This post contains secret knowledge.
alignments and outcomes:
working class+professional class ⇒ social democracy
professional class+plutocrats ⇒ liberal plutocracy (“neoliberalism”)
working class+plutocrats ⇒ fascism
// i posted this on twitter in 2019. it's terribly simplistic.
// but i still like it, and i'm seeing some relevant conversations.
i always used to, pretty much every stupid day.
it occurs to me that i rarely know the main character any more, though if i have to guess i guess i'd presume it defaults to elon.
"Elementary school students are about 2-3 months behind their pre-COVID selves, while middle-school kids are more like 4-6 months behind. What's even worse is that in the current school year they appear to be falling even further behind" #KevinDrum https://jabberwocking.com/covid-really-did-a-number-on-americas-kids/
// seems not so consistent with the thesis that school closure / remote schooling is the sole culprit here, although of course it may play a role. there has been a lot of trauma and disruption.
"Neoliberal capitalism has done much more damage to the traditional English way of life than 'cultural Marxism' or 'wokesters' ever have." #ChrisDillow on small 'c' conservative which belongs neither to "left" nor "right" https://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2023/07/on-being-conservative.html
"The point of a money-laundering operation is to take in both fairly-earned and dirty money, then mix them together so thoroughly that nobody can tell which is which. Likewise, the point of a privilege-laundering operation is to take in both fairly-earned and dirty privilege, then stamp both with a Harvard degree." #ScottAlexander https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/why-match-school-and-student-rank
[new draft post] Cornering the future https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2023/07/10/cornering-the-future/index.html
@failedLyndonLaRouchite you are truly an innovator!
consider how much economic value is literally tossed into landfills because celebrities don’t bring to market their used toothbrushes.
back in the ussr.
you find yourself in a crowd and the humans tak tak tak they are talking talking talking and with all those people and all those words you wonder what they could possibly have that much to say.
the young smoke to flaunt their youth, to flash just how much debilitation they, but not we, can afford.
i used to tweet this on the bird site, this day, most years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_tyWt_9Bfs
paraphrasing @t0nyyates a bit https://twitter.com/t0nyyates/status/1675988026902626305 Elon Musk is the sort of principled libertarian whose motivating principal is maximizing the liberty of plutocrats and autocrats.
the choices he makes — mocking and suppressing speech asserting rights to defy people like him, amplifying fanbois of rightwing strongmen, acceding without resistance to takedown orders by autocrats — all make sense if you grant that Musk indeed has principles and follows them exactly where they lead.
as it happens I’m in Colombes, right next to Nanterre. everything is lovely.
social media always tells you the world is on fire, and it always is on fire. but a smaller part of the world is burning than social media pretends, to scare you into embracing bullshit.
they argue in bad faith that you are arguing in bad faith.
i always thought ESG was meaningless marketing for affluent people looking to make bank but still feel like good people. but prominent politicians tell me that in fact it’s a hegemonic conspiracy by the elites to oppress us all. i guess the annoyance of a few fossil fuel companies over slightly higher cost of capital really captures the will of the people.
with apologies to @pluralistic sometimes it happens so fast maybe endiarrheafication is a better description.
[repost] merge the court https://www.interfluidity.com/v2/7964.html
“Each western generation has to fight the idea that autocrats are generally, or even often, competent.” #JananGanesh https://www.ft.com/content/1c39013b-cc92-41bc-af08-7f518a966f90