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"Since I started paying attention to US politics, the vast majority of errors of analysis & prediction -- from pundits, pols, & ordinary folks alike -- are of the same genre: failing to anticipate how bad Republicans will be. Over & over & over again. I'm guilty too!
[...]
"The weirdest thing about it is, after decades of consistent experience -- with the error always going in one direction, never the other -- there's STILL a kind of social pressure not to correct for it. People STILL get dismissed as partisan if they anticipate the next thing.
"There's STILL this air of, 'oh, don't be hysterical, don't catastrophize, chill out and be savvy like me.' If anyone 4 years ago had predicted exactly what Trump & the GOP in fact did, they would have been scoffed at by the Cult of Savvy.
"The point of this is not to relitigate old fights (promise), just to say: it's time to take the experience of past decades to heart, to integrate it into analysis & prediction. What will the GOP do next? Probably the worst thing. That's not hysteria, it's just learning."
-- David Roberts (drvolts), 2021-01-02
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I was saying this amongst my friends (the friends who first brought me to LiveJournal, in fact) twenty years ago on our original meeting place on Usenet. I've been saying this in my journals on politics all the way.
I was back then widely considered paranoid and partisan. Sadly, the last four years - the last twelve months - have basically finally showed all but the most deeply in denial the truth.
Denial is a comforting warm blanket but it doesn't stop a bullet or a blade worth shit.
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But then, i grew up having to out-think bullies. They're everywhere, and a lot gravitate to management positions. Despite what they may claim, it's rarely true that the wealthy aren't of exactly this mind-set.
In case anyone isn't believing it, yes — ¿President? Prevaricator is, in fact, trying to pull off a full-blown coup.
And, if that's not enough, the majority of the Republican Party is actively in collusion in the attempt.
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My own watershed moment
I had a long career in tech, which teems with mindsets that have all too much in common with the outgoing president. I fully expected his administration to loot the country of those things that were entrusted to its government to be used for the benefit of all, for that is the way of such people in my experience. I did not, however, expect those things to include our system of government itself. Now that we know better, this is the best time to prepare for the next assault. For it will come.
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