Sound advice, but it requires there be "live players" (in Samo Burja's terms) activating and coordinating the resistance who can take that advice. I see no such thing in the US, only an army of armchair activists complaining on Bluesky in their job breaks, while the country sleepwalks into autocracy.
Have you been to a protest? Have you seen them? Many of them were gigantic - with millions across the country. I'd hardly call those armchair activists.
It's a great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide NoKings rally is Saturday, October 18. Be there or be square!
We need 3.5% of the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families. Spread the word as far and wide as possible. Let's all get out there with a Howard Beale spirit and yell "We're as mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore!".
Those who complain that there are no "live players" are the ones who don't want to save democracy but replace it with their own authoritarianism, this time from the left.
The push for ranked choice voting has Republicans freaked out. Maybe we should start with that particular election reform as a campaign issue? It helps defang gerrymandering because it mushes the party boundaries? Because if we cannot vote Republicans out of office, little local Nazis will continue to swagger around sucking up egoboo pretending they're large & in charge because they voted for Big Bully Trump. Or, in terms of your article, sided with the winning coalition.
What I advocate is that we coordinate around new system-wide policies rather than simply defending the post World War II status quo.
We should launch an national effort to commercialize fusion, for example. And we should set up a vetting system for refugees seeking to take residency in the U.S., a vetting system somewhat like a parole system in our courts but designed specifically for immigration...and then open the gates to those who want to come and subject themselves to that monitoring. Also, we should provide free tuition to all who want post-secondary education and then recapture the cost of that expense by putting extra percentage increases on the income tax of any who take advantage of this free tuition (in which government funds are paid directly to the schools and universities, not to the individuals).
Finally, the opposition to the Trump administration and its enablers should make huge celebrations together at national holidays, showing the country how satisfying (and fun) it can be to cooperate in opposition to this administration but not in opposition to the country as a whole.
I have deep respect for your work, especially your contributions on interdependence and the architecture of power. That’s why this piece struck me as surprisingly conventional… (?)
Somehow it feels anchored in a 20th-century framework of politics w/ visible actors, coalition logic, moral leadership. You choose to operate within the expectations of an audience that still believes power is held, rather than architected.
Wow the architecture of coordination itself has changed?
The ‘process of persuasion’ is saturated with compelling myth-like narrative forms, too. Trump intuitively works on this. So far, it is matching up more or less with Thiel & Co’s ‘lord of the rings’ understanding of themselves and the world.
True, but he's not "persuading" anyone who wasn't already in the fold. He just exploited what was already there. And quite a few of them are starting to break away. Not the hardcore MAGAnuts - they're lost for all time - but those who've always been on the cult fringes are having second and third thoughts about it.
Never give up hope - that's what Trumpkopf wants us to do. Let's not give him an easy victory.
Spearheaded by Faux Newspeak, without whom he would never have gotten this far. It's incredibly ironic that he's now suing Faux, WSJ and even Murdoch himself for exposing his Epstein connection.
Yes, for starters, but it's much more complicated than this. Above all, it's necessary to be specific about what "resist" and "coordinate" mean. Trump has increasing control over the levers of government that allow him to reward and punish individual people, businesses and institutions on a discretionary basis. (My last post discussed what taking over the Fed could give him.) The extent to which his promises can be trusted is an important issue, but as he acquires more weapons his targets will be forced into short term calculations. It may well seem the better course to give him what he wants even though there is uncertainty over how much this buys. And on our side, what tools do we have? Street demonstrations are useful for showing each other how many of us there are, but that's a true counterforce only if we can then go beyond waving placards. Universities, media companies, law firms etc. currently have only the power to say no, not to do anything that would actually disempower Trump. It's highly asymmetric.
I don't want to come across as a defeatist. There may well be resources we can draw on to threaten Trump and not just refuse to collaborate (and accept his punishments). They will require coordination, bringing us back to the topic of the OP. That, it seems to me, is what we needed to be talking about.
Thoughtful post, well worth reading. I don't know if this is true, but my impression watching Hong Kong and Belarus was that the authoritarians have honed their tactics since the Commune or more recently East Germany, learning to turn the tables on the sense of inevitability that is crucial for a popular uprising with patience, strategic brutality and reliance on their control of the media to inure and divide. If nothing is gained, eventually people stop coming.
Sound advice, but it requires there be "live players" (in Samo Burja's terms) activating and coordinating the resistance who can take that advice. I see no such thing in the US, only an army of armchair activists complaining on Bluesky in their job breaks, while the country sleepwalks into autocracy.
Have you been to a protest? Have you seen them? Many of them were gigantic - with millions across the country. I'd hardly call those armchair activists.
It's a great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide NoKings rally is Saturday, October 18. Be there or be square!
