Thread by @mariliacout

1. The times ahead will present hard choices for some countries. Possibly, the USA more than most. In other countries, lots of anti-democratic and economically suicidal things are done but they know it. In the USA, society hasn't come to terms with that yet.

2. For example the (re)construction of a true National Public Health System. "Medicare for all" is a start. But no health system can run on insurance money. It must be institutionally structured with public servants, careers and salaries.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1…

3. Things will have to start from scratch not only in that area. No country can remain stable under extreme inequality and a complete corporate deregulated economy. The future scenario for market economy like that is not that great:

aei.org/pethokoukis/5-…

4. At some point you will have to deal with the elephant in the room: the American militias are actually para-military terrorist organizations. They have nothing - nothing - to do with what was written a very long time ago in your Constitution.

5. What you are going to do with them, I have no idea. None of us (foreign scholars) have. But you got a problem, Houston. One that can't be fixed with duct tape.

6. You have other problems we have no idea how you will solve but either you do it or this country will rapidly devolve into chaos. You have a private prison problem. There is no other way out: private capital must NEVER touch the prison system.

prisonpolicy.org

7. This is a self-fulfilled prophecy: it was obvious that there would be mass incarceration. Not because anyone is evil (they are) but because corporations are *things* that function by the logic of profit.

8. Finally, you are not going to solve your (and ours: you socialized that one well) war problem without imposing severe regulations on what the armed forces can or cannot outsource. No Private Military Contractors can be hired: see private prison problem above.

9. If war is profitable there will be war, and if prisons are profitable there will be mass incarceration which will feed into inequality, chaotic or non-existent health care, rising suicides, less educated and qualified people and... BOOM!

10. I hope that you use this horrendous quarantine time to think about these things and to understand that your evangelical gun loving neighbor is not your friend. He is your mortal enemy.

11. Guess what: you are in a (cold) civil war. Time to make the progressive side win for good. Popper's tolerance paradox is real: you must be intolerant with intolerance.

For your sake and ours.

Thanks,

the rest of the world

amazon.com/Open-Society-I…

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