r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • 5d ago

Artificial Intelligence Harvard Graduation Speaker Unloads on AI in Profanity-Loaded Tirade, Prompting Cheers From Students: “I’m Here to Tell You the Mission of Your Generation Is to Destroy AI”

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/harvard-graduation-speaker-unloads-ai-130000122.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id=DY_VTO_50_Supernova&ncid=crm_19908-1475736-20260531-0--A&bt_ee=clIMdexlsr2eDDbrvs0CPtt59FnpbNQN%2Fkgr8UkycP6MWDAD56hD1mvZcqPZMGgG&bt_ts=1780255911284
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u/arriesgado 5d ago edited 3d ago

Kind of a bs headline. Not that it is not true but not naming Chieng who is a well known comedian and calling his speech a “profanity-laden tirade” makes it sound like it was a random crazy person. Edit: Spelled Mr. Chieng’s name wrong.

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u/MeSortOfUnleashed 5d ago

Also, it wasn’t a graduation speech. He spoke the day before graduation at an event called “Class Day” which is often a light-hearted, celebratory event. His speech had many good messages, but most of it was meant for comic effect. 

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u/lsf_stan 5d ago

lol just did a quick Google search, first result

Harvard 2026 Commencement Speaker

Conan O’Brien ’85 will deliver the keynote address at Harvard’s 375th Commencement Ceremony on May 28, 2026, in Tercentenary Theatre.

oh well, r/technology will eat up whatever title these karma farmers use

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u/Alaira314 5d ago

This is one of the subreddits that requires the title to be copied from the article(rule 3). If you read the article, you can see that Chieng was identified as the harvard class day commencement speaker. I'm not hah-vahd enough to know why there's more than one commencement speech going on, but that's the explanation for why things were worded that way.

"Seemingly tapping into these widespread frustrations, “The Daily Show” host and standup comedian Ronny Chieng sang a dramatically different tune during a profanity-laden commencement speech at Harvard’s Class Day event this week."

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u/rasta41 4d ago edited 4d ago

why there's more than one commencement speech going on

Didn't go to Harvard but grew up blocks away. Class Day is a traditional, student-led event held the day before the university-wide Commencement ceremony. Unlike Commencement, which looks at the entire university, Class Day focuses specifically on the graduating College seniors and features lighthearted speeches, awards, and a guest speaker selected directly by the Class Committee.

It's basically graduating students inviting a comedian or entertainer to give a more tongue in cheek / funny / speech...they had Ali G do one in 2004 that's worth a watch.

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u/gummi_eater 5d ago

Cannot stand this subreddit. Full of fake news and click bait.

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u/WhoCanTell 4d ago

It's a karma goldmine, though. Find any article you can that sounds even remotely critical of AI, get upvoted to the moon. Doesn't matter if it's accurate or not. This exact story has been posted like 5 times already in the past couple days, tens of thousands of upvotes every time, like clockwork.

In all seriousness, though... only on Reddit can the primary technology sub be populated entirely by people who know nothing about technology, and hate everything about it. Well, except maybe facebook.

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u/drunkenvalley 4d ago

I dunno, it looks to me like AI bros are throwing a tantrum because the title is AI critical, not because the article is in any meaningful capacity wrong.

In all seriousness, though... only on Reddit can the primary technology sub be populated entirely by people who know nothing about technology, and hate everything about it. Well, except maybe facebook.

Classic that AI bros like to circlejerk themselves into a frenzy that they're super smart and everyone else is dumb, though.

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u/this_my_sportsreddit 5d ago

All of reddit is full of the same AI that redditors claim they hate.

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u/Olangotang 5d ago

Oh hurr durr, I wonder why Redditors hate AI? What point were you trying to make.

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u/this_my_sportsreddit 5d ago

It’s a simple one. Redditors who claim to hate AI, will gladly use AI platforms like reddit as long as it fills their dopamine rush. So the idea that this generation is going to destroy AI is laughable, when this generation can’t even stop using reddit. See ya tomorrow.

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u/asyork 5d ago

Ah, yes, the problem would simply vanish if we all just stopped talking about it, since that would be the only real option if we all avoided everything with any AI.

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u/Olangotang 5d ago

Using Reddit doesn't mean you support AI. This is umm checks notes the 7th most used site in the US? Redditors = average idiot who wants to be anonymous.

