Politics

[Aaron]

Interesting to know who is really driving policy in Wellington.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...CFYWLSZCKJHW4/

Kudos to National for reducing the waste and trimming the fat bloated bureaucracy.

Sorry FP you need to stump up for a herald subscription.

[moka]

How America’s Democracy Is “Ripe to Be Exploited”

https://www.propublica.org/article/democracy-demagogues-fascism-elections-barbara-walter

Why are so many people now embracing demagogues? Barbara Walter, political scientist and author of “How Civil Wars Start,” tells ProPublica that the vital signs of healthy democracy are in decline around the world.

Can you walk through the vital signs of democracy that you and other political scientists have been tracking and that are trending the wrong way in the U.S. and elsewhere?

What are the most important ones? So these are all vital: Do you have constraints on the executive? Do you have the rule of law, so that there’s accountability? Do you have a level playing field, so that there can really be popular participation?

One is constraints on executive power. You want lots of checks and balances on the executive branch. Here in the United States, you want to make sure that the legislative branch is strong and independent and willing to check presidential power. You want to know that the judicial branch is the same.

Another one would be rule of law. Is the rule of law actually respected? Is it uncorrupted? You don’t want a system where certain individuals are above the law. If you want to become, say, Orban 2.0, you place loyalists in the Justice Department who are beholden to you and not to the rule of law.

So there are probably five big data sets that measure the quality of democracy and countries around the world. They all measure democracy slightly differently. But every single one of them has shown that democracies around the world are in decline. And not just the fledgling democracies, but sacrosanct liberal democracies in Sweden, the U.K. and the United States.

You also want a free and open press, so that your citizens get high-quality information and they can make good decisions.
Another one is you really want a competitive political environment, so that there’s a level playing field for people who are competing for power. You could make a very uneven playing field by party. So you can restrict the vote, you can make voting more difficult.

Another warning sign you’ve talked about is when a party becomes less about policy and more about identity, a shift one can see in the Republican Party in recent years.

The Republicans have always had a challenge that they were the party of wealthy Americans and business. The problem is wealthy Americans will always be a very small minority of Americans. So, for wealthy Americans, they have to convince at least some nonwealthy Americans to support their platform. How do you do that? Well, you do it with issues of identity, their sense of threat, their sense of fear, their sense of the world is changing and “I’m being left behind.” It’s very effective.

I want to get to why we see these dynamics playing out across so many countries. You cite three dynamics. One is that the dominant caste in many nations, white people, is trending toward minority status. Another is increasing wealth concentration, where rural areas are often losing out. And then there’s a new medium that has risen that is unregulated and unmediated: social media.

On No. 3, the new medium, I would state it stronger than that. It’s not that it’s unregulated per se. It’s that it’s being driven by algorithms that selectively push out the more extreme incendiary messages.

You also wrote about another concept that I hadn’t heard before: ethnic entrepreneurs. These are politicians like, say, Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian strongman, who recognize an opportunity in appealing to the fears of a particular group.
Yep. He was not a nationalist. He was a straight up Communist. And again, that gets back to the difference between a political party based on ideology and one based on ethnicity. He became the leader of the Serb party.

So he saw which way the wind was blowing and he put up a sail. Milosevic really had a problem in that communism was over. And if he wanted to stay in power, he was going to have to compete in elections. How is he going to get elected? And then he’s like, “Oh, like the largest ethnic group, and in this country are Serbs. I’m Serb!” If I can convince the Serbs during this time of change and insecurity and uncertainty when everyone’s a little bit on edge that unless they support a Serb, the Croats are gonna kill them, then then I can catapult myself to power. That’s classic ethnic entrepreneurship.

I want to ask you a last question I’ve been thinking about a lot myself. Like a number of news organizations, we’ve created a team devoted to covering threats to democracy.

But after I read your book, I stopped referring to it as that because it occurred to me that the term threats to democracy reinforces a story that we Americans tell ourselves: that we already have a true democracy, the best darn one in the world, and we just need to protect it.

Our American democracy, even when we were happy with it and thought it was doing really well, it already had a whole series of undemocratic natures that no other healthy liberal democracy has.

