Post Ak8TmDGDSOaXiFVB4a by iju@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by iju@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #Ak75cWA5jgMFNcWO1Y by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-20T06:25:05Z
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Yeah, they just accidentally became the most wealthy people on the planet. We have to bow and supplicate and do their bidding. They must have been real idiots to fool us all into doing that. It's not like a smart person could stab you in the back and then play dumb. Surely that couldn't possibly be what's going on, when your scammer suddenly forgets how to speak English so you can't stop him from running out of the room with your wallet.
(DIR) Post #Ak8997kK1lcaEVfQqO by iju@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T15:01:12Z
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@cy @IanDSmith "Important" isn't the same as most wealthy.There are also (and relatively common in Europe) people who plagiarize their master's thesis on which they get hired to middle management, then sit and wait their underlings to accomplish something of which they take the credit for promotion. Repeat few times, then move to politics with war chest from their friends they're met on the way up.
(DIR) Post #Ak89cPTRCB9Pc1jaeO by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-20T18:44:34Z
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I'll at least admit that the goal is concentration of wealth, not rewarding smarts. It doesn't matter if the one in charge is a genius or a moron, whoever more effectively makes us slaves of the rich is the one who will be appointed. There are Big Brother situations in history, where useful idiots kept the oppression going just for the sake of oppression. N. Korea for instance. (Maybe.)But it's very important not to underestimate the intelligence of these people, because they will go out of their way to make you think they're incompetent, bumbling, and not a threat. The guy who stumbles against you to steal your wallet is not clumsy at all.CC: @IanDSmith@mastodonapp.uk
(DIR) Post #Ak89glcemyxFSo7lVQ by fvsch@hachyderm.io
2024-07-20T10:05:08Z
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@cy @IanDSmith If you add class warfare and class solidarity to your analysis, it suddenly makes way more sense that there can be actually incompetent people in positions of power.
(DIR) Post #Ak8AOtHJgbZFwvBM5w by meowski@fluf.club
2024-07-20T18:53:38.327882Z
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@fvsch @cy especially when they openly engage in ballot stuffing and rig the election in front of everyone
(DIR) Post #Ak8TmCGt8PX2e2oCTw by iju@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T18:50:18Z
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@cy @IanDSmith I can name several living people in Finnish politics alone who got to the very top of the heap by plagiarism and by promising to scratch other people's backs. Then they write on Twitter without their PR-people and prove they don't understand the basic introductions in topics they claim to be masters at.(We don't really have singular nigh-billionaires who dabble in politics.)I mean, it's about money, but mostly it's about ideology trumping common sense and experts.
(DIR) Post #Ak8TmDGDSOaXiFVB4a by iju@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T18:58:26Z
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@cy @IanDSmith The main thing I should probably underline is the following: the closer ideology is to the zeitgeist, the less you have to explain why you believe in it.Thus politicans who rise to the top pushing popular ideology aren't those with deep understanding of the subject (the strengths, limits, and best practices) but those who are good at rhetoric.Which leads them to fucking things up. Not because of the ideology, but because they don't understand implementations.
(DIR) Post #Ak8TmDrnCge7an5Bdw by iju@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T19:01:53Z
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@cy @IanDSmith For example: privatisations in Britain during the last 15 years. They were done horribly, leasing situations not seen since early 20th century. But this isn't because privatisations can't be done decently*, but because the people doing the privatisations didn't understand social sciences and just thought that you do This One Thing Leftists Hate and suddenly things go well (enough to be voted to power repeatedly)._And I'm saying this as a card carrying socialist.
(DIR) Post #Ak8TmEChwvNOdertFA by iju@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T18:52:33Z
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@cy @IanDSmith That being said, I think our lived experiences differ too much for a conversation to be had without going through the basic assumptions. That's hard work, and I'm not sure if it's gainful way to spend time.I do want to say that I realise you're writing in good faith and hope you understand I'm doing the same. đź’™
(DIR) Post #Ak8TmEQX7WR3KXKvnE by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-20T22:30:25Z
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The only thing that could possibly happen if the people privatizing our public services don't understand social sciences is that the privatization fails, or people just ignore it and do better anyway. When they understand what they're doing, you get Margaret Thatcher. You get Austerity.
