Rule by judges shielding elites from the people: the fringe right sometimes calls this “Kritrachy”

Lol no comment

Brilliant skewering of activists- rich missionaries amongst the ignorant natives, supported by systems as bad as or worse than the ones they decry

Irish cameo- doesn’t mention that we enabled our own disenfranchisement and deserve everything we get

Two political spectrums. This is helpful

Democrats think trade agreements have been good for America

Lind is a great writer. This is a cutting definition of political correctness

Another great section, on the structural flaws and inherent tensions in populist movements

This is his solution to the problem of populism vs technocracy. the technocrats design the game and the let you play it. Yeah, no

Cotd. The flaw in this argument is that what constituted variety and a tolerable level of group difference in the 50s is totally different to what we see now

And again- can you spot the problem?

Russiagate, and similar fake scares “provide an excuse to increase monopoly on media power by freezing out political challengers”. Lots of that in the Irish media too

Russiagate as a bad thriller

The terrifying extent Russia’s international shitposting operation

Interesting side note- low support for removing confederate statues circa cville

How academia collaborates with the media in pathologising non-liberal mindsets

Cotd

“The purpose of describing politics in this way is to medicalise it, and to treat dissent from orthodoxy as evidence of mental and emotional disorders”

“Palliative Liberalism”- attempts addressing inequality without allowing workers countervailing power

Having elections doesn’t make you a democracy if important factions, like the non-college educated, don’t have a seat at the table (I disagree with what he says here btw)

As opposed to the manager or yesteryear, the boss of today “peruses the working class after the workday has ended”

He either doesn’t care or has Misdiagnosed the nature of the problem- if you think putting a few Mullahs on TV editorial teams will forestall the next Salvini or Brexit, you’re insane

“(Cultural & economic) compromises among communities can only occur within the boundaries of a political community with a fixed membership” ie a nation, with borders

Globalism, sovereignty and national unity- pick 2

I regret to inform you the libertarians are at it again

Done. thoughts: semi-recommended. The territory is over-familiar and I completely disagree with his prescriptions, however he’s a great line-to-line writer and at least has the balls to make specific recommendations rather than just sounding off