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Comment by liminal | Hacker News Reader

I was nodding along until the author talked about taking issues that are rightfully the government's responsibility into their own hands. This is exactly the wrong thing to do -- to usurp power from those who rightfully wield it, whether they wield it well or poorly. This is like Uber doing the government a favor by taking over the responsibility of public transit. Sure you might get where you're going, but you've undermined the democratic institutions that allowed everyone to participate and privatized a portion of the public realm.

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This is one of the things the author gets right. The people who already live in these places have a different idea of what is and isn't the government's responsibility.

I think democracy is perfectly compatible with usurping power from those who wield it poorly. It would be great if the government solved these problems, but I don't think it's my place to tell someone to just sit there and take it when the government doesn't solve those problems.

That's pretty much the definition of fascism there.

So like, if the mailman refuses to deliver mail, it’s fascism if I personally deliver my letters and those of my neighbors if they want me to?

Edit: To be clear, the example of Uber was used as someone usurping, which doesn’t exactly accord with how I think about usurpation. To usurp to me is to claim the moral authority of the government. But in this sense, it seems to be used to describe providing services that could be provided by the government. Usurpation in the sense of claiming to be the government is bad. Usurpation in the sense of providing services the government won’t is good.

I don't think that's actually true.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism

> 1: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

> 2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control early instances of army fascism and brutality

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fascism

> a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

> the philosophy, principles, or methods of fascism.

> a political movement that employs the principles and methods of fascism, especially the one established by Mussolini in Italy 1922–43.

The "usurping power" part sounds a bit scary if interpreted too literally, but realistically, I think /u/ksdale had something in mind more along the lines of ~if the government has a long track record of fucking up initiatives, a better response than sitting there and taking it is getting off your ass and do something about it. That was my interpretation, and to me that sounds like a pretty decent idea, although surely risky in some scenarios depending how one goes about it.

The government has an exclusive right to run mass transit?

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