Our electoral college, nobody has that. That was a compromise to rural states. We have the fact that our elections are run by partisan agents. No other healthy liberal democracy has that. Canada, this enormous country, has an independent electoral commission that runs all of the elections. Every ballot is the same no matter if you vote in Prince Edward Island or the Yukon. Or that we allow so much money to be injected into our system. Nobody else has this.

So we have not only these undemocratic features but a whole number of vulnerabilities that if you really did want to somehow cement in minority rule, you could do this legally. So in many ways we have a terrible system that’s ripe to be exploited.

[moka]

Professor Michael Hudson warns that hyper-capitalism and treating countries exploitatively can lead to fascism, as happened in the 1930s. He states: "if you go along that road of actually treating countries in this way, you are going to get fascism as you did in the 1930s".

He argues that when liberal economic systems fail, societies are faced with a choice between fascism and socialism. Hudson says socialism is the way forward, not authoritarian fascism.

Hudson sees fascism as a rising threat globally. He points to examples like India's current government, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and fascist forces in Ukraine that Western countries are allying with.

He views fascism as one of two possible responses to the crisis of capitalism and bourgeois liberal democracy, with socialism being the other option. Hudson frames this as a choice between "socialism or barbarism".

Hudson argues that fascism often portrays itself as a "false revolution", using revolutionary rhetoric against elites to gain popular support, while actually serving the interests of those elites.

He emphasizes the urgency of articulating a socialist, anti-imperialist alternative to counter the rise of fascism, especially in Europe where he sees fascism significantly on the rise.

In summary, Hudson sees fascism as a dangerous outcome of failed capitalist/liberal systems, warns it is a growing threat globally, and argues for socialism as the necessary alternative to prevent fascist barbarism.

https://michael-hudson.com/about/

[moka]

Addictions. Our consumer society actively encourages addictions in many ways. Addiction reflects the "wanting" aspect rather than the "having". I want a drink, I want another coffee, I want more books, clothes, shoes, tools, whatever.

Retail therapy, often described as shopping to improve one's mood, is a phenomenon where individuals engage in purchasing items primarily to elevate their emotional state. This practice is typically associated with periods of stress, sadness, or dissatisfaction, and it can provide temporary relief or comfort, leading to what are sometimes referred to as "comfort buys"

Dr. Gabor Maté, a renowned physician who specializes in addiction treatment, has openly discussed his own struggle with a behavioral addiction to buying classical music CDs. This personal experience has informed his broader understanding of addiction and its underlying causes.

Key points about Maté's addiction to buying music:

Self-identification: Maté describes himself as a "compulsive classical music shopper," drawing a parallel to how one might introduce themselves at a 12-step meeting.

Severity of the addiction: At its peak, Maté's addiction led him to spend significant amounts of money on classical music CDs. In one instance, he spent $8,000 on CDs in a single week.

Impact on professional life: Maté's compulsion was so strong that it occasionally interfered with his medical duties. He once left a woman in labor at the hospital to buy a classical music piece, potentially compromising patient care.

Psychological aspects: Maté explains that his addiction wasn't about wanting to own the music, but rather an inability to stay away from the music stores. This reflects the "wanting" aspect of addiction rather than the "having".

Comparison to other addictions: While acknowledging the differences in severity, Maté places his music buying compulsion on the same continuum as more severe substance addictions. He uses this to illustrate that addiction is fundamentally about the internal relationship to the behavior rather than the specific substance or activity.

Root causes: Maté connects his addiction to deeper psychological issues, including a need to distract himself from his own mind and discomfort with being alone with his thoughts.

Broader theory: This personal experience contributes to Maté's overall theory that addictions stem from attempts to fill emotional voids or cope with past traumas, regardless of whether the addiction is to substances or behaviors.

Maté's openness about his own struggles serves to destigmatize addiction and demonstrate that it can affect anyone, regardless of their professional or social status. It also underscores his belief that understanding the root causes of addictive behaviors is crucial for effective treatment and recovery.

[Getty]

deleted, wrong thread.