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Democracy and elections, the rule of law, the social safety net, the free press and free speech, the US mythology of Individual Opportunity, the aspiration of mutual aid…

…say what you will about all those things, good and bad, but they all have one thing in common: they all help form alternatives to “might makes right,” to negotiating societal relationships via violence.

When they are in decay and decline, what do we expect to happen?

2/

My Dear Oligarchs, when you suck the life out of democracy, manipulate elections via disinformation and voter suppression, destroy the rule of law, gut the safety net, buy up the press, and strip the economy for parts, what do you expect to happen??

These things you're destroying are part of an ecosystem. And one thing that ecosystem does is protect •you•. All of us, including you.

3/

The natural response of people in power, of course, will not be to realize all the above, but to do ever-increasing damage in a vain attempt at self-protection.

I do not relish what’s coming. I have no fantasy notions about glorious revolution and this being a magical path to utopia. This is social ecosystem collapse, and a lot more people are going to get hurt along the way. Yes, more than are already being harmed by our half-broken social systems. Worse is worse. My heart is heavy.

/end

Just a little addendum to the thread:

I said up top that I don't support the death penalty. “Don’t support the death penalty,” however, is not the same as “Don’t speak ill of the dead.”

Please, by all means, go ahead and speak ill of the dead if that's the truth that needs to be spoken.

@inthehands @quaap And hey, ProPublica did a story on UHC, too. https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-mental-health-care-denied-illegal-algorithm