This may be another reason I'm personally unable to develop strong feelings about the shift... "brown male" is sort of somewhere in the illegible middle of the totem pole whatever happens. The middle is actually the best place... no fighting needed to tread water there
Conversation
A common objection I get when I offer this kind of class-based analysis is that all this is really elite-on-elite conflict (right now, for eg. rich liberal arts educated kids without jobs who got radicalized and grifterized by the GFC and neethood). This is not that important.
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This goes back to at least Pareto's circulation of elites theory (lion elites vs. fox elites) who in turn drew from Machiavelli. The fact that currently-out-of-power elites are an intermediary in the elites-vs-masses conflict doesn't change the fact that it IS elites vs. masses.
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Eg: Trump is obviously lion elite -- born to wealth, strongman ethos. He became the voice of one kind of non-elite. The NYT is fox elites... often rich trustie kids... who speak for another kind of non-elite. This is just plumbing you can nerd-out over, but rarely important.
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So long as circulation of elites creates liquidity in the market for actual class warfare, the class warfare aspect is by far more important. Neither Trumpism, nor BLM, both of which try to place/ tone police each other's elites, is a pure elite-vs-elite conflict. Masses matter.
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This war is asymmetrical. Trumpians/righties don't control any cultural levers (media/academia/tech/corporate). So their tools are primitive-rallies, guns, sometimes literally torches. The neoliberal order used BLM & the masses to recapture that last rightful! lever of Presidency
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This is a standard whine that I just don’t buy. Fox News, an entire alt-right media space, half the business leadership, radio networks. And 4 years in political power, 2 years complete power. And massively stacked courts.
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That depends on whether you judge by the balance sheet or cash flows. I'm a cash flow guy. The public-facing cultural trajectory is rocketing away from right wing positions, exacerbated by Trump. Especially in large cities that set the cultural pace.
Taken one at a time...
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-Agree on the courts
-Radio: dead medium
-Alt-right media: what wasn't deplatformed (Infowars, Milo, McInnis) has been tamped down a lot (Breitbart, Prager)
-Business leadership-in legacy industries maybe, not in tech, which has disproportionate sway financially & what we consume
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The "in power" argument is complicated. Trump made noise like a populist but signed bills by Paul Ryan that were popular w/no one but GOP donors.
The clinging to Trump was a clinging for life. It's a party with no vision, aging/shrinking base & no future w/o youth or say in tech.
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The tech companies making decisions is an important issue that we’ll see evolve. I predict they will continue to just kiss ass with whoever has power. The rest, we’re clearly too far apart for arguments to be worthwhile.
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Yes, all corps will optimize for profit, with power being a major consideration, but don't discount the power of cultural conformity to stifle by rewriting real world rules, regulations & norms.
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