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Don’t give the buffoon too much credit, as a lot of these weaknesses were engineered starting around Reagan (with Carter and Nixon also shouldering some, but fa
by stego-tech 1y ago
Don’t give the buffoon too much credit, as a lot of these weaknesses were engineered starting around Reagan (with Carter and Nixon also shouldering some, but far less overall, blame). Neoliberalism and its “invisible hand of the free market” alliance with Laissez-Faire Capitalism all but ensured the demise of institutions and social safety nets in the name of maximum profit for the moneyed classes. We built a Golden Age atop the New Deal, and Capital threw it all away to return to the 20s, violent strikebreaking and all.
- King-Aaron 1y agoI see this argument of "oh it's been happening for a long time" getting thrown around a lot, and it feels like a really non-good-faith point of view that seems to ignore the administration directly targeting these institutions for destruction. Yes, poor management is a big problem that could be seen as an intentional structural issue, but this is a totally different ball game that's being played right now.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- stego-tech 1y agoIt’s really not, though; it’s just the proverbial relief crew in a later inning of the same ball game. The players have been shuffled around or replaced, but look at the tenures of some of the players in question and you can draw a pretty direct line all the way back. It’s not minimizing or trivializing the harms of today by pointing out their origins in the past; rather, it’s acknowledging this has been a long-term goal of those in power for decades, and it’ll take decades of continued, organized change to improve things. There are no easy solutions or quick wins here. It’s a long game, always has been and always will be. More people need to understand that