A Lot of Americans Are Googling 'What Is Oligarchy?' After Biden's Farewell Speech
gizmodo.com
The outgoing president warned of the growing dominance of a small, monied elite.

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.

    • slackassassin@sh.itjust.works
      6·
      5 hours ago

      Love Carlin. Hate this quote.

      1. “Half of them are smarter than that” is just as true but doesn’t have the same zing.
      2. 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.”

      • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        2 hours ago

        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).

      • splinter@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        8 hours ago

        Average can also refer to median. It’s a better measure of central tendency than mean in this case.