Dave Lane  ðŸ‡³ðŸ‡¿Jul 1, 2023
To folks aware of the #TPPA & its less-pronouceable alias #CPTPPA that I regularly cite as a real problem for the world & us here in Aotearoa NZ - the #InvestorStateDisputeServices (#ISDS) terms of the not-at-all #FreeTradeAgreement our gov't has signed us up to... this will help you understand how bad it is: https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=xW5dEtjMb-k or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW5dEtjMb-k #CorporateCoup @strypey @DrCuriosity This also explains our gov'ts *love* for #BigTech & snubbing domestic companies.
Show threadStrypeyJul 3, 2023

@lightweight
> Investor State Dispute Services (ISDS) terms of the not-at-all Free Trade Agreement our gov't has signed us up to...this will help you understand how bad it is

When the NatLabs talk about defending the "rules-based international order", this is what they're talking about. China is not exceptional in its economic colonisation of smaller/ weaker countries through "aid". Corporate media is just more honest about it when they do it.

@DrCuriosity

#colonisation #FreeTrade #ISDS

Show threadStrypeyJul 3, 2023

Reading Snowcrash is another aid to understanding where we've been heading since the NeoLiberal coups, and where we might end up if we don't change direction. We need to cooperate on a massive scale to defend and extend democracy (by the broadest possible definition - see David Graeber's book The Democracy Project).

@lightweight
@DrCuriosity

Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023
@strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity Also the sequel _The Diamond Age_, which made the insightful point that a chaotic cyberpunk world isn’t a stable end state to history. People can’t keep living like that indefinitely, so a generation later social hierarchies are reasserted and nationalistic power re-centralised (albeit in many competing non-geographical nations). This is the fascist turn.
Show threadAlixJul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity I liked the idea of the phyles in Diamond Age. What about them do you see as fascist?

(Except in the old-style literal sense that people are stronger in groups.)

Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 6, 2023
@alix @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity There are a lot of phyles, but the ones we see most detail on in the book are the NeoVictorians and the Confucians. Both focus on bringing order by re-asserting traditional values and hierarchies. There’s some hand-waving about only-the-good-parts, but this is all standard fascist stuff: the right people are back at the top. Both have large out-groups of abandoned people, our which arise Little Nell and the Mouse Army. 1/n
Show threadAlixJul 6, 2023

@isaacfreeman @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity

Is it fair to say you're describing some of the larger phyles in Diamond Age as having a kind of nostalgia for past glory and restrictive-but-overall-stable social structure that you associate with fascism? That you're not saying all phyles are necessarily fashy, but the bigger ones we saw seemed that way?

It's a good while since I last read it, but I saw a phyle like the Ashanti as a group offering mutual support.

Show threadIsaac Freeman

@alix @strypey @lightweight @DrCuriosity Perfectly fair. There are lots of phyles with different worldviews, but the NeoVictorians seemed to be particularly influential globally, and the Confucians in China. It could be just the viewpoint of the characters, but I assumed that most phyles would have had similarly reactionary origins.

Also could be just me and my memory.

Jul 6, 2023 at 7:06amWeb