patience_limited's recent activity

  1. Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news

  2. Comment on The path to American authoritarianism - what comes after democratic breakdown in ~society

    patience_limited
    Link Parent
    Nailed it.. I was acquainted with Eric Raymond and some of that crowd before they got their panties in a bundle about being called out for where their ideology (and assholery) would lead... and...

    Nailed it..

    I was acquainted with Eric Raymond and some of that crowd before they got their panties in a bundle about being called out for where their ideology (and assholery) would lead... and there's some serious incel/arrested development/Revenge of the Nerds psychology there. You have to wonder how much of history might have been prevented with modern drugs and therapy...

    4 votes
  3. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of February 10 in ~society

  4. Comment on Grammar errors that actually matter, or: the thread where we all become prescriptivists in ~humanities.languages

    patience_limited
    Link
    So I've run into this one a couple of times this week - a homophone problem which should be murdered in its metaphorical cradle: As in, "When #2 takes the reign". The figure of speech "takes the...

    So I've run into this one a couple of times this week - a homophone problem which should be murdered in its metaphorical cradle:

    rein != reign

    As in, "When #2 takes the reign". The figure of speech "takes the rein(s)" refers to grabbing the controlling leads of a riding animal to steer it in a different direction from that originally intended. "Reign" is to rule.

    It's an understandable error, since few of us ride horses these days and don't have cause to understand the idiom's antecedents. I'll cling tightly to my own prescriptivist lineage and state that I find the misusage annoying, if not confusing.

    3 votes
  5. Comment on What insights do you have as to why and how the US right is accepting blatant corruption and why the government cuts are so extreme and unrelated to stated goals? in ~society

    patience_limited
    Link
    "Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I'll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I'm not as stupid as that, but definitely murmur very...

    "Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I'll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I'm not as stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard ...
    But no one said anything. The cowards, each man thought."
    Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett

    7 votes
  6. Comment on We found the $2 trillion in US government spending cuts that Department of Government Efficiency seeks in ~society

    patience_limited
    Link Parent
    Speaking of fraud, it's likely that the Trump/Musk team committed banking fraud in clawing back a FEMA payment to New York City. As the article suggests, write your bank!

    Speaking of fraud, it's likely that the Trump/Musk team committed banking fraud in clawing back a FEMA payment to New York City. As the article suggests, write your bank!

    6 votes
  7. Comment on The path to American authoritarianism - what comes after democratic breakdown in ~society

    patience_limited
    Link
    From the article: This essay speaks for itself, and is the product of two highly regarded democracy scholars, Stephen Levitsky and Lucan Way. They literally wrote the book on competitive...

    From the article:

    The country’s vaunted constitutional checks are failing. Trump violated the cardinal rule of democracy when he attempted to overturn the results of an election and block a peaceful transfer of power. Yet neither Congress nor the judiciary held him accountable, and the Republican Party—coup attempt notwithstanding—renominated him for president. Trump ran an openly authoritarian campaign in 2024, pledging to prosecute his rivals, punish critical media, and deploy the army to repress protest. He won, and thanks to an extraordinary Supreme Court decision, he will enjoy broad presidential immunity during his second term.

    Democracy survived Trump’s first term because he had no experience, plan, or team. He did not control the Republican Party when he took office in 2017, and most Republican leaders were still committed to democratic rules of the game. Trump governed with establishment Republicans and technocrats, and they largely constrained him. None of those things are true anymore. This time, Trump has made it clear that he intends to govern with loyalists. He now dominates the Republican Party, which, purged of its anti-Trump forces, now acquiesces to his authoritarian behavior.

    U.S. democracy will likely break down during the second Trump administration, in the sense that it will cease to meet standard criteria for liberal democracy: full adult suffrage, free and fair elections, and broad protection of civil liberties.

    The breakdown of democracy in the United States will not give rise to a classic dictatorship in which elections are a sham and the opposition is locked up, exiled, or killed. Even in a worst-case scenario, Trump will not be able to rewrite the Constitution or overturn the constitutional order. He will be constrained by independent judges, federalism, the country’s professionalized military, and high barriers to constitutional reform. There will be elections in 2028, and Republicans could lose them.

