Looks like it takes a world war or an empire to collapse set things right again 👍
this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2024
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Basically.
We just had what was likely our last chance to correct course without a significant amount of suffering and we utterly failed. An extremist party that literally ran on fundamentally changing our government now has total control. We don't deserve democracy, and now we might actually lose it.
Up until the 2000s, it looks like the autocratization trend line follows the democratization line with a 15-year delay. If that pattern continued, autocratization should have peaked around 2010 and declined ever since.
So what broke the pattern—the internet? The end of the Cold War? Climate change?
My vote goes for the internet.
Politics really started to get noticably crazier and less grounded in reality around the time everyone started having access to the internet in the palm of their hands. I've been online since 97 and the internet used to be less populated, more informative, and more fun. Around the time smart phones became a thing the internet started morphing into something else. A lot more misinformation. A lot more anger. A lot more stupid.
Humans simply were not equipped to handle the internet and social media. We don't have the educational background to navigate it responsibly. It became the greatest misinformation/propaganda tool in human history and we weren't ready for it.
I think it was when the internet was corporatized. I remember back as a kid browsing around the internet and I laughed my ass off that Colgate had a website. My early 90’s teenage brain could not figure out why toothpaste would need a web presence. I fired up a browser and I looked at what other brands that I figured would never need a website.
If I’d had a credit card that day I’d be a multimillionaire. Sadly domains were still crazy expensive and I was 13.
Short story long, it wasn’t much longer before the internet became essentially a giant ad machine/captive social media network.
The Cold War never ended.
In some ways, sure—but having grown up in the Cold War, things certainly feel different now. (For one thing, the party that was once the most rabidly anti-Soviet is now the most pro-Russian, with all the foreign policy realignments that entails.)
If Russia is truly as corrupt as the news implies then that's on brand for current day Republicans, they'd want to emulate that as much as possible (see: attempts to privatize all public services in the US). Russia isn't communist anymore so there's no reason for them to be universally hated by capitalist interests, they got what they wanted.
(For one thing, the party that was once the most rabidly anti-Soviet is now the most pro-Russian, with all the foreign policy realignments that entails.)
because the former KGB agent didn't change his enemy, just his political stripes.
Yup.
And assuming we don't straight up lose our democracy, we're at least going to experience a long period of decline, possibly lasting the remainder of our lives.
This isn't going to magically change 4 years from now, even if the pendulum swings back and we vote Democrats into power. Our society just proved itself to be utterly uneducated and intellectually lazy. We're just going to keep digging ourselves into a deeper hole. And that's assuming in the next 4 years Republicans don't change things in such a way as to ensure they can never lose an election again.
One way or another, we've lost. The only question is the speed at which the decline will take place.
Feels like after a week of reeling, folks are coming to their senses. I think this shit is going to be brutal as there are no checks and balances left on a dude who’s brain sucked to begin with but is undeniably failing in realtime.
Buckle up folks, we’re in uncharted waters here.
Yeah, and it's not just economic woes we have to worry about. We're going to backslide as a democracy and ethically as a nation. We're going to lose allies. NATO is going to be impacted and that makes the world a much more dangerous place.
We're going to be feeling this decline for a very long time. Elections have far reaching consequences and we apparently did not learn that from Trump's 1st failed presidency.
Bingo. It’s bleak but believe it or not, talking about it with others who see it too, helps. Thanks.
I’m a parent, so got no choice but to get to work and see what the fuck can be done. I truly did not believe this shit would come to pass; when folks would talk about leaving the country if he was elected, I’d joke that I’d stay and join the underground. Well, guess it’s time to start digging.
I truly did not believe this shit would come to pass
No one ever does. Then it happens. And history is there to tell the story and warn us, but apparently the majority of Americans didn't bother paying attention in history class.
For the sake of your kid I hope you live in an area that's willing to push back and maintain a strong public education system and rights for its citizens. And do whatever you can to resist while staying safe.
Nice pull. That'll be linked in my future emailings.
That is a really interesting graph. It sure looks broadly cyclical
The fact that it's not interminable is the reason for optimism. The timelines are slow though and with modern technology the pendulum swings might be generations or centuries.
Yeah, history repeats itself, right?
Two problems though.
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It could very well take longer than our lifespans, placing us in a decline for the rest of our lives. Not an uncommon thing if you've studied enough history.
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The stakes are higher now because modern warfare is more extreme. Even not taking nukes into account, which you clearly have to.
It's just sad. We're likely to spend years, if not decades, knowing there was another timeline we could have been on and that we were there when we diverged onto the shittier one.
Personally, I'm tired. My current plan is to ween myself off all social media and news sources and go with the "ignorance is bliss" strategy. There are far too many ignorant people in this society for us to head in a good direction. I gotta stop paying attention and caring about what happens or it'll drive me mad.
The biggest bummer is when they democratize and suddenly the rug gets pulled out and it's like democratization never happened. Such as Tunisia and Myanmar