From @pluralistic
"The question isn’t merely “How do we elect better leaders?” It’s “How do we make our leaders follow us?” Today’s Democrats are unserious quislings who keep bringing a squirt-gun to a mass-casualty assault-rifle spree-shooting. If we want Congressional Democrats to form a Nuremburg Caucus and start holding hearings on who they’re going to put in the dock when the Trump regime collapses, we’re going to have to drive them to it.”
Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈
in reply to Brian Gordon • • •Cory Doctorow
in reply to Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈 • • •@Papaexmatrikulatus Holy shit is this a dumb take.
How do you explain the post-war eruption of welfare states around the world? Were those leaders serving the wealthy and powerful?
Whence came the New Deal? Was that FDR doing millionaires' bidding?
Was Tommy Douglas a craven lickspittle of capital?
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Wow... for you, it is a dumb take. You obviously don't understand the logic of power and hierarchy.
Ok, i'll give you that: You can pressure the elite enough, so that they partially give into your demands. In Germany, the welfare system was launched under Bismarck, but he also persecuted socialists and didn't start socialism in Germany.
Welfare states after the war: ok, yes i see your argument. (1/3)
Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈
in reply to Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈 • • •This is not to discourage people, who want change, but to critizise the notion that you can use the tools of power to build a better world in the long run. (2/3)
Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈
in reply to Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈 • • •Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈
in reply to Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈 • • •Cory Doctorow
in reply to Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈 • • •@Papaexmatrikulatus Again, this is a dogshit, pig-ignorant take. The New Deal was the single most redistributive program in American history and it substantially reduced the wealth and power of the richest Americans.
The reason the New Deal was good for the American economy is that oligarchy is bad for any economy.
Papa Exmatrikulatus 🏴🏳️🌈
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Yes, sry i confused the New Deal with the Marshall Plan somehow. Oops.
But still: Granted, that the New Deal bettered the material condition of many poor people and raised taxes significantly on the rich, it still stabilized the capitalist, hierarchical system. In the longer run, this system was still highly suscebtible to the 'wrong people', who used the advantage in power and wealth to gradually cement themselves at the top and reverse the policies of the New Deal.
Fabio Neves 🇨🇦🇧🇷
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •