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.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    8 个月前

    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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        8 个月前

        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
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        8 个月前

        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.

  • sumguyonline@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 个月前

    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?

    • enbyecho@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      You’re right, but focusing on Pelosi when Biden himself is an excellent example smacks of whataboutism.

      It isn’t a whataboutism (since she and Biden have very much been working together on behalf of the oligarchs), but it looks like one to the casual observer, which is probably why you’re being bombarded with unfair downvotes in a Liberal (as opposed to Left) leaning community.

    • Alteon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      Oligarchy, like when Johann Rupert influences the South African markets and politics through his massive wealth and business empire… Or is it only oligarchy when Americans do it?

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 个月前

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

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 个月前

    it’s been made abundantly clear that a lot of americans have no fucking idea what anyone is talking about

    • hansolo@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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?

      • MrPistachios@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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

        • glimse@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          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.

          • hansolo@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            8 个月前

            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.

      • Carnelian@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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

      • FackCurs@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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.

        • hansolo@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          8 个月前

          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.

    • baltakatei@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      Anyone who had any other understanding has failed to communicate with the American public.

      • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        8 个月前

        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?

        • rumba@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          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?

          • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            8 个月前

            has failed to communicate with the American public.

            what did you mean by that, if not exactly what you said?

              • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                8 个月前

                Blocking a troll. got one less problem without ya…

                lol if i was blocked i wouldn’t see that…

                but yea. bye.

            • boomzilla@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              8 个月前

              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.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 个月前

    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:

      • Foni@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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

    • Azzu@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

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

      The answer is that he’s been actively working for the oligarchy-beholden establishment since before most of us were even born.

      This is like the retiring CEO of Shell warning that extracting and burning fossil fuels might have deleterious effects on the global climate.

      • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        Same as politicians releasing biographies spilling the beans after they retire from ‘public service’, it’s never anyone’s responsibility or fault they are all taking graft, insider trading, selling natural reserves to foreign drilling companies, selling weapons to genocidal pricks, etc.

    • P1nkman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

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

      -The baby boomers advocates.

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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

        • Revan343@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          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

        • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          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

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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.

      • witten@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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.

        • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          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.

          • witten@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            8 个月前

            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.

            • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              8 个月前

              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.

    • khannie@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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.

      • spookedintownsville@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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.

        • khannie@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          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.

          • nomy@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            8 个月前

            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.

      • ubergeek@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        That’s a very… generous interpretation, but I’ll “allow it”, because it gives me some hope.

  • itsonlygeorge@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    8 个月前

    You might as well search for kakistocracy as well.

    kakistocracy /kăk″ĭ-stŏk′rə-sē, kä″kĭ-/ noun

    1. Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.
    1. Government by the worst men.
    1. Government under the control of a nation’s worst or least-qualified citizens.

    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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.

    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      8 个月前

      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.

    • SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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.

      • Malfeasant@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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.

  • Matombo@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 个月前

    If only he and his party was in power for some years and could have done something about it…

      • MisterScruffy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        Poor weak dems can never do anything, their hands are always tied! And they will always be tied because the corporate overlords don’t want effective leftwing politicians so we only get the feckless ones

        • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          I’d like to take a moment to remind you that while I wholeheartedly disagree with the entirely of your statement, and pretty much your entire ideology-

          you’re allowed to share it here.

          Seriously. Take note of this, because if you check the modlogs of the .ml mods and admins, people actually get banned for “anticommunism” and just simply disagreeing with the hive.

          And no, this isn’t intended to be an “us vs them” thing. It’s simply pointing out something that I believe should be considered.

          Also, while these differences may be cause for anger in some people, I’m actually glad that you have the ability to share your opinions here.

          Lemmy shouldn’t be walled gardens. And we should be able to share our opinions-

          regardless of how stupid they are.

          • MisterScruffy@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            8 个月前

            You have no response so you complain about mods. Lots of good posts get removed by .world mods you don’t see me bringing that up when I’m losing an argument

            • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              edit-2
              8 个月前

              LMAO! Dude… What response could there be? To me, it seems as if you’re just rattling off from a list of generic far left rhetoric. In my opinion, it’s mostly just meaningless nonsense. My apologies, but… There is little content there that I felt was worthy of a response.