(DIR) Post #Ak8faILZv1E9Sm5rVI by iju@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T23:16:03Z
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@cy Isn't NHS built upon independent GP's? One could argue that even in its glory days it was privatised.Better example would be trains. They could easily have been privatised so that companies lowest-bid for the right to rent and run the trains on state's name for few years at a time with perhaps a share of the ticket profits. That would incentive both getting as many travellers, make sure that there's no "fat", and every few years the state could check that things are going as planned.*
(DIR) Post #Ak8faJ3XHaOBf6ey1I by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-21T00:42:45Z
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The USA from the civil war onward is pretty good evidence of what happens when you privatize the trains. Private companies don't cut out fat, they cut out competition, and tyranny ensues. Trains are powerful, important, and used by absolutely everyone, so they can't be private property.Anyway it doesn't make sense for the state to rent out anything. They don't need the money. They're the ones who make it!
(DIR) Post #Ak8faKOUJAk7oNTDJg by iju@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T23:22:19Z
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@cy * This is an example how public transport is handled in many Finnish metropolitan regions with good results. On minus-side: complaints on the operation might take years to be fixed, some of that "fat" are in employee-salaries and benefits etc.As I said, I'm a leftist and this isn't how I'd choose to do this, but if forced to sacrifice state company, this would ensure that there's know-how outside one gigantic company, and to ensure an important public service serves..well, the public.
(DIR) Post #Ak8tQCraqnP4v09U1o by iju@mastodon.social
2024-07-21T01:36:22Z
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@cy I think I didn't succeed in explaining myself well.In the above scenario the privatisation is that of operation. It's done to limit public employees, to limit hierarchy/bureaucracy, and to provide alternative view to the operation, which is good from redundancy pov. It's in no way similar to robber barons' monopolies of the old west. For one thing, the trains would still be run to prioritize public good and not private income.Public-private partnership and all that.
(DIR) Post #Ak8tQE7w9W4Spyo38q by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-21T03:17:48Z
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Orrr, the public could run them. Publically. And do better. Public/private partnerships are what Reagan and Thatcher introduced, and all they have ever done is serve as an excuse for some private organization to extract wealth from a public good. I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but I really urge you to take a good look at the origin of such things, in particular Thatcher's creation of BP.Your line of reasoning is the same that policy makers use to justify cutting funding to libraries and post offices, because why don't we just "partner" with bookstores and FedEx? End result is crappy results everywhere, more grifting and waste, and less accountability.
(DIR) Post #Ak9wVzBh6UdhGHxfKC by roblosricos@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T23:43:36Z
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@fvsch @cy @IanDSmith and yet so many people - like benito mussolini, juan peron, and mao tse dung - have ridden the crest of "class war" and "working class power" to despotism undreamed of by anyone not born a "tzar" ('tzar' means "god/emperor" to the Russian Orthodox Church.)
(DIR) Post #Ak9wW0f9cRnZpwkhsm by roblosricos@mastodon.social
2024-07-20T23:53:40Z
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@fvsch @cy @IanDSmith i won't argue this point. here:https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/rob-los-ricos-class-dismissedand this:https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/rob-los-ricos-the-master-race
(DIR) Post #Ak9wW1nLPTwbLdalHs by fvsch@hachyderm.io
2024-07-21T10:29:06Z
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@roblosricos @cy @IanDSmith The topic here was “are people in power relatively incompetent, and if yes, how might we explain this phenomenon”. I was not proposing a marxist-leninist armed revolution and dictatorship, so your arguments about that are very off topic. Cheers.
(DIR) Post #Ak9wW2d6J3LPw9o5xY by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-21T15:27:07Z
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Yeah I uh... I mean class solidarity is a pretty good explanation, in that the "old boys club" rewards their own, whether they're morons or not. A very eloquent prisoner ranting about what those elite clubs have done in history is straight off the rails though.