@wilbr @ingrid I feel in general there's been a hardening of social structures over time.

"The Many-Headed Hydra" is a (somewhat romanticized) account of revolts around the Atlantic in the 17th-19th centuries. The earliest ones were the ones that came nearest success.

The Communist Manifesto addressed class conscious working class revolts already happening.

Reform movements moved rapidly in the early 20th century, and were understood by radicals as retreats from past militancy.

@wilbr @ingrid As some people pointed out in 2020, the radical left was in the strange position of arguing in favor of authority, in the form of medical advice, against opportunistic attacks that threatened our lives.

This is the time of monsters.

@foolishowl @ingrid yeah, making me defend the CDC is certainly upside down world, but here we are

@wilbr @foolishowl @ingrid
Well, this is SUPPOSED to be the paradox of democracy; that those entrusted by the public with authority should act in service of the public. I wish it actually worked that way more often.

@foolishowl @wilbr @ingrid

Find and take a look at the list of people interviewed by President Taft's blue-ribbon committee, which ended up recommending a lot of measures which ultimately (after the whole debate was scuppered for 20 years by the First World War) ended up in the New Deal, and were considered frighteningly socialist even then. Many of them were not the sort of people who would be heard by such a commission today!