    But authoritarianism does not require the destruction of the constitutional order. What lies ahead is not fascist or single-party dictatorship but competitive authoritarianism—a system in which parties compete in elections but the incumbent’s abuse of power tilts the playing field against the opposition. Most autocracies that have emerged since the end of the Cold War fall into this category, including Alberto Fujimori’s Peru, Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela, and contemporary El Salvador, Hungary, India, Tunisia, and Turkey. Under competitive authoritarianism, the formal architecture of democracy, including multiparty elections, remains intact. Opposition forces are legal and aboveground, and they contest seriously for power. Elections are often fiercely contested battles in which incumbents have to sweat it out. And once in a while, incumbents lose, as they did in Malaysia in 2018 and in Poland in 2023. But the system is not democratic, because incumbents rig the game by deploying the machinery of government to attack opponents and co-opt critics. Competition is real but unfair.

    This essay speaks for itself, and is the product of two highly regarded democracy scholars, Stephen Levitsky and Lucan Way. They literally wrote the book on competitive authoritarianism, based on studies of 34 nations. Levitsky was also a co-author of How Democracies Die.

    The companion to this piece is Christina Pagel's Venn diagram and spreadsheet of actions underway since Trump's assumption of the U.S. Presidency.

    27 votes
  8. Comment on We found the $2 trillion in US government spending cuts that Department of Government Efficiency seeks in ~society

    patience_limited
    Link Parent
    Anecdata: I was once one of those government contractor employees. I learned system administration on the job at DOD expense, earning $15/hour while being billed at $100/hour. My official...

    Anecdata: I was once one of those government contractor employees. I learned system administration on the job at DOD expense, earning $15/hour while being billed at $100/hour. My official clearance level was well below what it should have been given the sensitivity of the role's information access. I'm certain that it ought to have been a fully internal GS position in a sane bureaucracy. This was quite a while ago, when the privatization of military services was just starting to take hold, and it's gotten worse since.

    I've also had the opportunity to see some of the healthcare billing sausage made, and it's exactly as full of unneeded, anticompetitive fat as has been evidenced elsewhere.

    6 votes
  9. Comment on We found the $2 trillion in US government spending cuts that Department of Government Efficiency seeks in ~society

    patience_limited
    Link
    Additional commentary from Heather Cox Richardson.

    Additional commentary from Heather Cox Richardson.

    11 votes
  10. Comment on We found the $2 trillion in US government spending cuts that Department of Government Efficiency seeks in ~society

    patience_limited
    Link
    This article is a partial answer to /u/boxer_dogs_dance's question about right-wing tolerance for blatant corruption. The ideological goal of the U.S. right-wing is to abolish all public spending...

    This article is a partial answer to /u/boxer_dogs_dance's question about right-wing tolerance for blatant corruption. The ideological goal of the U.S. right-wing is to abolish all public spending which supports citizens' welfare, and the visible corruption is acceptable in pursuit of that goal.

    I won't try to summarize or excerpt the article because the whole thing is worth reading as an illustration of how thoroughly the U.S. budget has already been captured as an enormous money transfer from the 99% to entrenched wealth and politically powerful industries. It illuminates how the Trump/Musk administration expects to benefit those private interests further, particularly Musk's companies and pet causes.

    And the article outlines a budget strategy which meaningfully improves government spending and efficiency in the interests of the American people as a whole. This should be fodder for Progressive messaging against both right-wing Republicans and the traditional PAC-funded Democrats who are devoid of any articulable, honest vision for how the future could be different.

    23 votes
  11. Comment on Larry Ellison wants to put all US data in one big AI system in ~tech

    patience_limited
    Link Parent
    I initially read that as "world's voter supply", and you know where that ends up... This way lies social credit scoring, permanent loyalty and criminal records, chilling levels of algorithmic...

    I initially read that as "world's voter supply", and you know where that ends up...

    This way lies social credit scoring, permanent loyalty and criminal records, chilling levels of algorithmic discrimination, and all the other virtues of the Panopticon.

    2 votes
  12. Comment on Trans men media recommendations? in ~lgbt

    patience_limited
    Link
    Let me once again (!) recommend the show, Somebody Somewhere from HBO. The character Fred Rococo, played by Murray Hill, is one of the kindest, most genuine, and joyous transmasc representations...

    Let me once again (!) recommend the show, Somebody Somewhere from HBO. The character Fred Rococo, played by Murray Hill, is one of the kindest, most genuine, and joyous transmasc representations ever. The whole cast is fantastic, the writing is acute and skewers all the Hollywood stereotypes about rural life, family drama, queerness, and class. Just watch it when you need to remember what real humans are like.

