it's been made abundantly clear that a lot of americans have no fucking idea what anyone is talking about
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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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
Lol, that's fair. Maybe I should really feel surprised that people paid attention enough to Google it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
His handlers didn't want him appearing in public. But that's where the bully pulpit is,
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.
The average person in the US was too busy trying to figure out how to get a 500 dollar paycheck to cover 300 in groceries, 200 in rent, 100 for electric, and 200 for gas to get to work. While also paying 300 for baby formula.
Anyone who is only making $500 a paycheck needs to look for a new job, that's just self owning themselves.
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Yeah, exactly. When your life is on fire, putting out the flames is a lot more pressing than finding who started 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)
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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
Bruh, he missed the perfect opportunity to call Obama a communist.
Wow, he couldn't think of a single c based accusation to level at the Obama presidency?
Wasn't Beck also one of the people who got super obsessed with Obama smoking crack or something in college?
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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.
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.
Don't worry. We'll be defunding public education soon.
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.
Soon? We have been!
So, Joe, Buddy, what exactly did you do in your four years to actually curb the power of the oligarchy?
So, Joe, Buddy, what exactly did you do in your ~~four years~~ 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.
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.
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Google searches:
Early gorkey
O' Malarkey
Ooley gookey
O where's my car keys?
Pretty soon it will just say "See America"
Welp. I'm glad people are learning about this though.
We desperately need actual political science courses in high school, not just civics.
I learned all of this in highschool, in a public school in Red Texas so, idk how everyone else didn't get this
If Texas is anything like Alberta/Saskatchewan up here (it is)... I'll take a stab at it.
75% of those people who you went to school with who were learning all of this right along with you, went home to parents who derided, blathered, and sometimes flat out beat those "librul" ideas out of them in the name of being a "god fearin' christian family".
Nothing they learned lasted past highschool when they married their highschool sweetheart, got a job at the mine and voted exactly the same way their parents and grandparents had for decades....
Add to that the 80% or so of students who never paid attention to a single lesson then 5 years later post to Facebook "wHy DiDnT wE lEaRn ThIs In ScHOol???"
Oh god yes...
50% never leave the small town they grew up in. Spend their evenings spending the majority of their paycheque on booze and playing the VLTs in the local bar (which is on the bottom floor of the town's ONLY hotel, BTW) while their wife takes care of the kids and wonder where her life would be if she hadn't gotten knocked up immediately after highschool.
But their shit life is ALL the Liberals (Canada) / Democrats (US) fault, apparently.
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