ll “allow it”, because it gives me some hope.
Gotta keep that hope up!
Honestly, I am one of those idiots. I had to look up oligarchy myself, although I looked it up because it was being thrown around a bit on Lemmy, not because Biden said it.
I do not consider you an idiot one bit for what it’s worth. I definitely did not know that word for a significant portion of my life.
It’s not something that appears in books or something you come across in school.
Right? I’ve known the word for a long time but I was definitely well into adulthood and definitely looked it up. It’s a “college word” y’all people have to look up simple words all the time.
We had that in November
Twice in November.
At least they’re trying to learn.
We knew that since Dexter Manly went to college illiterate
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”
Lol, that’s fair. Maybe I should really feel surprised that people paid attention enough to Google it.
It’s scary how much old tv media sways public conversation…and how incompetent they are
I often get confused between oligarchy, kleptocracy and plutocracy, that’s why I would look it up. I do understand how we can all be a little ignorant. We should do better.
Well, to be fair, a kleptocracy is a poverty mindset applied to wannabe plutarchs or oligarchs. Oligarchy is the DEI version of Plutocracy because it’s not just wealth based. Edit:/s
There is nothing diverse, equitable or inclusive about oligarchs, quite the opposite, but I see your point.
Sarcasm tag added
Probably depends on your life style and what you do for work. I work in front of a computer so I browse on the side and see stuff, but take a teacher who is focused on kids all day doesn’t have much of a chance to get caught up on stuff
My friend is an HVAC guy and spends a lot of his days in the basement of high rises with no service. He gets home and has 2 kids to take care of and by the time he’s done, physical labor has taken its toll and he’s too sleepy to do much besides watch a comedy special before bed.
I have WFH computer job so I get to stay informed but it feels like the average American just doesn’t have time to keep up with the insanity of modern politics.
The best my brain ever felt was when I worked in a corner of a building that was a dead zone. No distractions unless I sought them out and physically went to them.
Defunding schools doing it’s job
Americans have been so fat and happy that they’re literally sick. They need a few more LA fires and pandemics to wake up from the intellectual coma they’re in.
Sadly, they bought all the lies about Covid and now believe they are safe from it and that it magically disappeared. They believe the CDC’s “comprehensive guidelines” are enough to keep us all “safe”, when the actual guidelines are just base ideas, not anything of real value. They actually recommend people sneeze and cough into their elbows as if that’s going to stop an airborne virus. Yet they believe it all.
Anyone who had any other understanding has failed to communicate with the American public.
communication requires participation by both the sender and the receiver in order to take place. are you saying that if everything you tell someone is dismissed as “fake news” and ignored, then it’s your fault that nothing was communicated?
participation by both the sender and the receiver in order to take place. are you saying that if everything you tell someone is dismissed as “fake news” and ignored, then it’s your fa
How in the hell did you get that as a take away from what I said?
has failed to communicate with the American public.
what did you mean by that, if not exactly what you said?
Blocking a troll. got one less problem without ya…
Blocking a troll. got one less problem without ya…
lol if i was blocked i wouldn’t see that…
but yea. bye.
I think user rumba meant in regards to the OP post…
“it’s been made abundantly clear that a lot of americans have no fucking idea what anyone is talking about”
…that anybody who thought otherwise about the american public has never really talked to its representants.
Whereas I think you understood rumbas’ comment as like he wrote about the people who knew better about the threat of the coming administration failed to communicate it to the average ignorant us citizen. With you replying that those trying to enlighten didn’t have a chance to succeed with that anyway.
Now shake hands and unblock. You’re on the same side.
Not the brightest bunch
What else is new?
Probably the same people who were googling why Biden wasn’t on the ticket on election day 🙄
I was overwhelmed,so I just stayed home.
Checks instance name
Story checks out.
Also, sorry the crap from our political cesspool keeps splashing across the border. :(
You might as well search for kakistocracy as well.
kakistocracy /kăk″ĭ-stŏk′rə-sē, kä″kĭ-/ noun
- Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.
- Government by the worst men.
- Government under the control of a nation’s worst or least-qualified citizens.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Fun fact: the Greek word kakistos (meaning “worst”), from which the first part of kakistocracy derives, comes from the Proto-Indo European root *kakka- which means “to defecate.” Source: Etymonline
In other words, kakistocracy can be considered: Being governed by shit.
ETA another related fact.: the word cacophony (meaning “harsh or unpleasant discordance of sound”) also shares this root. It came to English via Latin, so the spelling is different, but the origin remains the same. Which is to say, a “cacophony” is a shitty sound.
While we’re at it, lets throw in gerontocracy
I read Ken Klippenstein and he was heralding 2024 as the year of the gerontocracy starting to fail and be left behind and I’m like dude, we just elected a fucking 78 year old Hitler wannabe as president. The gerontocracy only gets worse.
Yeah, one of the major reasons the Soviet leadership failed too
Ah, so that’s where “Heritage Foundation” comes from.
Top kek, I mean kak.
kakistocracy - see South Africa. Lol
Becoming…? The country founded on the principle that only landowners and capitalists should be represented democratically is becoming an oligarchy?
Yes, because the early USA did not resemble an modern oligarchy but rather a plutocracy which despite its problems still has greater room for a merit based system than a modern oligarchy provides. We are intentionally concentrating a tremendous amount of wealth in the hands of very few people.
Plutocracy = rule by the wealthy.
Oligarchy = rule by the few.
The wealthy are the few. And with increasing wealth disparity, they are comparatively even fewer than ever before.
Not really any meaningful difference.
Maybe if we keep going with the concentration of wealth we can boil it all down to just one guy and then drown that guy in the bathtub like Republicans wanted to do with the federal government.
Ps: As far as your oligarchy vs plutocracy thing goes, we’re just both.
I mean give capitalism long enough we might be left with just one guy standing. I do mean guy. An immortal white shriveled dude, alone in a utopia of bots serving him.
And I just meant this whole “ah we’re not an oligarchy! We’re a plutocracy” thing is just dumb. What is even the difference in these peoples heads? It’s practically the same thing. And it IS the same thing under capitalism. The few who rule are the wealthy.
That’s the whole point of the system… capitalISM? The owners of CAPITAL rule?
I mean give capitalism long enough we might be left with just one guy standing. I do mean guy. An immortal white shriveled dude, alone in a utopia of bots serving him.
Nah, they’re not immortal and all tech has problems. I get this is like the wet dream of the tech bros to be self-sufficient masters of robot armies, and I hate to kink shame, but it won’t ever happen.
The one directly inspired by Rome, an oligarchy with strict class systems and slavery?
Yeah, I read that and was like… “Ya know, you’re only about 260 years late…”
