AngolaThree<p>Begun reading <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Chokepoint" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Chokepoint</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Capitalism</span></a> by Rebecca Giblin and <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>pluralistic</span></a></span> and it's interesting to see a very identifiable political thread in its blurb people- Adam Conover, Lawrence Lessig, Zephyr Teachout, Jimmy Wales.</p><p>These people, who I would, personally, characterize as left-liberals much of the time, provide an interesting anchor point in the political and economic movement for <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/socialjustice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>socialjustice</span></a>. Some of them have gained an amount of reach and are viewed as experts or at the very least accessible communicators.</p><p>In the introduction we see a point of tension in the dialectic between "the minimum demand" (mild, almost performative reform) and "the maximum demand" (<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/revolution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>revolution</span></a> from the root to a different system). <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Trotsky" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Trotsky</span></a> is known for the transitional program, but *Reform and Revolution* by <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Luxemburg" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Luxemburg</span></a>, a bunch of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Kautsky" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Kautsky</span></a>. It's a very long current in the camp of people that want to replace the relations of society and production. </p><p>Fascists obviously have used critiques of capitalism in order to gain a political audience, but Germany during the Third Reich reminds one a lot of the kind of incestuous relationship of dominant industry and the political elite.</p><p>The question is basically, can what is in many ways a deep overhaul of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/administrative" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>administrative</span></a> state, something everyone thinks of when they think of Sen. Elizabeth <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Warren" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Warren</span></a>, really possible? There has to be enough "democracy in the system" to get to the end point, and the US in particular has both issues of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/federalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>federalism</span></a> and a federal judiciary that despises the administrative state. Also changes such as relate to monopoly, monopsony, and competition, may in some cases lack what I think is the core way that <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/reformism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>reformism</span></a> can be built upon- stickiness.</p><p>I mean essentially that universal benefit programs, well funded, are the most difficult to reverse from the free-market right. They have a very large supportive population that melds the poor, working class, and aspects of the petty bourgeoisie and professionals together in common interests. </p><p>Targeting, as is done in neoliberalism, creates inter-class conflict among those not in the elite, and can be stoked additionally by <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/race" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>race</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/citizenship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>citizenship</span></a>, and other factors. Neoliberalism by design when it does <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/welfare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>welfare</span></a> makes programs extremely brittle and easy to defund. </p><p>So even though the Tories have had two decade and a half long reigns in power since 1979, and Tony Blair was thoroughly a center-right New Labour PM, the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NHS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NHS</span></a> has stubbornly stuck around even in its crisis state. It has resiliency.</p><p>But having enough <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/democracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>democracy</span></a> in the system is difficult. We can look at Castillo in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Peru" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Peru</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Boric" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Boric</span></a> in Chile, who both rode into power promising a fundamentally new, inclusive, and anti-neoliberal constitution. Actually getting through entrenched power structures, a right-wing <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/media" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>media</span></a> apparatus, and the eternal riddle of many aspects of a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/constitution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>constitution</span></a> being popular but at a referendum it adds up to less.</p><p>The phrase "<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Chile" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Chile</span></a> will be the tomb of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/neoliberalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>neoliberalism</span></a> imagines an end to neoliberalism- <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AMLO" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AMLO</span></a> talks about this a lot whatever you might think of his time in power. But how do you get over the hump? How do you dispatch it, and make sure it doesn't return? How do you hold sustained power so the capitalists can't just reverse all that can be done? How can genuine democracy and social justice come to fruition?</p><p>I don't have a lot of answers, but I appreciate how much was sparked just in the introduction of Chokepoint Capitalism</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/wikipedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wikipedia</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/socialism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>socialism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/leftwing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>leftwing</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/progressive" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>progressive</span></a></p>