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singingcicadas · 1 month

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Rodimus and making Necessary Sacrifices

The most famous one: blowing up Nyon

Btw Megatron could totally have saved the people in Nyon if he wanted to; he knew about Zeta's plan beforehand. All he needed to do was give Hot Rod and the citizens an evacuation alert. But he didn't because he wanted to give Optimus a good emotional impact with all the deaths and who cares about the common lowlife anyway, all they're good for is getting bodily thrown at Zeta until his weapon overloads from draining too many people.

Kimia station in Chaos Theory:

Red text bubble is Optimus. He doesn't wait for Optimus to agree before directly giving Omega Supreme orders to shoot Kimia down.

Reaction after confirming that Doubledealer is a traitor:

Using Rung as bait for the sparkeater:

The last two panels also gives us something on how he views (his own) authority. Because while he's always held a position of authority in high command, the high command is still a council. On the ship his authority is absolute.

The next three scenarios form a pattern. It always starts with Rodimus telling someone to kill a comrade, the person tasked with the killing goes 'what I don't want to do that', and Rodimus tones down the order from death to wound.

Ordering Rewind and Swerve to shoot at Fort Max:

Ordering Swerve to hurt Ore:

Ordering Cyclonus to shoot Brainstorm:

Each of these scenarios is in response to a critical situation. Rodimus' first orders of 'aim to kill' are, while extreme, not disproportionate to the level of threat presented. They're within reason and authority. And ceding from kill to wound when protested is proof that he doesn't not care. But it also shows that his first instinctual reaction towards threats is to kill first ask questions later, even if the threat used to be his friend, comrade, or compatriot, he's able to weigh the lives on a scale and make that hard decision. He's also the type of person who's very comfortable with taking the fates other people into his own hands and deciding whether they should live or die (which is why him choosing to spare Getaway after retaking the Lost Light is a sign of character growth).

His characterization is fairly consistent throughout the comics, except for this:

Everything in Spotlight Hot Rod goes against his later presentations. In his spotlight he's said to repeatedly beat himself up over one failed mission and is averse to taking responsibility towards other people for fear that he'd get them killed but in later issues he has No Problems doing exactly that. He displays no preferences for 'going solo' aside from the mission to retrieve the matrix and that's because everyone else kicked him out. When he wanted to leave on the Lost Light he made speeches to convince other people to join him despite the fact the Autobots were already outnumbered on Cybertron and taking people away would make their situation worse. Whenever he went anywhere in mtmte he assembled a team to accompany him.

This scene especially contradicts Spotlight Hot Rod in every single way. The only consistent aspect of his character is the recklessness. He forces Optimus to authorize a rescue mission, of which he declares himself the team leader, ignores Optimus' caution about keeping it clandestine and tells everyone to barge through the front door, shuts Ironhide's objections down by pulling rank, then falls into a trap and gets Ironhide killed. Mission failed too obviously, they only got Prowl out. Optimus takes responsibility for the failure and surrenders to the humans, of which Rodimus' response is: "he freaked out because he couldn't hack it" and promptly also proceeds to drop everything and leave because yay there's no one to keep me on this stupid planet anymore and whoever wants to can come with. Where. is the guilt.

That and the whole fiasco with Swindle and Menasor were probably Rodimus' worst moments lol. Overall he's the type of leader good with stressful trolley problems but bad at considering the larger or long-term implications of his actions. His flippancy towards life and death and tendency to solve problems with the bluntest approach bleeds heavily into his leadership decisions and... just how his character is in general. Thank goodness there's only one of Drift and he's gone for most of the Lost Light voyage, Rodimus really doesn't work well with too many yes-men hanging around.

