9 Comments

It was a blessing and a curse to know what you meant by "goatseian" without googling it.

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That's what we call an "Easter egg"

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I had not heard of the "party system" model of U.S. history, I like the framework. Something I need to read up on

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It's very interesting stuff. In some ways, it's better to think of the US as having 5-6 distinct governments rather than 1 continuation from Washington to present.

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Yeah I had not heard the party system theory before, interesting. Have not read Hegel or Fukuyama just a little bit of Marx. I don’t know what to make of the present political realignment. When I was 20 around the turn of the millennium I was hanging around a lot of leftists and “smash the state” anarchists. If you had told me then that it would be the right wing in America who would be smashing windows at the capitol and proudly calling themselves “anti-globalists” I would never have believed you. That they do so largely in the service of a personality cult around an unapologetic capitalist is just another weird sign of the times. Seems like we’re in for a wild ride. Thanks for shedding some light on it

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Yeah, we are at a strange point in history. I think around 20 years ago is when we saw the beginning of the shift in power to the elites adopting cultural liberalism and globalism. So it's two factions of capitalists fighting, essentially. Those who support a global approach and those who want a nationalistic one. Which I think actually tracks for American history of populist vs elitist, it's just the factions shift over time as we see now.

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That KotH meme is great. Man I love memes.

I remember Liberty's Kids! ...because my baby sisters watched it. Am I old???????

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Happens to the best of us. I'm in my early 30s and I feel at least a decade older

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Great essay, and Fukuyama has always been full of it. He was celebrating the permanent triumph of capitalism over communism back then, but history has clearly not ended. I think it's safe to say he was and is full of it.

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