During Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony yesterday at the Capitol, a group of ultra-powerful men on the planet were gathered. They form what is called a “broligarchy”. But what is it about?
It escaped no one’s notice during Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday, February 20 at the Capitol, the new American president was able to count on a lot of support, particularly from those called “broligarchs”.
The term “broligarchy” comes from the English “broligarchy”, which condenses the word “brother” and “oligarchy”.
It therefore refers to a form of oligarchy made up of “bros”, designating a group of male billionaires from Silicon Valley, very influential and sharing an ideology.
The term “broligarchy” is used critically to describe the emergence of this new form of power concentrated in the hands of this group of men. It is also associated with traits such as supremacism, elitism, exacerbated masculine solidarity and performative masculinity.
Who ?
Among the emblematic figures of this new elite, we find:
- Elon Musk, boss of X and Tesla, “chief technical officer” of the Trump administration
- Peter Thiel, president of Palantir Technology and co-founder of PayPal
- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon
- Mark Zuckerberg, PDG de Meta
- Marc Andreessen, “techno-optimist” investor, known for his controversial positions
- Joe Lonsdale and Palmer Luckey, libertarian co-founders of Palantir, a mass surveillance company
- Travis Kalanick, former CEO of Uber
In the front row of Donald Trump’s inauguration, in addition to Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, already cited as the “pillars” of the “broligarchy”, were other major tech figures like Sundar Pichai, the boss of Google, Tim Cook, Apple, but also Sam Altman, founder of chatGPT.
-This new aristocracy 2.0 weighs more than a trillion dollars when adding up the personal fortunes of its members, based on data from Forbes magazine.
And if during Donald Trump’s first term, the big names of the new economy had kept their distance, this time, they were jostling at the gate to get their place. Like Mark Zuckerberg who, in 2016, even said he was worried about Donald Trump’s migration policy. This time, the Facebook co-founder traveled to Florida several times to meet the president-elect. In addition, it recently announced the end of fact-checking as well as the relaxation of moderation policies on its social networks. A policy that is worrying, because it will leave more room for discriminatory comments.
Joe Biden’s warning
This broligarchy is scary. Even outgoing President Joe Biden, in his last address to the country, warned against “an oligarchy [qui] takes shape in America” et “concretely threatens [la] entire democracy, [ses] basic rights and freedoms.
He spoke of the rise of a “technological-industrial complex” with major influence, worrying “of the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-rich people” and “dangerous consequences if their power is left without limits”.
broligarchie
silicon valley
elon musk
Mark Zuckerbeg
jeff bezos
donald trump