              I’ll digress though:

              I suppose I could have responded with the fact that you had nothing worth responding to, but instead I chose to point out something I thought would be more helpful:

              The fact that here, you’re allowed to say dumb shit. As long as you remain within the rules. Elsewhere, you’re not. And unlike you, I have the modlogs to back up what I’m saying. Go ahead and compare.

              .ml admins override your mods all the time. Like ALL the time. Nearly all the actions in the form of removals and bans are handed out by just two people. There’s a shit-load of irony in that, it that’s for another time.

              Again, checking the modlogs, you can see that world admins step in rarely to only moderate troll instance bans and spambot removal. Mostly, the mods handle the rest. Go on, look it up… On the surface, .ml mods seem to have very little say in anything. Whereas .world seems to allow moderators to work independently with little interference.

              Is .world perfect? Oh hell no! FAAAAAAR from it. But my intent was not to rub this observation against perfection. It was to make a simple distinction.

              And I believe I’ve done just that. Thanks for allowing me the platform to express this point. I wouldn’t have been able to say this on .ml.

              -Oh, and for the record… I wasn’t losing an argument. We haven’t ever spoken prior to now.

        • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          This is a point I think more people really have to consider. How come the Republicans will use every ounce of power they have to get things done but Democrats will give up at the first sign of a challenge. I think it’s because the Republicans actually have leadership that actually wants to do their insane policies with their donors supporting them. While Democrats have leadership that only takes on leftist points begrudgingly to try and win their votes and donors that don’t want those things to happen. So a rotating villain always pops up ready to block all progress and even if they lose reelection cause of it they still have their nice cushy lobbying job waiting for them on the way out.

    • capital_sniff@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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.

      • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 个月前

        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.

        • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          8 个月前

          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.

          • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            8 个月前

            The ratchet isn’t gonna turn the other way until the problem of money in politics is dealt with. Until then there won’t be a real progressive candidate to rally around as in the case of Bernie they get pushed back against by the donors and the rest of the party. I do think there are some problems with people not wanting to unite under one candidate but we’re not even really at the point where that’s the main problem as the bigger problem is donors and the establishment of the Democratic party.

              • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                8 个月前

                No one in government except the few progressive Democrats who are routinely demonized and belittled by the rest of the party. The only way I see it happening is if Bernie or someone like him can pull a Trump and win the presidency and completely overhaul the party.

        • capital_sniff@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          8 个月前

          Of course Democrats care about working class people. The party is just currently run by a bunch of overly educated elites that don’t have an interest in listening to the workers. Because when they do listen they hear complaints that are all over the place. The Dems moved to the right a long while ago, and around the globe liberal parties are all facing major setbacks, and our liberal party here in America is farther right than most of our democratic peers. My point is that neither of our political parties will ever do what you are asking for without being forced to action by the people.

          Except our electorate is so broken that 30+% of them voted for the billionaire party and are waiting patiently with their hands cupped for that sweet trickle down. Except they are more than likely about to get austerity before they get dental coverage. I really don’t know how to get through to some of these people, they either don’t understand a ton or have fundamentally different values. Values that are in opposition to the basics of a liberal democratic system. Part of me wants to shake every one of the taxes are theft post tea party MAGA clowns and take them on a tour of where the real theft is… like say any of the multiple private space companies that launch rich assholes into orbit and sadly bring them back.

          A big part of the problem is the underclass republican supporters are just little authoritarian tyrants themselves. Given the chance they are all too ready to pull the ladder up behind them.

        • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          8 个月前

          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.

          • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            8 个月前

            It’s not solely resting on that but I think it’s a large part. There’s a lot of people who just don’t vote or care about politics at all because there’s no good options. Many of them were excited and drawn out by Obama but ended up getting burned when he didn’t bring the real change they were looking for. They then got excited for Bernie but again got burned when he didn’t win and was pushed back on by the entire party. So now these people are just staying home and not voting. If you promised and carried through on many of the popular issues like healthcare for all you would activate these people and not have to worry as much about the maga movement since you would have a lot more voters excited to go out to vote for you. People aren’t as excited about going out to vote against Trump which is why we saw much lower turnout this year. Democrats just can’t really excite people and until they can they are just relying on people hating Trump enough it motivates them to go and vote.

    • MJKee9@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 个月前

      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.