The End of US Democracy

20 pointsposted a day ago
by hackyhacky
(crookedtimber.org)

13 Comments

burnt-resistor

a day ago

0: I dislike political sides-ism extreme rhetorical tone because it reinforces divided and conquered political gamesmanship rather than addressing an almost universally-greater concern: that ordinary people are so easily set against one another by very few, small cadres of excessively rich+powerful people and their helpers in mass media and political figureheads.

1: I dislike fatalism/doomerism because it reinforces learned helplessness and assumes absence of agency. (And I also detest accelerationism.) No empire/established/civilization is irreversibly doomed to decline or dissolution if the cycle of corruption, power accretion, and/or mismanagement that may occur as a macro trend in a cycle, orthogonal to political parties, can be interrupted and reset. FDR did this once and someone like him can do it again. It's important to read and learn from historical examples of how other empires failed and to avoid rhyming historical patterns of unnecessary chaos.

Suggested reading:

- The Fourth Turning by Howe and Strauss

- The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson

johnea

17 hours ago

> political sides-ism ?

As opposed to what? "Why can't we all just get along"?

It would be so great if the cycle of corruption could be interrupted to prevent the fall of civilization; but when has this ever happened?

Please remember FDR is still being called a communist in the MAGA universe, just as he was in the previous right-wing republican era.

The difference with NAGA is that it's actively dismantling the new deal benefits.

> assumes absence of agency

What agency? You can count your personal agency WRT US govt policy by counting the number of hundred million dollar blocks in your net worth.

Even after rereading, I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

The citations seem to contradict your statements, in that they seem to predict a decline into authoritarianism, whereas your text seems to dismiss the idea.

Personally, I feel the cheato committed treason with the assault on congress as the election was being certified. He should have been tried and convicted of this crime.

Now, the president isn't capable of committing a crime. How convenient. And Illustrative...

soundpuppy

a day ago

And a singularity just in time. There will be reprucussions. Any quick change has more massive consequences than something long term, but it’s more of a shockwave of imbalance, as the AI systems begin creating butterfly effects in society that gives it regional, continental, then finally global domination over world militaries, and we give rise to an era which becomes a rollercoaster of amusement for which only AI can control over different societies to keep even small groups of three people in check, yet using tactics fabricated from timelines that other AI agents place bets on. And ecosystem of human states. That’s what we are in. and we’re just in for indescribable circumstances

soundpuppy

a day ago

Super intelligence aware worlds create flowing states of utopia and miracles that spreads over the globe and ends all war at a genetic trigger level

123yawaworht456

a day ago

>as the AI systems begin creating butterfly effects in society that gives it regional, continental, then finally global domination over world militarie

yeah bro, the people in power will just go ahead and hand it over to semi-retarded chatbots

slowmovintarget

11 hours ago

The article characterizes people who voted for Trump as criminals. This is not useful discussion, it's just flamebait.

almosthere

a day ago

[flagged]

toomuchtodo

a day ago

Manufacturing only makes up ~8% of jobs in the US [1], and any manufacturing that re-shores will be as automated as possible to avoid labor costs. So, through current policy, you're going to potentially do irreversible damage to the US economy, global trade will re-arrange excluding the US (the global market can absorb whatever the US decides not to import), and whomever thought they were going to get a good paying, lifetime manufacturing job out of this is going to be disappointed.

(service sector makes up ~80% of the US workforce; if you want a secure, living wage job, unionize, there is no other path; we're cosplaying over what should be a good job or not when the argument is simply "all labor is deserving of dignity and a living wage")

[1] https://usafacts.org/articles/diminishing-role-manufacturing...

almosthere

a day ago

How is unionizing and saying in the same post that we're going to automate it away going to help with anything?

toomuchtodo

a day ago

You unionize the service jobs and whatever is left of manufacturing. What can be automated will be automated regardless.

No union? No power. The rest is politics, which moves at a glacial pace and not always in the right direction.

user

a day ago

[deleted]

nh23423fefe

18 hours ago

> With the benefit of hindsight, Biden might have declared a state of emergency immediately after the insurrection, arrested Trump, and expelled all the congressional Republicans who had voted to overturn the election.

This is what hyperventilation looks like. When the elections in 26 and 28 and 30 happen the goal posts will be moved.

Everyone is racist is so trite and boring. The left is insane.