Thread by @doctorow

The #CurrentSituation has revealed deep cracks in our system: replacing public transit with gig economy drivers who don't get health care or sick leave; the gig economy itself; the lethal inadequacy of private-sector broadband and private-sector health-care, and beyond.

1/

The fact that we can simply abolish data-caps (without networks falling over) and the liquid ban (without planes blowing up) reveals that these supposed existential threats were, in fact, arbitrary, authoritarian, rent-seeking bullshit.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/14/mas…

2/

The people who've spent 40 years convincing us that we're just not free-marketing hard enough continue to insist that all of these problems are merely the result of not having fully dismantled the state (so much for "state capacity libertarianism"):

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

3/

They're licking their chops for a 2008-style reboot: eviscerating public services, immiserating workers, fattening plutes and dissolving regulatory safeguards.

It's a playbook developed by Milton Friedman: the scheme to have "ideas lying around" when crisis strikes.

4/

But as @NaomiAKlein reminds us, the #ShockDoctrine cuts both ways. The manifest failures of plutocracy in the Great Depression got us the New Deal and the "30 Glorious Years" of share prosperity and growth.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/17/plu…

5/

We haven't been idle since 2008. We have "ideas lying around" too. Ideas for a just and resilient society that reorients human life around sustainable and just practices.

6/

Motherboard's editorial staff gives us a manifesto for that society, so that this crisis doesn't go to waste:

vice.com/en_us/article/…

7/

* Free and universal healthcare ("healthcare is a basic human right" -B. Sanders)

* Abolish ICE and prisons ("ICE is now a public health hazard")

* Protect and empower labor ("Without these protections, everyone’s safety and health is put at risk")

8/

* A healthier climate ("If the 2008-09 financial crash is any indicator, carbon could shoot right back up as soon as the crisis is over")

9/

* Fast, accessible broadband ("Community owned/operated broadband networks, long demonized and even prohibited by law are looking better than ever")

* Smash the surveillance state ("This pandemic mustn't be used to infringe on the civil liberties and privacy of millions")

10/

* Billionaire wealth ("They're sending people to work while jetting off to luxurious doomsday bunkers, getting Covid-19 tests while normal people can't, and also singing "Imagine" from bucolic getaways.")

11/

* Public transit that works ("Congress is poised to prioritize bailing out airlines and the cruise industry before it takes a look at public transit")

* The right to repair ("Right-to-repair has become a matter of life and death.")

12/

* Science for the people ("We were caught flat-footed by a fixation on 'innovation' and lack of public options")

The future will not be like the past. Whether it is worse or better is our choice to make. It is in our (well-scrubbed) hands.

eof/