#I don't like Spotlight: Hot Rod either it's too over the top #this is just rambling it doesnt even have a main point #going through the screenshots I have saved up so I can delete them from my computer #idw transformers #transformers #maccadam #mtmte #rodimus #hot rod

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enby-rodimus · 4 months

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What will always kill me whenever I think about the IDW1 continuity is the potential of Autocracy!Hot Rod and how better writing for him (honestly, just better writing in general) could have made Autocracy and Primacy infinitely better. Because the idea of Rodimus being much older than he previously was portrayed as, a destitute insurgent, and someone who has so much blood on his hands not by choice but to spare his home and people of the pain that Zeta promised to inflict is so fascinating. He's neutral but more sympathetic to the Decepticons because of their aligned cause and beliefs. He and others are making deals with Swindle for access to resources to fight back and it seems like Nyon had a pretty good relationship with the movement itself prior to the events of Autocracy.

It's interesting because despite all this, Hot Rod hasnt' joined the war on the side of the Decepticons because he's focused on helping his home and community first. And in a story that's tackling the early days of the war, that is an amazing concept to introduce and explore further.

And yet it's squandered in favor of trying to adhere immediately to a four million year old status quo in the early days of the war. The early days when the Decepticons were still fighting back against a violent functionist government, which the Autobots worked for as a police/security force.

This is frustrating because they showcase Autobot crimes with Autocracy, revealing how they've been draining citizens of Nyon dry of their precious energon and in fact is not only limited to this city. It's happening all over Cybertron. Hot Rod is taking a gamble by exposing himself to Orion and his team to show the truth, something incredibly risky because Orion is still siding fiercely with the Autobots despite being confronted by Megatron with the truth and Hot Rod is a wanted domestic terrorist. Zeta wanted to make an example of him and it wouldn't have been pretty, likely in the lines of what was done to Shockwave or worse. He knew this and still risked it because he hoped that Orion had a shred of, for lack of a better word, humanity in him. But it was too late for Nyon. And they speedrun the social progression of the war to have Hot Rod immediately wary of the Decepticons, like the insurgents hadn't been making deals with them earlier.

Further into the trilogy, Primacy shows Hot Rod having graduated from the Autobot Academy after the events of Autocracy. Allow me to reiterate. Autocracy where the Autobots had been slowly killing the people of Nyon and is stated to have NUMEROUS facilities across Cybertron harvesting energon from people directly hooked up to the tanks. And they never do anything about it. Hot Rod apparently having gotten over that the faction he just joined has so much blood on their hands and was complicit in numerous crimes. Crimes he's a witness to.

To add to it, Slinger, an old friend of Hot Rod and member of the insurgency returns as a Decepticon and this is the first sign we see of the conflict of Hot Rod being a survivor of Nyon's destruction and yet a member of the faction that made it happen. Not much is done by it either because the writers were so focused on making the Autobots look like the actual good guys and the Decepticons the bad guys they killed Slinger off with his quick change of heart and forgot the explicit information they gave to us, the readers.

Hot Rod is destitute. He's an insurgent. The Autobots were committing horrific crimes in the name of their cause, draining innocents of their energon during an active energon crisis. All this to crush the Decepticons who were fighting back against their corrupt government. Hot Rod was actively fighting back with the resources given to them by the Decepticons. He's a victim of the Autobots. Enforcers helped round all these people up into the tanks to die. Optimus assumed his new position as Prime and never really did anything to fully dismantle the system because its sentiment is still alive 4 million years later.

Yet Hot Rod is there, as if nothing had ever happened.

The only reasoning we get is somehow the Decepticons are worse. As if the Autobots hadn't committed bigger crimes he was witness to or understood what made them. It's so frustrating because with his origins, it should've taken longer for him to fall in with the Autobots or an outside force forcing him in with them.

Because you don't forget or forgive an institution that ruined yours and others lives, that murdered them for daring to take a stand against them.

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halobirthdays · 10 months

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Happy birthday to Shipmaster Voro Nar 'Mantakree!

Today is his -464th birthday!

'Mantakree was stationed on the Covenant heavy cruiser Incorruptible when the Prophet of Truth abandoned High Charity during the Flood outbreak on the Holy City. Simultaneously, the Great Schism had just begun, with Sangheili and Jiralhanae forces engaging in battle while also beating back the Flood.

