More political flamebait from designed to create more heat than light.
By "oligarchy" they're not referring to the 1% or anything like that:
"The federal government, the governments of states and localities run by the Democratic Party, along with the major corporations, the educational establishment, and the news media set strict but movable boundaries about what they may or may not say — on pain of being cast out, isolated from society’s mainstream."
By "ever-shifting variety of urgent excuses" I assume the author is implying "made up":
"Using an ever-shifting variety of urgent excuses, which range from the coronavirus, to the threat of domestic terrorism, to catastrophic climate change, to the evils of racism, they issue edicts that they enforce through anti-democratic means—from social pressure and threats, to corporate censorship of digital platforms, to bureaucratic fiat."
summary: the author seems to be suggesting that individuals living in the US should secede from public life and mass culture in favor of becoming "idiots" in the original sense of the word[0]. Ignore the nation, ignore the state, focus on one's own local community, family, and friends -- and don't let strangers order you around.
By "oligarchy" they're not referring to the 1% or anything like that:
"The federal government, the governments of states and localities run by the Democratic Party, along with the major corporations, the educational establishment, and the news media set strict but movable boundaries about what they may or may not say — on pain of being cast out, isolated from society’s mainstream."
By "ever-shifting variety of urgent excuses" I assume the author is implying "made up":
"Using an ever-shifting variety of urgent excuses, which range from the coronavirus, to the threat of domestic terrorism, to catastrophic climate change, to the evils of racism, they issue edicts that they enforce through anti-democratic means—from social pressure and threats, to corporate censorship of digital platforms, to bureaucratic fiat."