Apparently, in a previous life, The Atlantic had a somewhat serious literary element. I've only known it as a political publication. Views range from military interventionism to economic interventionism.
Looking over the recent submissions, I see a common editorial theme: "The current administration is bad, bad, bad - and the only thing worse than the man we hate is the impending doom caused by not having big enough government bureaus."
The deficit is growing. They control all three branches of government. They’re not cutting spending just making us get less for our money.
It’s been a thing for a long time with the right. They don’t actually cut spending. They just make the result of spending shittier like the goal is to set money on fire.
While I do think Elon has gone crackers, I give him a small amount of credit for rapidly realizing that DOGE was baloney and there was never any intent to cut spending. There never is, regardless of party or rhetoric. Given Trump's behavior the most likely answer is that Trump wanted someone to blame the fallout for his grifting on, so he lined up some popularly-unpopular fall guys. Elon dove enthusiastically into this septic tank though, so I have no sympathy.
Although I wouldn't attribute it to the right/left divide as much as the incentives baked into the structure of governance. There's very little benefit for a self-interested politician to make meaningful spending cuts. This leaves reallocations and spending increases on the table.
The Atlantic's editorial policy is somewhat illustrative of this uniparty phenomenon. The top editors have been foreign policy hawks advocating for increased military spending, while many of the lower tiered authors will appeal for increased social spending. There's something for everyone, as long as follows from the primacy of the state.
Another recent submission lamented the fall of Rome, offering predictable doom over token efforts at privatization. As mentioned previously, cuts are better understood as reallocations to other programs. Rome and Caeserism was celebrated. Decentralization was demonized. I found this a bit strange, because from the other corner of The Atlantic's mouth, I'm repeatedly warned about the dangerous rise of a new autocrat.
taylodl•8mo ago
cratermoon•8mo ago
What trolls say to excuse harmful or bigoted statements.