The Incorruptible was caught in the midst of the chaos. Its shipmaster, Tano 'Inanraree, was a zealous believer in the Covenant faith, and was overcome by religious fervor. He believed that the Flood were a Forerunner creation, and, as such, were also sacrosanct. He ordered the crew to submit to Flood infection rather than attempt to quell it.

'Mantakree, recognizing his shipmaster’s insanity, slew him. Luckily, the rest of the crew agreed that he did the right thing, and he was elevated to shipmaster of the Incorruptible.

'Mantakree was one of the thirty shipmasters who spoke to Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar 'Wattinree after the dissolution of the Covenant, making him one of the first Sangheili leaders in the Great Schism. Like 'Wattinree, he maintained his faith and distaste for humanity.

Thus, when he intercepted a message from Cortana and learned that a Spartan was responsible for the destruction of a Halo, he was promoted to Fleetmaster and tasked to pursue them to Onyx, which had the dual benefit of ridding 'Wattinree of a potential rival. It was a lucky break: seconds after 'Mantakree left for Onyx, Admiral Whitcomb's NOVA bomb would detonate, killing 'Wattinree and most of his fleet.

Upon arriving at Onyx, the Sentinels became hostile, and 'Mantakree and the ships under his command would face fierce resistance from the shield world's defenses. 'Mantakree pursued the Spartan team with his troops into a Forerunner facility, where he would eventually discover a mortally-wounded Kurt Ambrose.

'Mantakree was about to honorably execute Kurt with his energy sword, but fell into his final trap. When 'Mantakree approached, Kurt remotely activated FENRIS nuclear warheads, saving the remaining Spartans and killing himself, 'Mantakree, and his entire legion.

He is survived by two brothers--Y'zaht and Delo, who currently serve Sali 'Nyon, regarded as the leader of what remains of the Covenant.

#Voro Nar 'Mantakree #halo #Sangheili #halo lore #elites

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toomanybrainrots · 6 months

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FILE A-001 — ORION PAX OPTIMUS PRIME

Optimus Prime, previous designation: Orion Pax, is the Autobot's fearless and brave leader, one chosen by Primus itself to be a Prime.

Of course, he's not all stoic and metal! Inside he has a heart — well, spark — of pure, earth gold! He would do anything for his team and the Autobots, even if it cost him his spark.

Allies

Autobots

Elita's crew(?)

Hot Rod

Shockwave(former)

Enemies

Decepticons

Elita's crew(?)

Megatron

Origins and Story

Before Optimus Prime was, well, a Prime. He was Orion Pax, a humble middle caste archivist that always longed for more in his mundane life. He was under Alpha Trion's command, and was usually seen wandering the halls or in the archives.

That was his life, the same usual and oh so boeing routine in the city of Iacon. He wished for more. And he got it when he heard of the new uprising gladiator, Megatronus he called himself, and his speeches.

He got it from a holovid, given by Ratchet, a well known party ambulance friend of his, to him. He couldn't help but resonate with Megatronus' words, feeling a sense of kindling within him as he watched his speech, all his focus on the gladiator.

From there, he continued to watch holovids of Megatronus' speeches, documenting everything in his own personal archive. Shockwave, a colorful and lively senator, often commented that he was like a little fanbot of Megatronus'("Geez, Orion. It's like you're his number one fanbot!").

He never thought he'd actually get to see one of Megatronus' speeches in person. That was, until his close friend Hot Rod, had found him watching one of his holovids. Orion hadn't noticed until Hot Rod had plopped down and taken a seat next to him. The speedster had told him he had been there the entire time("Oh, I've been here the entire time." "You WHAT?!")

Orion, understandably, had felt embarrassed. Hot Rod didn't humiliate Orion, thankfully. Instead, he offered Orion a front row seat to one of Megatronus' speeches. It didn't surprise Orion that Hot Rod was close with Megatronus, he was close with everyone.