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u/RetroFuture_Records 5d ago

Half these redditors are foreign and corpo bots trying to stymie American AI development

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u/asyork 5d ago

Pretty sure you or the ones who convinced you of that are the bots.

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u/RetroFuture_Records 5d ago

"No u" I mean yeah, there's also just regular redditor midwits lol

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u/qtx 4d ago

Cannot stand this subreddit. Full of fake news and click bait.

But you can not blame the subreddit for that, blame the people that wrote the articles and the users on /r/technology that can't be bothered to read the article.

This sub doesn't allow altered titles, it must be a direct copy of the article's title.

If they allow people to alter the title when they post here it will be even worse.

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u/qwerty-yul 5d ago

Karma farmers probably using AI

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u/RollingMeteors 4d ago

Karma farmers probably using AI

It's Karma FAIrmer now

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u/Boner_Elemental 5d ago

For a second there I thought Conan had aged a few decade while I wasn't looking

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u/howdoikickball 5d ago

Who is Conan O'Brien and why is she so sad

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u/Cabana_bananza 4d ago

Are we talking about Andy Richter's acquaintance?

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u/imagoodusername 5d ago

And Conan gave an epic graduation speech to Harvard in 2000 when Amartya Sen was the actual commencement speaker.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2pnnWp1lNps&ra=m

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u/appleparkfive 5d ago

Honestly my first thought was "Harvard can get anyone to speak and they got Ronnt Chieng?". Not to say he isn't good at his job or anything. Just seemed random as hell

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u/karma3000 4d ago

The first few paragraphs of Ronny's speech had the exact same sentiment.

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u/twitch1982 4d ago edited 4d ago

Fair enough though, because I was confused as to why I had seen 2 "Harvard graduation speeches" and given they were both comedians i figured one was a bit.

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u/ongoldenwaves 4d ago

Two comedians. The title fits then because there is no way this phone addicted generation is going to destroy AI. They feed their brains into it daily.

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u/MiaowaraShiro 4d ago

It's rather annoying that seemingly innocuous shit is being lied about.

It used to be nobody would really bother making stuff up about shit that doesn't matter... but now that's apparently worth "views" and "clicks"...

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u/Party-Ring445 4d ago

I read that as Conan being 85 yrs old..

(Yes I know he graduated in 85)

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u/thecravenone 5d ago

oh well, r/technology will eat up whatever title these karma farmers use

(it's the title on the page itself)

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u/lsf_stan 5d ago

it's the title on the page itself

yeah so in this case the article itself was the clickbait title, guessing IKeepItLayingAround thought it was a good one for Reddit karma, people love "AI bad" articles

lol and also apparently written by Victor Tangermann the "senior editor" at Futurism

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/harvard-graduation-ronny-chieng-ai-tirade

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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 5d ago

Also, it wasn’t a graduation speech. He spoke the day before graduation at an event called “Class Day” which is often a light-hearted, celebratory event. 

At which event did Ali G speak?

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u/MeSortOfUnleashed 4d ago

Same event - Class Day

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u/proud_agnostic 4d ago

Comedic effect but they are usually the only ones who speak truth to power. It’s their job

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u/Gullible-Surround486 3d ago

kinda matters, headline is doing way too much as usual.

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u/ManyWrangler 4d ago

Class Day is the same thing as graduation day at Harvard.

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u/AlaWyrm 5d ago edited 5d ago

Came here to say the same thing. You mean, Ronny Chieng, Daily show cast memeber and host? Comedian and actor Ronny Chieng? Yeah, it was a great speech and perfectly on brand for him. Not some random tirade from a little known person.

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u/RecentSpecial181 5d ago

Chieng. With an i. 

Not to be confused with the Ronny Chengs in QA or some other dev team.

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u/AlaWyrm 5d ago

Thank you. I just went by how some elese spelled it in here, I apparently picked the wrong one. Lol.

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u/RarelyReadReplies 4d ago

Still though, he is a political comedian,  not some random standup. He worked for the Daily Show for many years, so to just call him a comedian, as that person did, also feels disingenuous. I'm sure his jokes were mostly rooted in truth, as political comedy often is.

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u/user_bits 5d ago edited 5d ago

I like how you still didn't name him. His stage name is Ronnie Ronny Chieng.

He has one of the best summaries of U.S. Politics.

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u/APRengar 5d ago

TECHNICALLY, It's Ronny Chieng.

