It’s time the word “oligarch” lost its Russian veneer
It’s time the word “oligarch” lost its Russian veneer
America does oligarchy better than anyone.
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Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are all oligarchs.
I know it's trendy to dunk on Taylor Swift, but what is she an oligarch of? She plays music for people that want to pay for her and doesn't exert any more political power than telling people to vote.
She's not close to the same league of the others you listed, who exert real political influence on Congress and the people.
The whole "she's a billionaire" status is influence in and of it's self, doesn't need to be political, in my opinion.
Edit: actually, it's in the definition that an oligarch would have to have a large amount of political power. My bad, lol.
I would argue that she gained political power when she suggested that her fans should register to vote on social media (which is a good thing). I would also back that argument with the notion that Fox and/or right wing media being worried that Swift might endorse a president that isn't the orange Hershey squirt, is evidence of political power as well.
Not a swifty but if she wasn't a billionaire, I don't think she would have less "political power." She is just that popular. I think the distinction between swift and your run-of-the-mill oligarch is that they specifically use their money and power to expand their political power (e.g., buying political party members, burying any dissenters). Could she do that? Probably, and that in and of itself is problematic. I think that this is maybe what you were saying though.
Bill Gates
Every single billionaire, most hectomillionaires and every politician with a net "worth" of over $10m.
I appreciate a good SI prefix usage.
Thanks, I learned it from someone here on Lemmy after mistakenly using centi for years 😄