This article was posted shortly before the election but everything in there is still true and seeing his appointees perhaps worse than predicted.
Carl Sagan wrote in 1995:
I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance
While there were always idiots, they often lacked the capacity to engage or equip themselves with such a sophisticated web of lies to prop up their beliefs. As such, Joe Schmoe from Bumfuck, Alabama had a limited platform and so could go on his blissfully ignorant way without much harm beyond his county line.
These days? They all communicate together and domestic and foreign operatives can reach them all the same to stoke division.
Crazy to watch.
“Democratic collapse nowadays isn’t a matter of abolishing elections and declaring oneself dictator, but rather stealthily hollowing out a democratic system so it’s harder and harder for the opposition to win. This strategy requires full control over the state and the bureaucracy: That means having the right staff in the right places who can use their power to erode democracy’s core functions.”
The establishment Dems and Reps have been doing this for decades. Trump is just the last straw. He’s walking away with the monster they created and he’s probably going to let it off the leash.
The only question I have is whether the oligarchy wants him to do that. Imo they weren’t ready for it last time. They built the monster for someone controllable like Clinton or Jeb!, and I think they were actually surprised when Trump won the first time. This time they made him a nice little play book, and they’ve had some time to learn how to at least keep him pointed in the right direction, if not controlled. They might be ready to release the monster they created. Everyone will blame Trump too, instead of the oligarchy… Bonus.
It is alarmists. Ill repost this in 4 years when he peacefully leaves office to laugh at u all. Btw does lemmy have a remindme bot or has it been banned like all the other usefull bots.
Who’s “you all”? The people with whom you’ve been arguing will probably all have new user names by then.
Im sure they will. But when they read it they will be forced to admit that im right and thats gonna give them all sorts of self value issues.
They’ll defend their egos by finding some way in which they’re still right.
They think they can stop it. Just like they can stop monero, piracy, and encryption?
Plus i dont live in the worlds richest 3rd world nation like u so ill be fine over here in australia with my socialised healthcare and gun free schools.
And your nanny state. Don’t think the rest of the world doesn’t know Aussies clutch pearls hard enough to crush them. Y’all are a stones throw away from Fascism, mates.
That headline though. My inner pedant just cannot leave it alone. Democracy is like Nature. It does not care about you or me or Trump. It will continue to exist as an idea no matter what he does. Other countries will even continue to use it.
Same as anarchism.
Lots of people valuing self reliance and care for others without regard for our existing leaders and systems. There just happens to also be systems of governments around.
excuse my ignorance, but ive always wondered this about anarchism: Seems to me that people gather and organize themselves to reach common goals. How can these organizations not become governments? is that actually possible?
A lot of what is commonly called anarchism isn’t a complete lack of government. It’s more like removing the capitalist system and wealthy elite. Then not having large governments, make stuff like the town council the highest form of government.
I’m not 100% sure how that translates to modern mass infrastructure and global trade but those are the basic ideas as best as I can see.
I think like any other political or philosophical view, this is one of those things where you will get one unique answer per each anarchist you ask.
Speaking personally, I think philosophies should be used as tools, and as the best tool for a job.
To me, anarchism means disregarding established authority and working together to achieve whatever a goal is. Ideally cooperatively. Some groups will perform well at this and some will not. Some will perform better under a more traditional organized structure.
I don’t want to subjugate people with anarchist dogma. I want to help people learn to trust themselves and to cooperate. And I want to get better at it myself.
By avoiding hierarchy. So it’s like how a poker game has a bunch of players, but nobody is the boss of poker. And if somebody starts cheating, you either expel them or form a new group.
The hard part is scaling this up to billions of people.
This is written as if the election were still in the future. We’re going in, and it’s going to be hell. This is the loadout selection screen before the match starts. We need to be thinking of ways we can bolster our communities and defend ourselves.