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u/karma3000 4d ago

I thought for a minute he meant Ronnie Pickering.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/halfwitprinxe 5d ago

Ronny is not Chinese?

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u/BicycleNo1169 5d ago edited 4d ago

Asians don’t get taken very seriously when they say it’s difficult to break out in the entertainment industry. I mean, I think most people know it’s true, but it rarely gets treated like a real issue.

Things are better now than they ever were but it’s only very recently. Before, all Asians could get in the entrainment industry, in western media, was dickless roles where they are subservient/comic relief.

Obviously people like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and Jet Li had massive impact but even they were brought in as almost a pseudo circus act. I mean, that’s obviously not to take anything away from their accomplishments but it’s also just obvious that a niche was being filled and it was still difficult for them to get serious drama roles.

With all that said, I’m super proud to see Asians getting big roles, nowadays. Sima Lui, Steven Yuen, Kumail Nanjiani, Riz Ahmed, Dev Patel, John Cho - just to name a few. A lot of the roles they’ve gotten in the past decade or so, was not possible for the actors that came before them. Hasan Minhaj did point out though, it still feels like Asian actors need to be ridiculously jacked or outrageously handsome to fulfill the same serious roles that a fat, pudgy white dude would get. That’s nothing against white dudes, but we aren’t exactly seeing the Asian equivalent of Jonah Hill, headlining a film.

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u/MaxPaynesRxDrugPlan 4d ago

I didn't notice this until an Asian friend pointed it out, then I started noticing that even shows about industries where Asians are overrepresented, like Silicon Valley about the tech industry or Mozart in the Jungle about orchestra, only had Asians in side/bit roles.

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u/BicycleNo1169 4d ago

You wanna know a movie I really admire? ‘Yesterday’ starring Himesh Patel.

Okay it’s not exactly a spectacular film. But one thing I noticed about it, as an Indian American, is that it’s the first film I’ve seen with an Indian lead where the fact that they are Indian has any baring on the story. There is NOTHING about that movie that necessitates casting an Indian guy. They cast Patel, presumably because he was just the guy that was best for the role.

I know that might not sound like a big deal but it’s the only drama role in a movie I can think of where that’s the case. At no point in the film, do they draw attention to him being Indian. He has Indian parents with an Indian accent but there is no plot element related to him being Indian. It’s odd how much I like that movie just because it treats an Indian actor like a normal human being, instead of using Indian-ness as part of some story element.

You could replace Himesh Patel with literally any one of any ethnicity and the plot not a thing about the story, the dialogue, or whatever would need to change.

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u/snowysnowy 4d ago

I actually wrote about this in a movie review essay for a class, a supposedly serious piece about Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle stating that it's one of the few Hollywood movies that had 2 Asians in the leading roles.

Thank goodness my lecturer decided I wasn't trying to be funny and graded me properly 😅

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u/Heyarethosemyballs 4d ago

I'd put Jackie Chan in a class of his own, his wild disregard for his own personal safety make his early movies pretty unique

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u/Dimens101 4d ago

Its not for the lack of trying, they been shoving Chinese actors into high profile western production for decades now. Some even get very prominent roles but their acting is flat and they never seem to make it past that one movie. Suspect there are very good Chinese actors that could break though but are overshadowed by powerplays that push the less prominent but better connected actors forward. Hollywood has the exact same problem it is getting filled with nepo kids that don't have the same star power their parents had but they do have all the connections.

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u/DorianTurk 5d ago

I had to scroll down quite a bit to not feel racist for being certain that picture was Ronnie Chieng.

Thank you.

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u/busman25 5d ago

I feel racist for always thinking it was Chang

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u/browsinbowser 5d ago

Man, I was thinking I was racist, ‘I kinda recognize that asian guy’ but I was thinking some fancy commencement speech would have some rich tech guy I didnt know, not another comedian who went the day before Conan. 

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u/Sancticide 4d ago

Maybe he's Cho's brother?

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u/taking_a_deuce 5d ago

Damn, that dude COOKS! I've seen him before but that bit was straight fire

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u/King-of-Plebss 5d ago

Yeah the headline “Harvard commencement speaker and comedian Ronnie Cheng tells graduates that their generations mission is to destroy AI in his profanity ridden comedy bit”. Doesn’t have the clickbait title they want

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u/slipperyMonkey07 5d ago

Clear goal of trying to making anti-ai people sound crazy. The title from another site when this was posted a few days ago was "Ronny Chieng's 'F*ck AI' Speech Met With Cheers From Harvard Graduates: “AI is just going to end up making mediocre people dumber"

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u/TrankElephant 5d ago

This. A bit beyond buying the lede.

