Democratic president candidate Michael Bloomberg drew mockery from both sides of the ideological spectrum after a viral clip of him showed the billionaire media tycoon belittling farming at a 2016 business school talk and contrasting it with the “gray matter” necessary to work in the modern information economy.

Bloomberg’s 2016 comments during a sit-down discussion at Oxford’s Said Business School gained attention after a Twitter account with the handle, Pete Mentes, posted a one-minute snippet of the former New York City mayor — who has never farmed — claiming “I could teach anybody in this room” to be a farmer.

“It’s a process,” he went on to say, referring to the agrarian economy 300 years ago, “you dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on to, add water, up comes the corn.” He then said working in the modern information economy is “fundamentally different, because it’s built around replacing people with technology and the skill sets you need to learn are how to think and analyze and that is a whole degree level different, you need to have different skill set, you have to have a lot more gray matter.”

Bloomberg on why farmers can’t work in information technology MB: “I can teach anyone how to be a farmer 1 dig a hole 2 put a seed in 3 put dirt on top 4 add water 5 up comes the corn” The skill 4information technology is completely different you need more grey matter#farmers pic.twitter.com/HM13tA6goz — Pete (@PeterMentes) February 15, 2020

The full video of Bloomberg’s comments from Nov. 11, 2016 are here (see video below) and the relevant part begins at the 42:00 mark.

Despite Bloomberg’s attempts to couch his comments as being about farming’s past, his clumsy explanation and dismissive tone outraged critics from both the left and the right, who pointed out that modern agriculture is also, in fact, a very demanding, high-tech job that requires intelligence and critical thinking skills to be successful.

Bloomberg: mocking American #farmers is no way to unify the country. He might as well have called them #deplorable #rubes. Way to reveal yourself https://t.co/MSQB2z4Vi3 — John Kass (@John_Kass) February 17, 2020

Bloomberg wouldn’t last 3 seconds as a farmer… but like his comments on minorities, you can tell he really hates regular hardworking Americans. He will never fight for them because he couldn’t care less about them. https://t.co/03CmskF5Vn — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 17, 2020

Mike Bloomberg does not know a lot (or even a little) about farming. https://t.co/j5nBdnS6BR — James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) February 16, 2020

Bloomberg seems to have acquired his knowledge of farming by watching Hee-Haw. https://t.co/cy4sTBSRh8 — Brit Hume (@brithume) February 16, 2020

Farmers work with astonishingly sophisticated information technology every day. But I suspect Mike Bloomberg doesn’t know a lot of people with modern combines. https://t.co/ftY2wmfFPc — Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) February 16, 2020

Farm tractors and combines pack far more tech than a Bloomberg Terminal. They are mobile data centers. America’s farmers are now experts in agronomy, tech, data analytics, & other advanced skills. Grateful for their work. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/PZt3nF7Xyd — Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) February 17, 2020

The only person lacking grey matter here is Bloomberg. I’d trust a farmer to learn IT loooong before I’d trust Bloomberg to run the country. https://t.co/N3Lr5QfjnO — Mike Beasley (@MikeBeas) February 16, 2020

Bloomberg is clearly talking about farming before the industrial revolution, but he also doesn’t seem to recognize modern farmers as active members of the tech community. It’s a common misapprehension about lifetime city-dwellers, but it’s horribly misinformed. https://t.co/M21lsSfrrO — Ted Genoways (@TedGenoways) February 17, 2020

Bloomberg is an enormous clown who doesn’t know about farming and doesn’t deign to speak to farmers. If he did, he’d know farming is intensely high tech today. https://t.co/anq5kLMJgV — Julie Gunlock (@JGunlock) February 16, 2020

Holy wow. Yeah, farmers use zero technology, dude. Good grief. https://t.co/YBJkfKcSz1 — Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) February 16, 2020

Having loved both sides of this equation, I can confirm that with regards to this statement Bloomberg is being both ignorant as fuck and an asshole. Farming is surprisingly high tech, farmers are not stupid, and dude doesn’t even address harvesting or distribution. https://t.co/OLangE3OLx — Mike Laidlaw ✈ GDC (@Mike_Laidlaw) February 17, 2020

This “can teach anyone” quip is ignorant.

Farmers are electricians plumbers, mechanics, scientists, vets, engineers & H2O/soil conservationists; they take care of the crops that fill our cupboards & care for the animals who provide dairy & meat for our feasts.

But Ok GreyMatter https://t.co/I28Z1ji7pO — SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) February 16, 2020

Look I’m not going out on a limb here when I say Bloomberg and Trump know as much about farming. That is to say zero. https://t.co/KurIU1z2Ws — Wilson Dizard (@willdizard) February 17, 2020

Bloomberg is arrogant and out of touch. Meanwhile, @POTUS continues to support our American farming, mining and agriculture industries = the backbone of many state economies, including Nevada. #mining #agriculture #NV04 https://t.co/UdMFkdlNXd — Lisa Song Sutton (R – NV04) Candidate US Congress (@LisaSongSutton) February 17, 2020

Other commenters looked past his comments and instead offered a meta-take on what the resurfacing of this clip said about the prospects of Bloomberg’s candidacy, which has been hit with several damaging and incendiary stories in the past few days.

So far, oppo research on Bloomberg has dug up past comments alienating… African-Americans

Women

Farmers

Teachers unions

Civil libertarians At this rate, there won’t be anyone left to be offended by Super Tuesday. https://t.co/zKEovgDueF — Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) February 17, 2020

The whole “Bloomberg is our best chance to win over moderate Republicans” thing doesn’t quite match his “people from flyover states are stupid and their jobs take absolutely no skill” position in interviews. https://t.co/7Pm7aLKU6y — Daniel J. Willis (@BayAreaData) February 17, 2020

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