Once he saw the gladiator's speech in bot. It felt like he had seen it for the first time, he felt it resonate within him like it did with the first speech he watched.

It was then that he decided to ask Hot Rod for Megatronus' comm number, and sent him a comm message(O: Your message has reached Iacon.)

And nearly got his frequency blocked by the gladiator.

However, with a lot of convincing from Hot Rod to Megatronus("Come on, megs! He's not so bad for a middle caste." "That's not rare coming from you." "Yeah, maybe. But we should let him in on this. He genuinely cares, megs. With the right teaching from a certain gladiator...he could help us." "...I will ponder on it."). The gladiator responded, though he was very passive aggressive.

Megatronus taught Orion everything he knew about Cybertron's corruption, from the pits of Kaon to the pollution of Tarn, to the negligence of Nyon, he thought him everything that was hidden away from him. They grew close, almost like brothers in a way. Orion helped Megatronus' influence in Iacon, and Megatronus helped Orion in return. It was symbiotic.

Then, they started to plan to confront the High Council about this. Hot Rod helped them, and Shockwave did aswell. With two mechs with great influence and strong ties from bots of the High Council and from bots everywhere on Cybertronian, Orion almost thought that they were prepared.

He didn't expect the proposition that Megatronus during their confrontation though.

The gladiator wanted to overthrow the High Council, and it almost sounded like he was demanding himself to be named Prime, atleast to Orion that is.

He didn't understand why his friend wanted to do that, and so he offered a different proposition. He offered negotiations, peaceful meetings instead of the force that Megatronus suggested.

The High Council seemed to like his proposition, enough to make him a Prime. He didn't want that. If anything, he wasn't worthy to be one, Megatronus was. But his friend stopped him. And Orion could tell he wasn't happy that he got named Prime, even if he said otherwise.

It went good for a while. Orion had weekly negotiations with the High Council, and everything seemed to be going good for Orion.

Until the Autobots were formed on the High Council's command.

The Autobots were made to stop any more riots and protests from happening. And they used force to do it. He remembered the first time he saw it happen, the amount of bots laying on the ground, either dead or unconscious, some of his allies mixed amongs the ones layed down or those that were apprehended.

Megatronus demanded that Orion take action, as he was now a Prime. Orion didn't, he wanted to wait, to play the long game. Megatronus was furious, and ended up going no contact for a while. ("How is...Megatronus? Is he doing well?" "He's alright." "Then, can you please tell him to comm me? I'm—" "He. Is. Fine.")

Then, when he finally heard of Megatronus. It was too late.

There were riots and attacks everywhere, killing innocents and destroying Iacon and cities. There were rampages, energon spilled, and so so much violence.

He pleaded with Megatronus to stop this. To stop this massacre. His friend did not listen, he continued. And he was forced to fight his old friend.

That was the start of the war, where many cities fell. And where he made his most regretted decision and mistake, right before he boarded the Ark, and crashed on Earth.

#transformers #maccadam #maccadams #my art #fan continuity #Soul/Spark #optimus prime #the design needs more #i just got lazy after drawing for 4 hours #transformers optimus #transformers redesign #transformers fan design #transformers fanart #<- (?)#im tagging just incase

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transingthoseformers · 8 months

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So I'm working on this AU. It's about Hot Rod being on Earth for about two years. He feels really lonely and isolated.

His friends have all made new friends and kind of moved on. Kup and Ultra Magnus are more his commanding officers now. They don't have time for him and they don't do what they used to do.

For example cuddling together when it was cold. Being more of a family. Kup telling him war stories because he's so busy.

Hot Rod was made during the war. The wreckers on Cybertron needed another person because of Shockwave constantly developing his tech.

They create Hot Rod using a Hot Spot in Nyon. He's the last person to be created using a Hot Spot.

