once what’s left is a choice between philanthropy or “the market”, you are not in a very good place.

i think about how pundits mocked people expecting President Obama actually to stand up for things as “Green Lantern” theory, and compare it to how viciously effective not-even-President Trump is at shaping US action deploying nothing but his (very aptly named) bully pulpit.

it’s hard to believe how badly we are screwing Ukraine and destroying what little is left of the expectations that supported Pax Americana.

all in the service of the ambitions and ego of one petulant and foolish old man.

@kissane sometimes the curation is worse than the diseasation. (sorry. i’ll show myself out.)

“On living and working with ‘Nazis’” by Gordon / JGF https://notes.kateva.org/2024/02/on-living-and-working-with-nazis.html

@paninid i’m sorry. it’s a constabulary.

Buffering…

what morning in america would look like. https://mastodon.social/@Cdespinosa/111877444998212479

[tech notebook] Style-by-mail in feedletter https://tech.interfluidity.com/2024/02/04/style-by-mail-in-feedletter/index.html

i stand humbled by your company's bold new vision.

"I Ask Seven Heretical Questions About Progress" #TedGioia https://www.honest-broker.com/p/i-ask-seven-heretical-questions-about

(ht Tom A. I think!)

@LesterB99 that’s half of it. the other half is riling up the libs, because conflict and social radicalism increase political support for imposition of order, and fascism requires internal enemies. as long as the circus is raucous, Musk’s interests are well served. stoke the fear, and the bogeymen, all at once.

@LesterB99 I don't think Musk's social media outrages are motivated by any immediate "money domain". (I mean sure, moving to TX. but he's just venting a resentment.)

We are in a time of choosing, btw social democracy and a kind of plutocracy whose popular basis can only be fascism. Elon Musk, in his bufoonish way, is quite aware of that. And he is a strong partisan on one side.

It's not a Biden v Trump choice. That's related, but narrower and noisier. These times are a big social crossroads.

@LesterB99 his upside is the carnival, the emotion, bitterness, and rancor as along as it is directed towards anything but plutocracy.

@LesterB99 economic populists, who are most of the public but can be pitted against one another on cultural questions and opposing conspiracisms.

@carolannie yes, i think he almost revels in how stupid he can be and still cause mayhem.

what exactly money is can be pretty confusing.

(the part about whether you have it or you don’t can be jarringly clear, however.)

see @SteveRoth https://open.substack.com/pub/wealtheconomics/p/not-thinking-about-money

the numbers don’t lie, but they don’t tell the truth.

can’t we just go one day without anybody dying?

[new draft post] Nimble nationality will define state capacity https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/02/02/nimble-nationality-will-define-state-capacity/index.html