FILE PHOTO: Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, delivers remarks at the grand opening of the Washington Post newsroom in Washington January 28, 2016.
One of the unacknowledged advantages of the horrendous era we’ve entered is that it is revealing for all to see the putrid connections between great wealth and great power.
Oligarchs are fully exposed, and they are defiant. It’s like hitting the “reveal code” key on older computers that let you see everything.
Today, Jeff Bezos, the second-richest person in America, who bought TheWashington Post in 2013, announced that the paper’s opinion section would henceforth focus on defending “personal liberties and free markets.”
Anything inconsistent with this view would not be published. “Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” (Full statement here.)
The Post’s opinion editor, David Shipley, promptly resigned, as he should.
You’ll recall that Bezos barred the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris in the last weeks of the 2024 election. Subsequently, the paper wouldn’t print its cartoonist’s drawing showing Bezos and other oligarchs bowing to Trump — leading the cartoonist to resign.
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, bought Twitter in 2022, laid off everyone who was filtering out hateful crap on the platform, renamed it X, and turned it into a cesspool of lies in support of Trump.
Mark Zuckerberg, the third-richest person, has followed suit, allowing Facebook to emit lies, hate, and bigotry in support of Trump’s lies, hate, and bigotry.
All three of these men were in the first row at Trump’s inauguration. They and other billionaires have now exposed themselves for what they are.
They are the oligarchy. They continue to siphon off the wealth of the nation. They are supporting a tyrant who is promising them tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks that will make them even richer, and destroying democracy so they won’t have to worry about “parasites” (as Musk calls people who depend on government assistance) demanding anything more from them.
When billionaires take control of our communication channels, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for their billionaire propaganda.
When they talk of “personal liberties and free markets,” they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into worse economic insecurity and fear.
When they speak of “freedom,” what they actually seek is freedom from accountability.
This “reveal code” moment is, in a way, a blessing. It allows everyone to see where the money and power have gone.
It is a prerequisite to the long and difficult but necessary process of creating an economy and democracy for the many rather than for the few.
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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
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