When he gets to Earth he's the youngest. Which makes the Ark crew weary of him. Everyone talks about Cybertron and how it used to be. Which he's never seen. All he knows about Cybertron is that it's a wasteland where he struggled to survive with his team.

Everyone else on the Ark has known each other for a long time and Hot Rod doesn't feel like he belongs.

He's in a relationship with Arcee and Springer except they want to be monogamous and kick him out.

Hot Rod struggles to find his place and eventually he's introduced to Daniel who he's been put in charge of protecting.

He now lives at the Witwicky house where he's still lonely and he's there because people don't really want to deal with him so now he's out of the way.

He basically loves Daniel and will do anything for him. He becomes a second mom of sorts.

Soundwave also watches him from a far and can understand his loneliness they become friends and then something more.

Awwww that's adorable!! He's been absorbed into the family by the humans, and Soundwave's there too

#maccadam #transformers #hot rod #Soundwave #daniel witwicky #kup #springer #arcee #ultra magnus

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bean-pole-art · 12 days

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the present is ours

fandom: Transformers relationship: SoundRod word count: 3030 rating: G warnings: discussions of survivor's guilt summary: Sometimes Hot Rod can't believe how lucky he is. Or rather, he simply doesn't want to believe.

dedicated to lovely ppl who participated in my poll <3

Time and time again, a thought barraged right at Hot Rod’s processors – how could it all be real?

Memories spiraling before his optics, ones that showed him exactly how the past had been. Hot Rod remembered the time before the war. Visions of the distant past were always filled with bright shades and skies which shined in the hues of the brightest blue imaginable. He remembered racing through the streets of Nyon and greeting everyone on his way. It wouldn’t be an overstatement if Hot Rod said he could still recall everyone’s names. Good old Nyon, the city of progress, where in his youth he provided everything the spark desired to the citizens, as the local delivery mech.

Fair share of visions also included close by Iacon City. That was where he had met his dear friends Arcee and Bumblebee, where he watched The Cube tournaments and shared countless laughs. Nyon was the city rising before his optics. Iacon City, however, already achieved its greatness. The sight of the urban streets, the feeling of getting patched up by the medical team after another not too friendly exchange, the sound of the wonderous first speeches by Optimus Prime, the scent of nearby cyber-trees and the taste of Maccadam’s sweetest energon poured for him.

All while beneath his pedes the Cybertron as he knew it, was crumbling down.

read the rest here!

#transformers #maccadam #soundrod #soundwave #hot rod #tf hot rod #cyberverse #tf cyberverse #transformers cyberverse #fanfic #fanfiction #ed's fics

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bhaalself · 22 days

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hi!!! im mortem / gut ! ^_^ (he/it/vae/vaem)

my main is @animurderr, this is my selfship blog :)

warning!!! I AM A PROSHIPPER!!! i know a lot of selfshippers on here hate them so keep this in mind!! (i also have f/os in incestuous/toxic relationships!)

i'm also an osdd system, and some f/os are certain alter's, so i'll write their name/if they're a certain alter's f/o next to them

my f/o list below ^o^

i don't care much if you share a f/o, but ones bolded are ones i'm much more possessive of ;3

(hes at the bottom but im ultra possessive of micah bell :3)

(name - alter : tag)

romantic f/os

baldur's gate 3 ---

halsin silverbough !!!!

enver gortash - durge's

astarion ancunín

cazador szarr - astarion's mostly

abdirak

raphael

kar'niss

gale dekarios

the emperor

haarlep - raphael's

red dead redemption 2 -----

javier escuella

colm o'driscoll

castlevania -----

hector

trevor belmont

ranfren -----

nyen

nyon

danganronpa -----

korekiyo shinguji

haiji towa

hifumi yamada

other -----

medic (team fortress 2)

lucio (the arcana)

arataki itto (genshin impact)

elliott (stardew valley)

two-bit (the outsiders)

familial f/os

bhaal (dungeons & dragons) , father

orin (baldur's gate 3) , sibling

sarevok (baldur's gate) , father ?????

