Western governments claim to be models of democracy, and demonize their geopolitical adversaries as "authoritarian", but empirical evidence shows that the USA and European countries are oligarchies dominated by economic elites and large corporations.
Billionaire Donald Trump is the perfect symbol of this, but he's by no means the only one. Ben Norton explains.
Topics
0:00 Narrative of Western "democracies"
0:26 (CLIP) Joe Biden on "democracy vs autocracy"
0:37 Western governments are oligarchies
1:54 Summary of oligarchic Western leaders
2:54 Scientific research shows USA is an oligarchy
4:29 US public opinion on healthcare
5:20 Money buys 80-90% of seats in US Congress
6:27 Citizens United ruling
7:21 Donald Trump: perfect symbol of US oligarchy
7:57 Robber barons
8:44 One Big Beautiful Bill: class war by the rich
9:49 Billionaires pay lower tax rate than most Americans
10:42 US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
11:35 Ex US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin
12:16 Steve Bannon worked for Goldman Sachs
12:58 US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
13:07 Crypto was taken over by Wall Street
14:08 Trump is the symptom, not the cause
15:07 Biden promised nothing would change
16:07 Barack Obama: funded by Wall Street
17:53 Mitt Romney: servant of Wall Street
18:48 Super PACs
19:32 Bloomberg funded Biden's 2020 race
19:56 Billionaires funded Trump's 2024 race
20:35 Elon Musk donated $288 million for Trump
20:57 (CLIP) Elon Musk bought 2024 US election
21:11 World's richest man buys US politics
21:34 Wall Street wages war on Zohran Mamdani
22:46 Democratic Party sabotaged Bernie Sanders
24:34 UK Labour Party sabotaged Jeremy Corbyn
26:18 British spy agencies sabotaged Jeremy Corbyn
28:15 Symbol of UK oligarchy: Rishi Sunak
31:37 Neoliberal Keir Starmer: Tony Blair reincarnated
32:35 France's President of the rich: Emmanuel Macron
36:04 BlackRock's man in Germany: Friedrich Merz
37:40 Goldman Sachs' man in Italy: Mario Draghi
39:10 Goldman Sachs' man in Canada: Mark Carney
40:22 Summary of oligarchic Western leaders
41:35 Western governments are not democracies
42:45 Outro
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