@Jonathanglick Yeah. That's no good. Hopelessness is always savvier than wise.
"Institutions" very broadly construed (not necessarily formal institutions) have to stand as a bridge between individual and collective (potentially systemic) agency. Mass protests are an institution, and I think they had effect during that period. (I am less sanguine about that institution going forward, though, for a variety of reasons.)
@Jonathanglick I think it's a potato chip kind of effect. We know they are wrong or at least we are liable to abuse them but they are satisfying somehow so often we succumb. Especially when people are so actively trying to sell them to us. When we watch Netflix, we are interested in characters and drama. Thinking structurally feels like work, it doesn't draw us like entertainment. If we let ourselves be persuaded eating potato chips is virtuous work, that's very convenient!
@Jonathanglick (I hope that calling explicit attention to its incoherence and counterproductiveness can help de-fuse them. But that's more a matter of hope than evidence!)
[new draft post] Systemic means it's not your fault https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2023/04/10/systemic-means-its-not-your-fault/index.html
@stephenjudkins omg what an amazing filtration technology!
if you didn't know about condensation, wouldn't the natural question be "how did the water get through the glass?"
you'd conclude that glass was porous.
on the QSite, “Substack” is trending, but if you click it you get search results for “newsletter”.
they call them badges because they badger.
@DetroitDan @JoeGrowling @mikethemadbiologist i wish he’d note the vulnerability of the two party system to this dynamic, rather than just bad Rs, good Ds. but broadly i think he’s right — Rs are using gerrymandering to ensure voters’ choices are Republican government or government dysfunctionally divided (since Republican legislators prioritize sabotaging Democratic governors above governing well). without electoral reform or some meaningful restraint of gerrymandering, there’s not much 1/
@DetroitDan @JoeGrowling @mikethemadbiologist meaningful electoral democracy left in R governed states. Wisconsin will be interesting to watch, where Rs may face a choice btw tolerating de-gerrymandering or impeaching a Supreme Court justice transparently to prevent that. whether R governed states are “fascist” i think depends on how governors try to sustain legitimacy. FL, TX i think now qualify as protofascist, probably some others too, but i don’t think that’s true of all R governed states.
“many people apparently thought Musk was part of a “Western-values/free-speech coalition” (according to Weinstein). Sure, if those Western values are of seventeenth-century ‘l’État, c’est moi’ vintage.” #CathyYoung https://www.thebulwark.com/so-much-for-elon-musk-free-speech-warrior/
gun rights are for everyone!
for the governor’s allies, they are a proud manly right to bear arms. for those the governor does not favor, carrying a firearm is a license to be killed.
everyone let’s exercise our 2nd Amendment rights!
does anybody have good dreams?
Just imagine if you could spell any word.
to describe the direction of American politics and economics as “neofeudal” used to be provocative. cf @mikethemadbiologist https://mikethemadbiologist.com/2023/04/07/tennessee-and-patriarchy/
“Yes, I Know Where the Comma Goes” #JakeRusso https://notes.jakerusso.com/2023/04/08/yes-i-know.html
“the real reason I pony up is for a quality beyond straightforward ‘utility,’ a quality I usually refer to as ‘Doesn’t Make Me Wish I Was Dead.’” #MaxRead https://maxread.substack.com/p/why-would-anyone-subscribe-to-a-social
so, i hear Twitter is now labeling a variety of newsfeeds “government funded” which i’m fine with i just wish they’d pair it with a similar label “plutocrat funded”.
You just never know with the humans.
@voron the next big thing would be Google circa 2002.
there is always demand for indulgences, so it’s good that we have a nonprofit sector to meet it.
mastodon is a bit less parasocial than twitter, which should be a virtue, but we’ve so completely substituted parasociability for our social lives, it means we feel a bit more lonesome.
