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.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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:

    • leadore@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I guess he couldn’t think of a buzzword for “C” so he just left it out. Never mind, someone already said this

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Two things are true:

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

    • pirating@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      To be fair, high school government/civics classes are probably so gutted that I’m happy when people understand the three branches of government.

      • JTskulk@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        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.

  • makyo@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    Image

      • makyo@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Just to add, this proves:

        1. that Americans in general aren’t following along on their own
        2. 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.
          • WhoIsTheDrizzle@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            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.

            • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              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…)

        • glimse@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          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.

          • makyo@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            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.

            • glimse@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              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)

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          His handlers didn’t want him appearing in public. But that’s where the bully pulpit is,

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Jesus fucking Christ. 🤦‍♂️

    All these dumbfucks will be Googling “What is a Great Depression?” in about a year too.

    May Bird Flu thin the herd.

      • Malfeasant@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Ugh, one of my right wing Farcebook “friends” recently made a simpleton comment about paying back student loans, and I couldn’t resist saying “why stop at college? Defund public schools, if little Timmy can’t afford it, send him to the mines” and of course he agreed, the irony was completely lost on him. No, his kids do not go to private school.

    • SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Eh, at least they’re trying to learn more about the subject. I think the real concern is people that don’t know what’s going on and don’t care to find out.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    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

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        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

      • dx1@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        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.

  • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    So, Joe, Buddy, what exactly did you do in your four years to actually curb the power of the oligarchy?

    • P1nkman@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      He won’t be alive long enough to witness the disaster, so why should he care?

      -The baby boomers advocates.

    • Azzu@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      I mean obviously he knows how he’s part of evil, now that he’s at the end of his career or life I guess the personal benefits don’t outweigh the guilt anymore.

  • Draces@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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

    • stetech@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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.

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Probably the same people who were googling why Biden wasn’t on the ticket on election day 🙄

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.”

    • gingernate@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      I have no free will so I didn’t choose to disagree, so I am just predestined for hell I guess

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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

  • Qwazpoi@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Everyone is so busy asking what is Oligarchy, nobody bothered to ask how is Oligarchy. Truly sad

      • Prehensile_cloaca @lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Oh he did- he leaned his full weight toward creating today’s reality for the last 55 years of his life.

      • TheColorNine@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        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.