Many people have noticed that centrist parties around the world are taking it in their pragmatic, incrementalist shorts. AfD is surging in Germany, Reform UK is competitive with both Labour and the Tories, and France’s election might pit the Commie-Adjacent Party against the Fascism-Curious Party. Meanwhile, in the US, the fact that we can’t rule out AOC vs. Tucker Carlson in 2028 makes me want to write to any living descendant of the Hanoverian kings and politely ask if they’d like to come rule America again, please.
Countless nerds of distinction have tried to explain what’s going on. The New York Times has run a series of articles that attempt to add an “…and why?” to the obvious “what the fuck is this shit?” question. The Times has spoken to many smart people with many fancy degrees, which has led to passages like this:
Mr. Acemoglu, a professor at M.I.T., has tried to provide both an analysis and some prescriptions in a[recent book], “What Happened to Liberal Democracy?” In it, he outlines “two broad lines of failure” over the last half-century, which have led to widespread alienation and anti-establishment sentiment.
The first is what he calls the failure to deliver on shared prosperity, especially for a salaried working class hit by automation, globalization and sharply increased inequality, and which now feels deep anxiety about artificial intelligence.
Leaders have forgotten that a key part of their pact with voters is to “take care of the drains,” he said, to ensure the good functioning of the infrastructure of daily life, from roads to education to health care.
It seems that nothing will ever kill the “the working class has been hollowed out” myth; no matter how much data accrues showing a broad trend towards most people getting richer over time — including the poor and middle class — we’re still determined to act like we live in an immersive theatre production of The Grapes of Wrath.1 It’s also funny to cite automation and AI to explain a fifty-year trend, because: 1) If AI is a key factor, then what explains the other 47 years? And 2) I kind of feel that anyone still stewing over losing their bank teller job to an ATM in the ‘70s should get over it.
