4 ms·

Conservatives are still the status quo btw

elzbardico 3y ago
It's kind of complicated. The old labels of right and left, conservative vs progressives, and socialist vs capitalists are clearly inadequate nowadays. Class struggle based left has all but disappeared in the West. And whatever your point of view on American involvement in Ukraine, it is clear that at least the mainstream branches of both parties are largely in accord. Trump's belligerence on China (justified or not, I am not discussing this) has not only been embraced by the Democrats and NeverТrumpers on the Republican side, but also has been extended far beyond pure economic war, flirting now with proper kinetic war. Environmental issues, once a solid socialist banner, now have been enthusiastically embraced by Wall Street (I suspect, unfortunately, for not-so-noble reasons beyond banks salivating at the prospect of financing the green transition, and entrepreneurs dreaming about all the opportunities on rebuilding our infrastructure and replacing the entire automobile fleet. Not that is bad in itself, capitalism needs constant growth to be viable, and green rebuilding allows this to happen for a few more decades without utterly destroying our planet). Civil rights also have been solidly co-opted by the oligarchic class. Both for reasons that the moral behavior and values of the elites are fairly advanced and they want to impose their values as the mainstream values down the throats of the more backward working class and because it is useful as it redirects energy from unionization and other forms of class struggle. All of our labels and categories simply don't work to understand this complex scenario.
- soundnote 3y ago
  ESG is an easy example of the kind of regulatory moat against competition that classical libertarian analysis routinely complains about. > Civil rights also have been solidly co-opted by the oligarchic class. Both for reasons that the moral behavior and values of the elites are fairly advanced and they want to impose their values as the mainstream values down the throats of the more backward working class and because it is useful as it redirects energy from unionization and other forms of class struggle. Worse than that - the elites actively hold luxury beliefs that cause damage at the lower rungs of society but the elites themselves don't quite behave by but which are useful to proclaim as signals of class allegiance and attaining status. That said, it's been plainly shown that eg. the diversity push is in good part an anti-unionization ploy yet most of the left keeps supporting it.

It's kind of complicated. The old labels of right and left, conservative vs progressives, and socialist vs capitalists are clearly inadequate nowadays. Class struggle based left has all but disappeared in the West. And whatever your point of view on American involvement in Ukraine, it is clear that at least the mainstream branches of both parties are largely in accord. Trump's belligerence on China (justified or not, I am not discussing this) has not only been embraced by the Democrats and NeverТrumpers on the Republican side, but also has been extended far beyond pure economic war, flirting now with proper kinetic war. Environmental issues, once a solid socialist banner, now have been enthusiastically embraced by Wall Street (I suspect, unfortunately, for not-so-noble reasons beyond banks salivating at the prospect of financing the green transition, and entrepreneurs dreaming about all the opportunities on rebuilding our infrastructure and replacing the entire automobile fleet. Not that is bad in itself, capitalism needs constant growth to be viable, and green rebuilding allows this to happen for a few more decades without utterly destroying our planet). Civil rights also have been solidly co-opted by the oligarchic class. Both for reasons that the moral behavior and values of the elites are fairly advanced and they want to impose their values as the mainstream values down the throats of the more backward working class and because it is useful as it redirects energy from unionization and other forms of class struggle. All of our labels and categories simply don't work to understand this complex scenario.

soundnote 3y ago
ESG is an easy example of the kind of regulatory moat against competition that classical libertarian analysis routinely complains about. > Civil rights also have been solidly co-opted by the oligarchic class. Both for reasons that the moral behavior and values of the elites are fairly advanced and they want to impose their values as the mainstream values down the throats of the more backward working class and because it is useful as it redirects energy from unionization and other forms of class struggle. Worse than that - the elites actively hold luxury beliefs that cause damage at the lower rungs of society but the elites themselves don't quite behave by but which are useful to proclaim as signals of class allegiance and attaining status. That said, it's been plainly shown that eg. the diversity push is in good part an anti-unionization ploy yet most of the left keeps supporting it.