A technocratic, elitist utopianism characterized by an aversion to universal social programs and an erroneous faith that arcane bureaucratic systems can accurately distinguish the “deserving” from “undeserving” in the allocation of benefits🧵
Like all fundamentalists, technocratopians are deeply resistant to evidence demonstrating that their worldview is flawed. They are particularly hostile to proof that the byzantine systems they favor perpetuate the very injustices and harms they purport to want to prevent.
For example, technocratopians love means-testing and associated administrative hurdles that sound “fair” in theory. In practice the results are like taxes. The privileged are better able to hire accountants, navigate complexity, and reap associated rewards.
Technocratopians would rather gather data than take concrete actions to help people in the here and now. Endless information collection, analysis, and tinkering at the margins perpetuate the illusion that their favored systems will one day be perfectly implemented.
Technocratopians disproportionately attend elite colleges and this experience shapes their biases. Ivy Leaguers love the tests and applications that served them so well. Their identities depend on the myth that being able to jump through hoops is a sign of worthiness and merit.
Technocratopians value “smarts” over substance, and they deploy their savvy to undermine solidarity by categorizing and distinguishing people in divisive ways. They loathe universal forms of social provisioning and simple policies that would render their “expertise” irrelevant.
For example, they’d rather add byzantine hoops and hurdles to student debt relief to ensure “unworthy” and allegedly wealthy borrowers don’t benefit than recommend the obvious and simple solution to ensuring equity: higher taxes on the rich.
Technocratopianism is an elitist form of idealism that presents itself as realistic and shrewd while failing to acknowledge the system changes required. It is committed to “fixing” broken processes by adding additional complexity rather than replacing and simplifying them.
This ridiculous article from the NYT is a wonderful example of technocratopian thinking in action nytimes.com/2022/04/29/opi…
“The govt could reinstate the safeguards imposed under Obama and previous presidents, but the current focus among Democrats is on debt relief.” Brilliant, let’s reinstate the rules that allowed profiteering "schools" to stay in business & lobby for/achieve immediate deregulation.
“I’m persuaded by two points that Looney makes.” Looney is Koch Brothers funded economist and expert whose cooks his data by adding hypothetical earning potential to people’s household balance sheets. It’s utter bullshit, but hey, it looks like math!
“And that — forgiveness for people who don’t need forgiveness — seems a bit daft.” There’s the tell-tale technocratopian attack on universality and solidarity. This is divide and conquer politics masquerading as responsible, liberal policy-making. Don't be fooled.
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This is a stepping stone, not the destination. A President who wanted to do NOTHING had to do something. Up to 20 million people could be debt free. Hopefully some of them will join the fight for everyone else.
Let’s. Keep. Going.
🧵
To me, the real victory is the fact that millions of people now think 10 or 20k of cancellation is not enough. A HUGE difference from ten years ago. In the wise words of @rsgexp we have raised expectations. Now that is something to work with.
Think of what we can do moving forward. After years of organizing, including multiple successful debt strikes, borrowers and their allies pushed a reluctant administration to deliver broad based student debt cancellation.
I know this is just bad faith concern trolling but I’m going to respond earnestly.
Empty snark might be all that’s needed to help protect the corrupt status quo, but building the power to transform the political economy of higher education will take way more than that.
It is obvious that canceling *some* debt is not the end game. @StrikeDebt has been coupling the demand for a full student debt jubilee and free public higher ed since 2012.
Stop acting like we are dummies who don’t see the deeper dilemma only you, smart man, can discern.
We’ve written so much on this, here’s but one piece on the need for free–as in cost and as in liberating – public higher education.
Higher ed should be publicly funded, w/ mechanisms to control costs, improve labor conditions, and center racial justice. newrepublic.com/article/159233…
Whittling down the case for a jubilee—the cancellation of debts and rebalancing of power between regular people and elites—to 1000 words meant leaving out most of the history. The connection between debt and democracy is profound. Here's what got cut. 🧵
Many ancient civilizations periodically wiped the slate clean, cancelling debts and bringing creditors back in line to avert social breakdown. (David Graeber's "Debt," of course, has much to say on this.) 2
In the early 6th century BCE ancient Athens took a first critical step toward democracy with economic reforms implemented by the statesman Solon, whose “shaking off of burdens” entailed debt absolution and an end to debt bondage. Something similar would happen in Rome. 3
As someone who's been organizing for student debt abolition for almost a decade, it's sad to see fellow leftists mock @AOC’s recognition that this is a critical moment to mobilize around the issue.
Today I've been thinking of 2020 less as the year of unexpected shocks & catastrophes more as the year predictions came true. For decades concerned people have studied the likelihood of many bad things happening & proposed intelligent ways to prevent or mitigate them.
A thread:
Cassandras sounded various alarms, and like Cassandra they were mostly ignored.
A pandemic in the form of a zoonotic illness that crosses the species barrier? Experts have warned of that for years and suggested lots of ways to avert them.
Fires, flooding, and storms? Anyone who has followed climate news was aware this was coming and the changes required. Millions of people one disaster away from homelessness, food insecurity, and more debt? We cannot say we had no idea this was the case.