"Champagne Socialist" is a Reclaimed Slur

collapsedsquid:

It’s easy to see the problems with Graeber’s dismissal of bureaucracy from our vantage point. We are seeing in real time what happens when someone takes a sledgehammer to the institutions that can, however imperfectly, provide some small measure of economic security to households that would otherwise be utterly destitute. There have been many noble attempts to defend the bureaucracy we do have; the Federal Unionists Network, a coalition of unionized federal employees, has done essential work in that regard. FUN has organized protests against DOGE cuts, provided trainings on how to resist the depredations of the Trump administration from within the federal bureaucracy, and pressed congressional Democrats to take a firmer stand against Trump.

But preservation alone cannot be the goal. At its best, government bureaucracy can be an instrument for leveling inequality and extending what Franklin D. Roosevelt called “freedom from want” to millions. The work of making freedom from want into a guarantee for everyone is still unfinished.

Instead of retreating into facile cynicism about the safety net and regulatory state, people on the left should be trying to occupy the bureaucracy at the state, local, and, after the MAGA putschists are finally expelled from power, federal level—not simply because we need good people in those jobs, but because enough good people in any given department can change its internal culture for the better. A lot depends, for example, on whether state and local transportation departments are staffed by car-brained traffic engineers or planners who are genuinely invested in walkability and developing viable mass transit networks. Just as much hinges on whether state health agencies are staffed by people with a genuine commitment to the cause of universal healthcare, even in the face of brutal federal Medicaid cuts.

There’s another reason for occupying the bureaucracy, too. For a movement that wants to transform the state, there is tremendous value in understanding how policy implementation and institutional change happens on a granular level. If you spend some time working inside the bureaucracy and you keep your eyes open, you can learn a lot about the points of leverage that leftist politicians and outside advocacy groups can press to their advantage. On the flipside, you can also learn a great deal about the tradeoffs associated with certain approaches and how well-intentioned but undercooked policy initiatives can produce unintended consequences. These are all important lessons for anyone trying to push any level of government in a more humane direction. But they’re especially important lessons for leftist officials who have ambitious agendas, a finite amount of time in which to implement them, and little room for error.

Zohran Mamdani is, of course, one of those leftist officials. The left has gained a degree of power over New York City. Mamdani and other socialist officeholders will have to figure out how to wield that power effectively. And when the post-Trump era finally arrives, the left will also need to be ready with a theory of how to rebuild the federal administrative state—not as it was before Trump, but as something better. To do either, the left needs bureaucrats.

Tumblr Teens, the world needs you to join Mamdani’s Komsomol

(via weiszklee)

orcboxer:

orcboxer:

i go to a gay bar and notice the furry convention’s in town. i see a fine lookin bear remove his fursuit, revealing that underneath, he’s also a fine lookin bear. I raise my eyebrows and say “woof” and all the cat furries immediately hiss and scatter

(via orcboxer)

yorickest:

chkq:

true

• I would show my penis to gemini like I would show it to a doctor
• I would show my penis to chatgpt like as a prank between bros or in a sports group shower kind of setting
• I wouldn’t show claude my penis because claude is a minor
• I would show grok my penis because grok would be threatening me at gunpoint to do so

(via loki-zen)

explosions-are-funny asked:

How did you come across/join tumblr?

-Pinterest refugee

-Tumblr reddit posts refugee

-someone told me of it

-twitter/bluesky refugee

-secret fifth option

a-silly-poll-side-blog-yay:

How did you come across/join tumblr?

Pinterest refugee

Tumblr reddit posts refugee

someone told me of it

twitter/bluesky refugee

secret fifth option

personally i was googling some fanart + fanfic

loveridden1999:

(via dykeselfcest)

sexhaver:

is Siken being weird here

yes

no

(via weiszklee)

notatzimisce:

You know, one of the most shameful consequences of scifi/game authors not knowing shit is cyberpsychosis, or Essence, or whatever in-universe asspull for a mechanical limiter on how much cyberware you can cram into a character sheet.

There is an easy excuse in real life! You may not be able to get both a pacemaker and a DBS device because they’re both pieces of sensitive equipment that could theoretically interfere with each other, and nobody engineered them not to. Trivially you can extrapolate this to all cybernetics. If your various augs weren’t Specifically designed not to mess with each other (and of course the various megacorps might take things a step further, making their shit actively hostile to mix-and-matching), you might have problems; and obviously, the more pieces of hardware you’ve patchworked yourself with, the worse things get. You’d have to be one real crazy motherfucker to tell a back-alley doctor to load you up with whatever they’ve got.

It’s more grounded and more realistic and less shitty and it actively enhances the atmosphere of cyberpunk in a way that “losing your humanity” does not. we are missing out on much because none of these writers know anything about how medtech works

(via lumsel)

cohendyke:

do any of my mutuals want to take yagé with me in south america

(via oldbutchdanielcraig)