A force built to exploit asymmetry now operates inside legal and informational systems capable of generating asymmetric effects upon it.
Tag: accountability
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independence day
Freedom is easy to celebrate in theory and much harder to preserve in practice.
Neurotic bureaucracies do not resist autocracy; they often rehearse for it.
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better politics
The task is not to create perfect agreement, but to maintain enough shared coherence that a society can continue solving problems without tearing itself apart.
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the reflecting pool reflects back
The Reflecting Pool turned green. Perhaps it is simply doing its job.
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australia, please…
Populists tell you they’re going to smash the system for your benefit. Funny how it still always seems to end with the rich getting richer, the government getting worse, and everyone else paying for the repairs.
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Technological Gullibility
We are repeatedly assured—quietly, implicitly—that technology is beneficial, inevitable, and continuous. Accepting this assurance has become a mark of sophistication, a moral alibi that aligns seamlessly—and not accidentally—with reverence for wealth and the wealthy. What enriches those at the top is treated as evidence of correctness. Profit becomes a proxy for proof. Wealth no longer […]
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Robodebt
The Robodebt scheme, deployed between 2015 and 2019, exemplifies how an administrative shortcut can cascade into human tragedy. By averaging annual tax data to infer fortnightly income, it raised hundreds of thousands of false debts against vulnerable Australians. The program caused profound distress, with reports linking it to suicides among those wrongly accused of owing […]
