Biden's Farewell F-You to Elon Musk
The president opposes the tech "oligarchy" because it has stopped listening to him.
President Joe Biden bid a not-so-fond farewell to Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other members of the tech "oligarchy" he suddenly believes is threatening American freedoms.
"I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern," he said in his farewell address on Wednesday night. "And that's the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultrawealthy people and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead. We see the consequences all across America."
Biden went on to compare these tech oligarchs to 19th century robber barons, who were eventually brought to heel by federal legislators.
"More than a century ago, the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts," he said. "We've got to do that again."
This declaration should prompt eye rolls.
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The real reason that Biden is angry with the leaders of large, influential tech companies is that they are no longer obeying his dictates. Musk purchased X, then called Twitter, in order to reverse what he believed to be a series of bad moderation decisions that squelched conservative, libertarian, and contrarian dissent on the platform. Afterward, he discovered that many of those moderation decisions were not freely chosen by the company—they were forced on moderators by government agents.
Zuckerberg experienced much the same thing—and has now begun speaking out against it. In public remarks he made last week, Zuckerberg clarified that he thought the government pressure to take down speech had gone too far, and he was inclined to resist it in the future. In an appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, he specifically cited Biden's declaration that Facebook was "killing people" as one of the reasons the platform felt pressure to take down dissenting COVID-19 speech.
Left unsaid by Biden is that this dissenting behavior from Musk and Zuckerberg is what makes them oligarchs, in his view. It's really a curious view of oligarchy, when tech leaders are in trouble because they're no longer bossed around by Biden.
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