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Don’t worry, we’re getting there. They just started dismantling what they refer to as the “administrative state”, but which largely deferred substantial questio

Don’t worry, we’re getting there. They just started dismantling what they refer to as the “administrative state”, but which largely deferred substantial questions requiring skill and non-partisan judgement to their respective experts. It was never perfect, nor free from partisan and/or economic concerns, but the replacement appears to be self-interested narcissists and sycophants and their personal fiefdoms, with precious little space for competence, logic, or integrity.

shrubby 6mo ago
At least now the masks (and Musks) are off. It was never between the left and the right or any other false dichotomies, but always between the Epstein-class and the actual human beings. The question now is that do the normal people realize and act on the fact that the elevator to Epstein class was never working. Or even better, they don't want to become the zillionaire class husk of a human.
- tovej 6mo ago
  You say it's not left v. right, but it sure sounds like you think the right is what's causing inequality. Which I agree with.
  - shrubby 6mo ago
    I consider "this" right to be moral in a different way. Now the right all around the world is hijacked by narcissistic greed that punishes any voicing of conservative moral. In the US some republicans are daring to challenge the extreme narcissistic greed and a lot more are thinking about this privately. I also mentioned the other dichotomies and perhaps the "right" could be hopelessness and the the "left" false hope. As in "no point trying to curb the emissions or addressing any social causes, because the zillionaires choke hold of the planet" vs. the "eternal green growth and economy will save us and make us rich". The Trump humangod class is not the right IMO. I believe that power (via money or absolute power) corrupts and thus me must find a way to prevent individuals from becoming human-gods. The left (without the "") pretends to know this but ends up being corrupted anyway and the right (the one that has some moral and spine left) seems to believe that they will not be corrupted by power. Hope that explains it a bit better.
    - komali2 6mo ago
      Are you an American? It would help me frame my response better to know. I assume yes for now, apologies if not. > The Trump humangod class is not the right IMO. Basically the problem with American education is that they started using the wrong words to describe things. American libertarians are right wing and not anarchists, American liberals are right wing, American right wingers are religious ethno-fascists, and American "communists" are neoliberals. Or democratic socialists. Or just protestors. Trump is absolutely on the Right Wing of politics, specifically he's a populist fascist: obsession with masculinity, hearkening to the culture of a mythical "before times," referencing national strength coming from ethnic purity, huge emphasis on marketing over policy, support for centralization of power around a dictator, militarism, and suppression of opposition through force. Verbatim fascist ideals, he's just not as powerful (yet) as previous fascist leaders. Fascist ideology is pretty much as far-right you can get, if we use useful definitions of "left wing" and "right wing." Anarchism would be as far-left as you can get, for comparison. Regarding the current discussion, those who are making critiques of a narcissistic greed class overriding morality and buying politics, are making, even if unintentionally, a leftist, anti-capitalist critique. A right-wing critique of the current USA government wouldn't be a class-analysis (Marxist analysis) like you did in your previous comment comparing "Epstein-class" (ultra wealthy) and "actual human beings" (the working class). A right wing critique would be more along the lines of: the government is incompetent, it's putting the needs of a few individuals above those of the state, it's not cracking down hard enough on leftist opposition, it should jail all opposition leaders, it should pass apartheid laws against members of the non-chosen ethnic group. So basically, if your issue with the USA is that power can be purchased with money, welcome to the Left, I promise we're not all as cringe as the ones you've seen on Twitter. Just kidding, it's perfectly possible to make leftist critiques without being a leftist, of course. You see American liberals do it all the time when they make right-wing critiques of the Left, in e.g. their opposition to anti-fascist and anti-capitalist elements of the left. > The left (without the "") pretends to know this but ends up being corrupted anyway Yes, absolutely, this is often a critique anarchists make of revolutionary communists. I think one American politician that will be very interesting to pay attention to for the next decade is Zohran Mamdani. He's already significantly softened his stance on Israel, I'm curious how far away from his original values he'll move.
  - WalterBright 6mo ago
    > the right is what's causing inequality If people have rights, then they are unequal. If they have no rights, they are equal.
    - WalterBright 6mo ago
      For example, people have a right to create wealth. To make people equal, it is necessary to take that right away.
      - komali2 6mo ago
        Hey again, Walter, we always seem to find eachother in these comment threads. The Soviet Union didn't create wealth? It put a man in space before the USA - that took "wealth" by some definition of the word, perhaps just not "personal wealth."
        WalterBright 6mo ago
        > The Soviet Union didn't create wealth? In order to prevent famine, the Soviets decided to allow farmers a portion of land where they could sell what they grew. It kept the country from collapsing. Every historical attempt at collective farms collapsed from starvation or was propped up by government money.
        komali2 6mo ago
        So that it created wealth is agreed, now the question is whether it was a socialist planned economy or not?
        AlexeyBelov 6mo ago
        I don't understand why people are still engaging with Walter on economics. He only ever posts the same things again and again: hot takes after taking econ 101.
      - tovej 6mo ago
        Nobody said we should make everyone exactly equal, that's a lazy strawman. Some inequality will always exist, but it should at the very least have a healthy balance point where the poorest get to live a decent life. Currently, inequality is a labile runaway process, where the Gini-index is running towards a value close to 1.
  - don_esteban 6mo ago
    The current fight is within the Eppstein class (both right and left elites), between the old money (Wall Street) and new money (techno-fascists/feudalists of Silicon Valley). The rabble is just taken for the ride, fooled by left vs right show and exploited along the way.
    - tovej 6mo ago
      Who's a "left elite"? The democrats are right wing.
      - don_esteban 6mo ago
        Heh, it would have been more precise to say 'the leaderships of both Republican and Democratic parties'. Left & right is too imprecise, there is left/right on economic issues (worker rights, curtailing power of monopolies), and there is left/right on cultural issues (abortion, gay rights, ...). The big coup of the rich elites has been distracting and redirecting the Democrats from economic issues to cultural ones (along the way losing the culturally conservative worker class).

