youtube version of my conversation with @profyolonda.bsky.social

youtu.be/61O2VpCcgb8?...

see also

bsky.app/profile/polp...

it's not funny when this happens - it's another sign that we've ceased to be a true liberal democracy

the distinguishing feature of competitive authoritarianism is very different standards for the parties

both legal standards (check), but also informal standards, like press scrutiny

now, leading republicans have just decided they don't have to answer questions if they don't want to

& the press has tacitly decided that's ok

time was, if a politician flat couldn't answer a question like this, it'd be embarrassing, the press would make a thing of it, if it kept happening they'd have to resign

rick perry torched his presidential run by forgetting the agencies he wanted to cut, that sort of thing

that's kinda like my master starter pack, one stop shop for the field (broadly understood)

idk, you may think i'm giving them too much sympathy, the higher up people certainly deserve a lot of blame

but that 'leave one abusive structure to go create another' hits for me, even as i don't think there's much to be done, the whole project needs to be written off

it's an instinct that activism movements certainly can overcome, it's not in any way inevitable, but it's always a danger, we always have to contextualise our hurt, not let it lead us astray

it's what the end of this piece is about

newrepublic.com/article/1953...

& it certainly doesn't mean i'll be voting for them- the whole thing is a mess, preposterous, a bad joke

yet i'm not **entirely** without sympathy - i know how it goes when people with scars from unfair treatment turn on each other (& how vicious that can get)

i think sultana's not wrong to draw a parallel - i suspect a certain amount of this is people processing trauma by reenacting it on others once they get a little bit of power

that's doesn't justify it in any way, & it's not just that - they'll be bog standard idiots & control freaks too

being unfairly targeted in any workplace is scaring - ask anyone whose tried to fight an employer for discrimination

add to that working for a 'cause' tends to be very intense: people bond very tightly, falling out with that has the character of a divorce, or becoming estranged from a parent

i might write a (non academic) thing on it at some point, i'm just wondering if there's like some big study i need to be aware of

seems like no

i found a bit in the lit, as you say in forecasting, and in looking at lower races

i'm wondering if there's anything specific on presidential - that clearly functions differently to downfalls races, i haven't found much great

i know that sounds wild, but ask yourself - wouldn't a rational actor have got that this isn't working?

this has been the big revelation of this era for me - yes fascism is deranged, we knew that

but centrists have also become *deeply* fanatical

www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/appeasement

i keep asking myself with this government "do they not think ahead?"

& the answer honestly appears to be no

they believe their own myth - that they are serious, sensible sorts *& in virtue of that alone* will turn things around