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Comment by amarcheschi | Hacker News Reader

In the same day as https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osec/osec20250124

I'm not American but wow, the country is corroding itself from inside

After witnessing year after year of both old school Republicans and Democrats being tone deaf and incompetent, I’ve come to the view that MAGA is just filling the vacuum created by the collapse of an entire generation of the American political power structure. MAGA and/or the alt-right just happened to be a movement that was in the right time and had enough momentum to step in. Had things gone differently it could have been a hard left movement.

This happens in countries from time to time. In China there’s a whole history of dynastic collapse and renewal going back thousands of years.

It tends to be a shitshow for a while until a new political reality takes hold. It will not be unipolar. MAGA only got at best half the vote, and half the country didn’t even vote, so really they’re at best a quarter to a third of the population. Huge open niches are out there for a competently run non-tone-deaf centrist (aka actually conservative) party and stuff on the left. Maybe actual libertarianism too, but not using that name since that’s been taken by wackos for a long time.

I worry in the short to medium term for marginalized groups in America, important work happening in America like Starship (especially as Elon spirals), and anyone living in a state like Taiwan, Ukraine, South Korea, etc. that depends in part on US support to maintain its integrity. Other large states will probably be doing some land grabbing. The US might too depending on how things play out. It will be a period of instability.

It’d be nice to blame politicians or Trump or Elon, but there is a lot of evidence that this is just who we are. The people voting Trump, really do believe in him and his policies. Places around the nation are not being run by centrist policies, but the policies that people in those places want. Which are not what most would consider centrist. In fact, the political class already knows that, which is why you see them conform to those policies.

It is true that neither Trump and Vance nor Harris and Walz were able to muster even 50% of the vote. But that’s because of the existence of more extremist options on the ballot, not because of the presence of less extremist options. Certainly not because of any supposed centrism. (Not that centrism would work in any case when the policies being moderated by the centrism are so ill conceived from the outset.)

We’re in a bad spot, but it’s not because of politicians, it’s because of us.

> MAGA and/or the alt-right just happened to be a movement that was in the right time and had enough momentum to step in. Had things gone differently it could have been a hard left movement.

This is a both sides argument when in fact there’s very real, very well funded movement to oppose and suppress any left wing groups from getting any real traction. Remember the Occupy movement or the defund the police movements or Bernie’s run for president? Very real political movements that got torn apart in the media very quickly as well as institutional crackdowns on the people involved. The Jan 6 riots by comparison got significantly more lenient treatment and has now been completely absolved. The US for better or worse has never had a successful left wing movement but not for lack of trying.

"anti-woke" has become a destructive mind virus of its own.

"Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, prohibits employment discrimination by federal contractors based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and requires them to take affirmative action to ensure equal employment opportunities. It aims to promote non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment for organizations that do business with the U.S. government."

>prohibiting discrimination

>requiring affirmative action

Which is it? It can’t be both. (It’s the latter, duh.)

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