shrubby 6mo ago

At least now the masks (and Musks) are off. It was never between the left and the right or any other false dichotomies, but always between the Epstein-class and the actual human beings. The question now is that do the normal people realize and act on the fact that the elevator to Epstein class was never working. Or even better, they don't want to become the zillionaire class husk of a human.

tovej 6mo ago
You say it's not left v. right, but it sure sounds like you think the right is what's causing inequality. Which I agree with.
- shrubby 6mo ago
  I consider "this" right to be moral in a different way. Now the right all around the world is hijacked by narcissistic greed that punishes any voicing of conservative moral. In the US some republicans are daring to challenge the extreme narcissistic greed and a lot more are thinking about this privately. I also mentioned the other dichotomies and perhaps the "right" could be hopelessness and the the "left" false hope. As in "no point trying to curb the emissions or addressing any social causes, because the zillionaires choke hold of the planet" vs. the "eternal green growth and economy will save us and make us rich". The Trump humangod class is not the right IMO. I believe that power (via money or absolute power) corrupts and thus me must find a way to prevent individuals from becoming human-gods. The left (without the "") pretends to know this but ends up being corrupted anyway and the right (the one that has some moral and spine left) seems to believe that they will not be corrupted by power. Hope that explains it a bit better.
  - komali2 6mo ago
    Are you an American? It would help me frame my response better to know. I assume yes for now, apologies if not. > The Trump humangod class is not the right IMO. Basically the problem with American education is that they started using the wrong words to describe things. American libertarians are right wing and not anarchists, American liberals are right wing, American right wingers are religious ethno-fascists, and American "communists" are neoliberals. Or democratic socialists. Or just protestors. Trump is absolutely on the Right Wing of politics, specifically he's a populist fascist: obsession with masculinity, hearkening to the culture of a mythical "before times," referencing national strength coming from ethnic purity, huge emphasis on marketing over policy, support for centralization of power around a dictator, militarism, and suppression of opposition through force. Verbatim fascist ideals, he's just not as powerful (yet) as previous fascist leaders. Fascist ideology is pretty much as far-right you can get, if we use useful definitions of "left wing" and "right wing." Anarchism would be as far-left as you can get, for comparison. Regarding the current discussion, those who are making critiques of a narcissistic greed class overriding morality and buying politics, are making, even if unintentionally, a leftist, anti-capitalist critique. A right-wing critique of the current USA government wouldn't be a class-analysis (Marxist analysis) like you did in your previous comment comparing "Epstein-class" (ultra wealthy) and "actual human beings" (the working class). A right wing critique would be more along the lines of: the government is incompetent, it's putting the needs of a few individuals above those of the state, it's not cracking down hard enough on leftist opposition, it should jail all opposition leaders, it should pass apartheid laws against members of the non-chosen ethnic group. So basically, if your issue with the USA is that power can be purchased with money, welcome to the Left, I promise we're not all as cringe as the ones you've seen on Twitter. Just kidding, it's perfectly possible to make leftist critiques without being a leftist, of course. You see American liberals do it all the time when they make right-wing critiques of the Left, in e.g. their opposition to anti-fascist and anti-capitalist elements of the left. > The left (without the "") pretends to know this but ends up being corrupted anyway Yes, absolutely, this is often a critique anarchists make of revolutionary communists. I think one American politician that will be very interesting to pay attention to for the next decade is Zohran Mamdani. He's already significantly softened his stance on Israel, I'm curious how far away from his original values he'll move.
- WalterBright 6mo ago
  > the right is what's causing inequality If people have rights, then they are unequal. If they have no rights, they are equal.
  - WalterBright 6mo ago
    For example, people have a right to create wealth. To make people equal, it is necessary to take that right away.
    - komali2 6mo ago
      Hey again, Walter, we always seem to find eachother in these comment threads. The Soviet Union didn't create wealth? It put a man in space before the USA - that took "wealth" by some definition of the word, perhaps just not "personal wealth."
      - WalterBright 6mo ago
        > The Soviet Union didn't create wealth? In order to prevent famine, the Soviets decided to allow farmers a portion of land where they could sell what they grew. It kept the country from collapsing. Every historical attempt at collective farms collapsed from starvation or was propped up by government money.
        komali2 6mo ago
        So that it created wealth is agreed, now the question is whether it was a socialist planned economy or not?
      - AlexeyBelov 6mo ago
        I don't understand why people are still engaging with Walter on economics. He only ever posts the same things again and again: hot takes after taking econ 101.
    - tovej 6mo ago
      Nobody said we should make everyone exactly equal, that's a lazy strawman. Some inequality will always exist, but it should at the very least have a healthy balance point where the poorest get to live a decent life. Currently, inequality is a labile runaway process, where the Gini-index is running towards a value close to 1.
- don_esteban 6mo ago
  The current fight is within the Eppstein class (both right and left elites), between the old money (Wall Street) and new money (techno-fascists/feudalists of Silicon Valley). The rabble is just taken for the ride, fooled by left vs right show and exploited along the way.
  - tovej 6mo ago
    Who's a "left elite"? The democrats are right wing.
    - don_esteban 6mo ago
      Heh, it would have been more precise to say 'the leaderships of both Republican and Democratic parties'. Left & right is too imprecise, there is left/right on economic issues (worker rights, curtailing power of monopolies), and there is left/right on cultural issues (abortion, gay rights, ...). The big coup of the rich elites has been distracting and redirecting the Democrats from economic issues to cultural ones (along the way losing the culturally conservative worker class).