politics

Oligarchy: A conspiracy theory of the left 2   Recently updated !

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Oligarchy: Government by the few. (Merriam-Webster)

Claims from the left that certain people, usually very rich ones, are “oligarchs” of the USA are common. The Mother Jones website boasts at the top of every article that it’s “a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs.” If the USA has oligarchs, it must be an oligarchy. That’s an odd claim, since most people think the country is a democracy. Perhaps a dysfunctional one, but still a government run by elected officials.

It’s true that Congress has grown more passive than ever, but if the US has ceased to be a democracy, what it has become is an autocracy under Donald Trump. Like Sauron, he doesn’t share power. Perhaps if you count the most powerful Cabinet members, such as Hegseth and Noem, and advisors like Miller, it’s an oligarchy. But that’s not what the oligarchy theorists are talking about. Their claims are a new version of the “secret masters” conspiracy theories, claiming people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are the real puppet masters. In older versions, it was the Rothschilds or the Jewish Bankers. Some on the American right consider George Soros the leading Jewish oligarch. The new left-wing version differs mainly in its lack of overt antisemitism (though even that has started to change in the last couple of years).

There’s a long history of claims that a small number of people without official power run countries or even the whole world. The “iron law of oligarchy” claims that all governments eventually devolve into oligarchies. The people nominally in charge take orders from them because of financial pressure or blackmail. In this scenario, the president is merely a front man. This raises an obvious question: Why would they pick Donald Trump as their puppet? You’d think they’d pick someone who’s more competent, predictable, and superficially respectable.

Conspiracy theories aren’t grounded in evidence or plausibility. They rest on emotional satisfaction. If a cabal of the rich is running America, they’re a target to blame everything on. They’re incredibly rich, so they’re not like “us.” Nobody voted for them, so the voters are absolved of guilt.

But the bitter truth is that officials elected by Americans, not puppeteers behind the scenes, are responsible for what has happened to America.

Peak insanity day

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged politics Trump on by

Today insanity peaks in the US as we come to coronation — I mean inauguration — day. It should take no more than an hour to get the necessary people together and administer the oath of office, but then people might think the president is a mere chief executive rather than a monarch. (Though these days monarchs usually have less power than the president of the US. So do the chief executives of most relatively free countries.) The imperial presidency is a distinctively American feature, having more in common with authoritarian states like Russia and China.
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Gallup doesn’t understand set theory

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged journalism politics polls on by

According to a Gallup Poll article, “Less than a third of Americans say they would be willing to vote for someone nominated by their party who is over the age of 80 or has been charged with a felony or convicted of a felony by a jury.” If that’s true and Trump and Biden are the major-party nominees in 2024, then two-thirds of Americans will sit out the election for that reason alone.

Is that what the poll actually shows? The article goes on to say, “The poll addressed the issues of felonies and candidate age with separate questions each asked of about half of the poll’s respondents.” That makes it impossible to draw the conclusion stated at the top of the article. It’s an issue of set overlap.
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A disturbing cease & desist order in New Hampshire

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged censorship New Hampshire politics on by

A few weeks ago, the New Hampshire Attorney General issued a cease and desist order to the National Democratic Committee, claiming that it had made “false, deceptive, and misleading” statements in violation of New Hampshire law. The statements in question noted that any delegates chosen in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary won’t be accepted at the party’s national convention, and therefore the primary is “meaningless.” Violation of the cited law is a felony.

This is disturbing in at least two ways. First, the Democratic National Committee isn’t a New Hampshire organization. It isn’t subject to New Hampshire law. The AG’s office seems to be saying it can enforce its law anywhere in the country, maybe anywhere in the world.
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Book Discussion: Tech Panic

This entry was posted in Book discussion Reviews and tagged Internet politics technology on by

Robby Soave is making a name for himself among the younger generation of libertarian journalists. His Tech Panic addresses many of the overblown concerns and bad recommendations about social media. The attacks come from both the right and the left, and they’re disturbingly similar even though the two sides hate each other. They’re often attacks on free speech as such. Tech Panic cover

I should mention that I don’t like the big social media platforms very much. Rather than go off on a major rant, I’ll just leave it at that. I make minimal use of Facebook and have given up on Twitter, and I’m not biased in their favor.

Politicians often demand the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The bulk of the CDA was declared unconstitutional, but Section 230 remains as protection for hosting companies and their users. It says, basically, that websites aren’t responsible for user-posted content. There are some exceptions; for instance, hosts have to take down child porn as fast as they can. But if a user violates a copyright or libels a person, the liability falls on the user, not the host.
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