America Has Bad Elites

Cite

APA MLA Chicago

Palange, J. (2026, September 17). America Has Bad Elites. The Dispatch. https://thedispatch.com/article/america-bad-elites-education-morals/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

The article discusses the concept of legitimacy in leadership through the historical example of Deioces, the first king of the Medes who gained power despite not being the most qualified. It draws a parallel to modern American society and its tech leaders attending President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration in 2025, suggesting that like Deioces, contemporary elites may lack legitimacy yet maintain their positions through various means.

Written by AI on 2026-09-17, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

The Greek historian Herodotus recounts a seventh-century B.C. story about Deioces, who became the first king of the Medes but lacked the inherent legitimacy to rule effectively. To secure his position, Deioces implemented a rule that nobody could see him, ensuring he maintained control by being an enigmatic figure. Fast-forwarding to modern times, a similar dynamic played out in January 2025 when prominent tech leaders attended Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. President-elect at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, raising questions about the legitimacy and influence of elites within government.

Written for “American Elite Criticism” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

25%

1 of 4 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

Leans left

of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate

Publisher signals

61/100

The Dispatch's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Politics

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-09-17 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Dispatch · 404 article(s) · 1 correction(s) detected

Running correction rate · 1 correction(s)

2026-10-06

What We Got Wrong in September

Who wrote this

Joseph Palange

1 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 To protect his place in society, he established the rule that no one may lay eyes on the king.

2026-09-17 · mixed framing · America Has Bad Elites

The only article under this byline in the corpus.

Topics

B.C. Greek Medes U.S. Washington, DC

Subjects

Deioces PERSON · 2× Medes NORP · 2× U.S. GPE · 2× B.C. GPE · 1× Chip Somodevilla PERSON · 1× Donald Trump PERSON · 1× Getty Images ORG · 1× Greek NORP · 1× Herodotus PERSON · 1× Washington, DC GPE · 1×

Narrative

The Greek historian Herodotus tells us of a seventh-century B.C. man named Deioces, who became the first king of the Medes but faced the most pervasive problem in government: legitimacy.

framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-17

🔮 To protect his place in society, he established the rule that no one may lay eyes on the king.

2026-09-17 · The Dispatch

America Has Bad Elites · mixed framing

Claims (4 extracted, 1 hedged)

The Greek historian Herodotus tells us of a seventh-century B.C. man named Deioces, who became the first king of the Medes but faced the most pervasive problem in government: legitimacy. asserted

who → tell → government

Deioces was not the best of the Medes, and he knew it. asserted

he → know → it

To protect his place in society, he established the rule that no one may lay eyes on the king. uncertain

one → protect → king

Tech leaders attend the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025, in Washington, DC. asserted

leaders → attend → Washington