    3 votes
  13. Comment on a/s/l? Tildes user survey question. in ~tildes

    patience_limited
    Link Parent
    Gardening has always been my "touch grass" avocation. It's also necessary for a foodie in Midwestern winter country - there are fresh ingredients you just can't get here, not least very hot...

    Gardening has always been my "touch grass" avocation. It's also necessary for a foodie in Midwestern winter country - there are fresh ingredients you just can't get here, not least very hot peppers, lemongrass, and some other exotics. The sheer sensual delight of a just-picked asparagus spear or heirloom tomato is irresistible. Then there's all the drying, canning, freezing, pickling, and seed-saving... Seeing the harvest in your pantry is incredibly comforting, as is gifting it to others.

    3 votes
  14. Comment on a/s/l? Tildes user survey question. in ~tildes

    patience_limited
    (edited )
    Link
    60/F-NB/Northern MI, US I gave some thought to de-anon here, but I've reached the point where anyone who wants to find me can follow the painstakingly data-harvested breadcrumbs of a life online....

    60/F-NB/Northern MI, US

    I gave some thought to de-anon here, but I've reached the point where anyone who wants to find me can follow the painstakingly data-harvested breadcrumbs of a life online. I still have some compartmented identities, but it's just become too tiresome to keep everything as private as possible. I'll take the risks of connecting with others as an actual person.

    That being said, I'm a compulsive reader more than anything else.

    • Healthcare IT, working with real time locating systems. Miscellaneous server, networking, database, security, scripting, programming, and interface stuff. Some architectural (both infrastructure and building) design. Refreshing on Linux and containers ATM. I travel for work every month or so.
    • 1 spouse, 2 cats, assorted houseplants, and a garden.
    • I've worn many different career hats, but studied biochemistry, math, and public health.
    • Fussy foodie and former pro cook. Ask me about Michigan wine!
    • Been online since LEXIS, Medline, VAX/VMS, and BBS days - met the spouse on M-Net.
    • Democratic Socialist before it was fashionable.
    5 votes
  15. Comment on The crisis of ethics in the United States in ~society

    patience_limited
    Link
    The Upton Sinclair quote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it" has a great deal of explanatory power when applied to ethics....

    The Upton Sinclair quote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it" has a great deal of explanatory power when applied to ethics. People don't necessarily want to do evil, they just don't want to be impoverished through doing the right things consistently.

    26 votes
  16. Comment on Inside inventor Simone Giertz’s small Los Angeles home, 58sqm/630sqft in ~design

    patience_limited
    Link Parent
    I think the hideaway table, resizable fruit bowl, and pet adjacency chair are genius products, but almost certainly take too much handwork for affordable mass production. Even the day-milestone...

    I think the hideaway table, resizable fruit bowl, and pet adjacency chair are genius products, but almost certainly take too much handwork for affordable mass production. Even the day-milestone calendars are expensive.

    That being said, I think Giertz' living space is wonderfully realized, and I envy her talent in making it so livable, cozy, and charming.

    16 votes
  17. Comment on When it comes to Canadian politics, all bets are now off in ~society

    patience_limited
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    I should pay more attention to this, since I'm giving serious thought (to the extent of paying a retainer to an immigration law firm) to applying for Canadian citizenship... Since I had a Canadian...

    I should pay more attention to this, since I'm giving serious thought (to the extent of paying a retainer to an immigration law firm) to applying for Canadian citizenship...

    Since I had a Canadian parent, I know that Canada has some of the same party oligopoly issues the U.S. faces, as well as the identitarian issues you might expect from a demographically small country (with its own separatist minority) adjoining an overwhelming economic and military power. My understanding is that the Trudeau-led Liberals were more or less social-democratic with a helping of neoliberal internationalism. Like the U.S., that translated into obliviousness to cost-of-living and housing issues. Like the U.S., the notion of "freedom" evolved differently in the Western resource-intensive provinces versus the coasts and metros. Canadian "Conservatives" have a similar mix of religious traditionalists and free-marketers.

    It seems to me that NDP/Greens/Liberals could make common cause against the Trump-esque Conservative rhetoric, on economic, environmental, and human rights grounds. How likely is this in reality?

    6 votes
  18. Comment on Megathread - Elon Musk and US politics in ~society