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@shibacomputer@post.lurk.org
Post #822651
2026-03-27 10:04 UTC
One day you wake up and missiles are falling on Tehran. A girl's school is obliterated and explained away as an 'AI hallucination'. The men who ordered it read GPT-tinged speeches, and none of it feels real because the last time you saw these people, they were podcasters and cable news hosts. Another strongman wins an election โ the headlines call it a shock win. All you feel is deja vu. Your body knows better.
You reach for your allies and find dust. You were so sure we were stronger, together. But the organisations that promised they would prevent this either no longer exist, or are unrecognisable. And you may ask yourself, "how did I get here?"
You are not alone. Today, we publish ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ป๐ฎ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐ฝ๐ผ ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ๐ผ, a culmination of half a decade of work that helps to understand why this happened, why the people who seized power are who they are, and why their grip on power is far more brittle than it looks.
It might seem tempting to look for answers that neatly explain everything. There are many reasons why, but here we propose two. This is angry and ambitious, but I'm optimistic, and you should be too. Moments like these come once in a lifetime.
https://newdesigncongress.org/en/pub/the-great-convergence-and-its-discontents/
Replies (4)
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@shibacomputer "By 2025, civil societyโs polite society had accumulated a perfect record of strategic surprise in the face of entirely visible trends."
yup.
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@shibacomputer there was an Adam Curtis documentary, maybe a decade ago, shown in the UK as part of Screen Wipez that feels like it foretold so much of this.
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@shibacomputer This is the kind of blood-on-the-walls essay I needed right now. "How and why the US-led institutional apparatus collapsed the way it did, who are the surplus elites who supplied the final push, and what opportunities exist to build a new kind of post-institution in its place."
Brittle funding structures. Aspirational elites and counter-elites. Boom-extract-enforce. Mr. Choppy.
And the fallen angels who may be the future.
#USpol
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@shibacomputer Fantastic read.
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