(Gracie Davis/The Seahawk)
From Tesla Cybertrucks to Meta AI, there’s no escaping the impression of billionaires in America at this time. Social media customers throughout the nation are signed up for Instagram, Fb and X, previously generally known as Twitter. Over 1 million Teslas have been bought simply in 2024 alone. Firms owned by billionaires are in every single place on this nation, and hundreds of thousands of People use merchandise created by them day-after-day. However what occurs when these billionaires attempt to have a say in politics? With members of the rich higher class like Elon Musk donating hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to political campaigns, many People are starting to query the position these individuals play in our authorities. The U.S. authorities is supposed to be for the individuals, however are these rich elites actually enjoying for
People everywhere in the nation have began to debate this matter, with it solely turning into extra essential after former President Joe Biden’s farewell handle. “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence,” Biden stated in his speech, explaining that it “really threatens our entire democracy, basic rights and freedom.”
Biden warned of the upcoming ultra-wealthy “tech industrial complex,” stating that he believes it may maintain unchecked energy over People. With the rebellion of platforms like X and Instagram, many imagine this to be true. When a social media platform is getting used to push particular and articulated concepts on-line, is it actually for the individuals? Elon Musk has said that he purchased Twitter to halt the advance of the “woke mind virus,” the identical “virus” he claims ruined his daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, who identifies as a transgender woman.
When opening X, posts on the search tab being pushed to customers are sometimes ones of Musk’s achievements himself or help for President Trump’s marketing campaign. I’ve had numerous movies on TikTok that appear to be censored after its resurface. ideos with phrases similar to “Hillary Clinton” and “lesbian” have been getting 0 views and even being put underneath evaluation. Nonetheless, once I uploaded these movies once more with out these sure phrases, they started to get traction. It’s arduous to imagine that People have free speech on apps that appear to blatantly cater particular content material to its audiences.
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Musk’s help for Trump’s marketing campaign solely continued to flourish by means of 2024, with exclamations similar to “dark, gothic MAGA,” and his most up-to-date spectacle at Trump’s inauguration occasion. After Musk’s speech at Trump’s inauguration occasion, he’s seen doing a gesture witsimilar to the gesture that Hitler used to do throughout his reign in Germany. This induced uproar on social media, waging conflict between his supporters and people who criticized him. Many individuals tried to justify it as a “Roman Salute,” whereas others criticizing him, stating, “we’re not in Rome.”
However ought to we be involved concerning the underlying which means of this hand gesture? With Musk’s political positions and historical past of antisemitic feedback, possibly we needs to be. Musk has tried interfering with the German parliamentary election marketing campaign and has made clear his anti-democratic positions in direction of the federal government. He has proven his help for far-right European powers similar to Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and fewer help for extra left-wing European insurance policies. Many concern Musk’s place on Neo-Nazis, as he current defined that Germans “focus too much on past guilt and we need to move past that.” He additionally defined that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their parents, and their great-grandparents,” with these feedback coming simply two days earlier than Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Musk’s affect on American politics will not be one thing to take evenly. He has turn into the unofficial , sat in on essential cellphone calls between Trump and Ukraine, asecretly met Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York. We must always not ignore the affect that billionaires are beginning to have on our nation. Many really feel as if Musk being part of Trump’s cupboard places him in shut proximity to new insurance policies and concepts, from Trump’s controversial DEI insurance policies to the restoration of TikTok. should not fast to take the much less lucky inhabitants into consideration when making selections.
Trump lately paused federal funding for packages like meals stamps, with this effort being blocked by a federal decide. He has additionally supplied $2 million in pay to federal staff who resign, that’s those that don’t agree with him. Cash. That’s Trump’s high precedence, that’s the high precedence of cupboard members like Musk and it’s the precedence of each rich individual that has any say in what the U.S. authorities is doing proper now. In these occasions the place it doesn’t really feel like our authorities is selecting us, it is very important keep hopeful and rise up for ourselves. The voices of the common People should be heard, and we won’t be censored and ignored any longer.