We need 3.5% of the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families. Spread the word as far and wide as possible. Let's all get out there with a Howard Beale spirit and yell "We're as mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore!".
https://www.nokings.org/
Those who complain that there are no "live players" are the ones who don't want to save democracy but replace it with their own authoritarianism, this time from the left.
Oh I don't believe that's the case.
The push for ranked choice voting has Republicans freaked out. Maybe we should start with that particular election reform as a campaign issue? It helps defang gerrymandering because it mushes the party boundaries? Because if we cannot vote Republicans out of office, little local Nazis will continue to swagger around sucking up egoboo pretending they're large & in charge because they voted for Big Bully Trump. Or, in terms of your article, sided with the winning coalition.
This is important analysis.
What I advocate is that we coordinate around new system-wide policies rather than simply defending the post World War II status quo.
We should launch an national effort to commercialize fusion, for example. And we should set up a vetting system for refugees seeking to take residency in the U.S., a vetting system somewhat like a parole system in our courts but designed specifically for immigration...and then open the gates to those who want to come and subject themselves to that monitoring. Also, we should provide free tuition to all who want post-secondary education and then recapture the cost of that expense by putting extra percentage increases on the income tax of any who take advantage of this free tuition (in which government funds are paid directly to the schools and universities, not to the individuals).
Finally, the opposition to the Trump administration and its enablers should make huge celebrations together at national holidays, showing the country how satisfying (and fun) it can be to cooperate in opposition to this administration but not in opposition to the country as a whole.
I agree with much of this, but first, foremost and above all other things, we need to ditch the TrumPox regime.
I have deep respect for your work, especially your contributions on interdependence and the architecture of power. That’s why this piece struck me as surprisingly conventional… (?)
Somehow it feels anchored in a 20th-century framework of politics w/ visible actors, coalition logic, moral leadership. You choose to operate within the expectations of an audience that still believes power is held, rather than architected.
Wow the architecture of coordination itself has changed?
I’m sorry to tell you that even more and bigger disappointments are on the way.
lol. No post-estatal authors, no post-estatal power.
The ‘process of persuasion’ is saturated with compelling myth-like narrative forms, too. Trump intuitively works on this. So far, it is matching up more or less with Thiel & Co’s ‘lord of the rings’ understanding of themselves and the world.
True, but he's not "persuading" anyone who wasn't already in the fold. He just exploited what was already there. And quite a few of them are starting to break away. Not the hardcore MAGAnuts - they're lost for all time - but those who've always been on the cult fringes are having second and third thoughts about it.
Never give up hope - that's what Trumpkopf wants us to do. Let's not give him an easy victory.
Trump's got a huge coalition of white supremacist media allies that do their best to spin for him and he's still unpopular.
Spearheaded by Faux Newspeak, without whom he would never have gotten this far. It's incredibly ironic that he's now suing Faux, WSJ and even Murdoch himself for exposing his Epstein connection.
Excellent.
Excellent! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
For our President a bite in the ass would be a very serious wound.
IDK, he has such an ample rump he might not notice a small bite. Now if the whole thing gets bitten off, that might be another story. He'd feel that.
Yes, for starters, but it's much more complicated than this. Above all, it's necessary to be specific about what "resist" and "coordinate" mean. Trump has increasing control over the levers of government that allow him to reward and punish individual people, businesses and institutions on a discretionary basis. (My last post discussed what taking over the Fed could give him.) The extent to which his promises can be trusted is an important issue, but as he acquires more weapons his targets will be forced into short term calculations. It may well seem the better course to give him what he wants even though there is uncertainty over how much this buys. And on our side, what tools do we have? Street demonstrations are useful for showing each other how many of us there are, but that's a true counterforce only if we can then go beyond waving placards. Universities, media companies, law firms etc. currently have only the power to say no, not to do anything that would actually disempower Trump. It's highly asymmetric.
I don't want to come across as a defeatist. There may well be resources we can draw on to threaten Trump and not just refuse to collaborate (and accept his punishments). They will require coordination, bringing us back to the topic of the OP. That, it seems to me, is what we needed to be talking about.
Heard a story in kindergarten called “ Who will bell the cat?”
Thoughtful post, well worth reading. I don't know if this is true, but my impression watching Hong Kong and Belarus was that the authoritarians have honed their tactics since the Commune or more recently East Germany, learning to turn the tables on the sense of inevitability that is crucial for a popular uprising with patience, strategic brutality and reliance on their control of the media to inure and divide. If nothing is gained, eventually people stop coming.
preach brother, profound ideas worth pursuing and worthy common sense...
Wow, you're so right. Priority #1 is to get rid of The Orange Scourge and his regime. Everything else can wait till later.