2.10.25 - On Current Events
It all looks quite bad.
I wanted to be happier about the Trump administration and be proven wrong, maybe I was just a hater or lost in a liberal echo chamber, and he wasnt going to be so bad. No, all evidence suggests that the Orange Man is quite bad.
Seems like we're headed towards Caesarism, electoral authoritarianism, illiberal democracy, whatever you want to call it. I was sympathetic to effort to tame the bureaucracy and align with some of the interpretations of unitary executive theory.
But combined with efforts to control spending with impoundment, a general culture of loyalty to the party figurehead over the constitution, unilateral control over tariffs that gives enormous leverage over the business community, industry's resulting recognition that proximity to the President is important to do business in America, New Media's close ties with the insurgent right wing, the fact that the readership of old media is aging, the fact that young Americans seem less literate and lack the indepdnence and vigor to create new institutions and movements to counter this wave, the fact that Artificial Intellignece looks poised to further reduce our faculties and reasoning . . .
It all point to the possibility that we're heading towards a very very dark future. One that's deeply authoritarian, brazenly anti-intellectual, one that's far less culturally productive, and where we realy on concentrated platforms with proximity to political power for communication and opinion formation.
It really looks very bleak.
I hope, I pray I'm wrong. On New Year's day I was at the club and YMCA came on and I felt, you know what, maybe things will be alright, maybe four years under this crazy man will be enough to set things straight and end the libshit tyrrany of the past 20 odd years. But it rapidly seems like what will supplant it is just far uglier.