They include institutional investors as well as individual investors in their mutual funds, so saying that they are owned by their investor mutual funds can be a sleigh of hand. Someone who has invested 10 million with Vanguard has more voting rights than the average retiree or mom and pop investor. Plus institutional investors can invest billions and therefore have more votes. Their website has all the woke b.s. listed in its guiding principals, so yes the mutual funds own Vanguard but some mutual funds have more say than others. Since its “private” thus the same shadow people trying to control western society could be the controlling votes for Vanguard. So yes you may own some of Vanguard but depending on how much invested it may only be nominal.
What you say is true, but you make it sound like it’s controlled only by a shadow group, which is not exactly the case. Small owner investors still have a say, even though they may be outvoted at shareholder meetings. You can’t say that “Vanguard is owned by a shadow group.” You can say that “Vanguard may be majority owned by shadow groups.” The difference is there is a part, however small, that is owned by small investors. The other thing is that if large corporations “own funds” in Vanguard, you don’t know if they consist of employees’ 401ks, in which case, the employees own the funds, not the corporation.
I don’t understand your comment that some mutual funds have more say than others. Someone who invests $100k in 5 funds vs. someone who invests $100k in one fund still has the same number of votes, since all the funds are counted together for the portfolio account balance. The funds have different objectives and risks: international stocks, international bonds, US stocks, US bonds, plus others, such as the Wellington fund, which are a mix of stocks and bonds. Each fund is made up of large numbers of entities, so they are balanced in terms of risk. The prospectus booklets for each fund, showing what companies and/or bond sellers are part of the fund, are quite thick. My opinion is that people who invest in Vanguard, especially the stock and bond funds that are not international, are investing in America.