lot of ppl saying that shredding state capacity is not how you build an authoritarian but: the entire history of Jim Crow governance refutes that? even with almost zero "state capacity" to speak of, what little there was coordinated with existing extra legal (read: vigilante) capacity - ThreadSky

thephatic.bsky.social • 2 days ago

lot of ppl saying that shredding state capacity is not how you build an authoritarian but: the entire history of Jim Crow governance refutes that? even with almost zero "state capacity" to speak of, what little there was coordinated with existing extra legal (read: vigilante) capacity

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thephatic.bsky.social•2 days ago

it's a weird sort of guerilla governance: using calls for stochastic terror, the state summons vigilantes to come out of the woodwork and "take care" of the opposition - all w/o ever using any actual on-the-books "state capacity"

thephatic.bsky.social•2 days ago

reading rn abt how much Hitler mistrusted the Wehrmacht in newly-occupied regions (bc they followed rules) and often put the SS in charge instead; these are regimes w/in regimes, all played against each other but all working for - and in fear of - the public face of the movement

thephatic.bsky.social•2 days ago

all this to say: this Cabinet is not likely to build state capacity the way we generally think of it - RFK for instance will be more focused on leveraging his position to build out his own *private* capacity: by defunding US govt capacity, he can then monetize the subsequent vacuum

thephatic.bsky.social•2 days ago

what we are seeing is at some level comparable to the fall of the USSR w/ the state auctioned off to private interests at pennies on the dollar - we are replacing public governance with private, all of us suddenly living in Musk's and Trump's company town - Musk even wants his own private scrip

thephatic.bsky.social•2 days ago

those of us who grew up under red state GOP regimes have watched this all our lives: public institutions crumble, politicians and the rich get richer, and most people, instead of turning to more or better govt for a solution, turn to Jesus and each other instead

thephatic.bsky.social•2 days ago

one hope I cling to is that most of us, even if we were used to state govt incompetence, expected some level of fedl competence - our memory of a better time could produce many different movements capable of overturning this revolution - but - we have to first acknowledge the revolution is happening

spanishspy.bsky.social•2 days ago

another example - the IRGC in Iran

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