this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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I think it's interesting that the media and Democratic party approved relief valve movement is using "no kings" instead of "no oligarchs." I know we all know that
and
are also liberals who don't really want to address material conditions, but the "no oligarchs" branding was getting some traction with mainstream liberals. A well designed movement that actually wanted to generate some momentum could have capitalized on that to create unified messaging and cohesion. But the people who are designing this protest movement either are oligarchs or are trying to cozy up to them: that rhetoric is dangerous and needs to be quashed. So "no oligarchs" becomes "no kings," which can be spun as only applying to the Republicans instead of American politics across the board. This has the side benefit of bleeding some momentum off the more left-oriented "oligarch" rhetoric, which is probably just as (if not more) important to them.
The protests were funded/organized by a Walmart heiress, a literal billionaire oligarch. If you combined all the Walton wealth they would be the wealthiest family in the world.
Yeah, that's exactly my point. The choice of language is not an accident, nor is it organic. It's deliberate rhetorical propaganda that's primarily aimed at defusing any nascent class solidarity.
Worth noting that there were "no kings" protests outside the US (fuckin why??) and they renamed them "no clowns" because they didn't want to offend the commonwealth monarchy
nothing but a pressure relief valve to stop any actual action