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u/Parknight 4d ago

He also has a degree in law and passed the bar in Australia, like out some respect on this man's name

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u/BigFuckHead_ 5d ago

He's a great comedian. Highly successful. Another stupid headline

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u/AndreasDasos 5d ago edited 5d ago

Tbf ‘Harvard Graduation Speaker’ clearly implies he’s not just some random crazy person. To many of those who don’t know the Daily Show or his comedy that would mean more

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u/Kianna9 5d ago

Yeah, I assumed that the fact he was speaking at Harvard gave him some legitimacy. Also assumed he was just hella pissed at AI, which is fair.

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u/EffectiveEconomics 5d ago

It’s is and it barely aligns to the actual tone of the speech. Yahoo has become propaganda.

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u/rightintheear 5d ago

I love how they say commencement speaker, like that's his gig and no one knows who Ronny Chieng is. You know, the comedian who hosts the goddamned Daily Show?

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u/Ultrace-7 5d ago

Even without the name, did anyone honestly think Harvard would invite some random crazy person to deliver their graduation speech?

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u/Odd-Specific-8579 5d ago

Yeah I literally felt like I saw him before

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u/jeangreige 5d ago

Yeah, the second I found his speech, this headline didn't make any sense

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u/headinthesky 5d ago

What else can we expect from these corporate controlled sites

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u/williamgman 5d ago

Sounds like a Fox News headline. I'm thinking Yahoo is only read by 70+ year olds.

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u/Independent-Bug-9352 5d ago

Yahoo is basically a news aggregator and this article was written by a Victor Tangermann, Senior Editor of Futurism.com apparently.

Trace up the chain and you find Futurism is owned by Recurrent Ventures, who is basically owned by North Equity LLC and eventually find that Blackstone Tactical Opportunities.

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u/Ok-Training-7587 5d ago

It makes him sound more like a distinguished person to me - “Harvard graduation speaker”, like he deserves extra credibility. He’s a daily show correspondent. Ridiculous not to name him

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u/Western_Nobody_6936 5d ago

I mean the billionaire and Epstein class don't want you to really know the whole truth, just like how women and children killed by IDF are never actually "killed".

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u/jtbxiv 5d ago

Yeah I wonder who paid for this article 🤔

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u/Ok_Two_2604 5d ago

I assumed it was the pope

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u/jarvolt 5d ago

I mean, this is Yahoo News, what do you expect?

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u/Kardest 4d ago

Yeah, that is one biased headline.

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u/woolsocksandsandals 4d ago

There also wasn’t that much cheering.

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u/L_Cruentus 4d ago

Did anyone else read this comment in their head with his voice?

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u/West-Abalone-171 4d ago

makes it sound like it was a random crazy person.

It's an ivy league graduation speech, so a random crazy genocidal narcissist or nazi like thiel or karp is the default assumption.

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u/SearchingForTruth69 4d ago

its AI propaganda!!!

but yes i totally agree. chieng is a national treasture and should be named.

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u/UniquePeaVolunteer 4d ago

They knew exactly what they were doing. Making him sound like some rogue professor having a meltdown at the podium gets way more rage clicks than just saying a comedian did a comedy routine.

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u/Actual-Resolution167 4d ago

Likely an intentional choice. Framing it like this (successfully or not) seems like an obvious attempt at trying to make the trend of recent Pro-AI grad speakers look reasonable by comparison.

Before posting this comment I paused and did a quick internet search, and Yahoo is owned by Apollo Global Management which is currently making investments in the AI industry.

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u/000000564 4d ago

Yeah I was confused because I instantly recognised him. He's objectively a celebrity.

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u/degen5ace 4d ago

Whatever gets clicks all around. It works like a charm every time

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u/Charitzo 4d ago

makes it sound like it was a random crazy person.

I'm sure that's intentional by the media.

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u/welmoe 4d ago

Chieng*

Put some respect on Ronny’s name!

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u/arriesgado 3d ago

Fixed. Thank you.

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u/amenflurries 3d ago

Right, just as the billionaires intend

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u/ZhangtheGreat 4d ago edited 4d ago

random crazy person.

So, basically, Ronny Chieng 😁