Goldkin @Goldkin@awoo.space

This also means that we should get comfortable with the idea of bureaucracy as a good thing, and as a means for people to specialize. Because the alternative is... well, *gestures at everything*

Something I'm not sure is generally understood: when a politician or businessman says they're going to reduce bureaucracy, it means they're making a grab for power.

The main benefit of bureaucracy in businesses and government is to diffuse power. Conversely, abuses happen when that power is grabbed by smaller and smaller parties.

It's why the current rogue's gallery of fuckwits are all populists promising to cut headcount. It's how they dress their lust for power as a public good.

When he won in 2016, it felt like disorienting punch in the gut. I spent so much time trying to convince people what was coming. I had naive hope that our institutions would save us. I had to plead constantly to get people to care for each other and, more importantly, vote.

This is different. We all know what he is. We know what is coming if he survives in power. I feel galvanized and ready to fight.

For now, grieve and prepare. Tomorrow begins the work of being the change we must see in the world.

In case you ever wondered why billionaires came to attack democracy and AI came to attack writing and art: power always tries to destroy imagination and storytelling. It is often the last bastion that they cannot control and the first source of successful resistance against them.

No matter how hard they try, no matter whom they hurt, they will not succeed. And it terrifies them. As it should.