hosea matthews (red dead redemption) , father-like

portia (the arcana), sibling

platonic f/os

red dead redemption 2 -----

sadie adler

bill williamson

lenny summers

charles smith

sean macguire

tilly jackson

kieran duffy

other -----

chucky / charles lee ray (child's play)

ame-chan (needy girl overdose)

multi f/os

red dead redemption 2 -----

micah bell !!!!! <333 , romantic & familiar (brother) : 🐀

dutch van der linde , romantic & familiar (father-like)

arthur morgan , romantic & familial (brother-like)

other -----

dracula (all) , romantic & familial (father)

julian devorak (the arcana) , romantic & familial (brother)

darry curtis (the outsiders) , romantic & familial (brother)

#self ship #selfship #proselfship #proship #pro fiction #profic #anti anti #f/o list #selfshipping #selfproship #proship selfship

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Ostromizing democracy

Friday (May 5), I’ll be at the Books, Inc in Mountain View with Mitch Kapor for my novel Red Team Blues; and this weekend (May 6/7), I’ll be in Berkeley at the Bay Area Bookfest.

You know how “realist” has become a synonym for “asshole?” As in, “I’m not a racist, I’m just a ‘race realist?’” That same “realism” is also used to discredit the idea of democracy itself, among a group of self-styled “libertarian elitists,” who claim that social science proves that democracy doesn’t work — and can’t work.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

You’ve likely encountered elements of this ideology in the wild. Perhaps you’ve heard about how our cognitive biases make us incapable of deliberating, that “reasoning was not designed to pursue the truth. Reasoning was designed by evolution to help us win arguments.”

Or maybe you’ve heard that voters are “rationally ignorant,” choosing not to become informed about politics because their vote doesn’t have enough influence to justify the cognitive expenditure of figuring out how to cast it.

There’s the “backfire effect,” the idea that rational argument doesn’t make us change our minds, but rather, drives us to double-down on our own cherished beliefs. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s the Asch effect, which says that we will change our minds based on pressure from the majority, even if we know they’re wrong.

Finally, there’s the fact that the public Just Doesn’t Understand Economics. When you compare the views of the average person to the views of the average PhD economist, you find that the public sharply disagrees with such obvious truths as “we should only worry about how big the pie is, not how big my slice is?” These fools just can’t understand that an economy where their boss gets richer and they get poorer is a good economy, so long as it’s growing overall!

That’s why noted “realist” Peter Thiel thinks women shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Thiel says that mothers are apt to sideline the “science” of economics for the soppy, sentimental idea that children shouldn’t starve to death and thus vote for politicians who are willing to tax rich people. Thus do we find ourselves on the road to serfdom:

https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/

Other realists go even further, suggesting that anyone who disagrees with orthodox (Chicago School) economists shouldn’t be allowed to vote: “[a]nyone who opposes surge pricing should be disenfranchised. That’s how we should decide who decides in epistocracy.”

Add it all up and you get the various “libertarian” cases for abolishing democracy. Some of these libertarian elitists want to replace democracy with markets, because “markets impose an effective ‘user fee’ for irrationality that is absent from democracy.

Others say we should limit voting to “Vulcans” who can pass a knowledge test about the views of neoclassical economists, and if this means that fewer Black people and women are eligible to vote because either condition is “negatively correlated” with familiarity with “politics,” then so mote be it. After all, these groups are “much more likely than others to be mistaken about what they really need”:

https://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2015/03/the-demographic-argument-for-compulsory-voting-with-a-guest-appearance-by-the-real-reason-the-left-advocates-compulsory-voting/

These arguments and some of their most gaping errors are rehearsed in an excellent Democracy Journal article by Henry Farrell, Hugo Mercier, and Melissa Schwartzberg (Mercier’s research is often misinterpreted and misquoted by libertarian elitists to bolster their position):

https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/68/the-new-libertarian-elitists/

The article is a companion piece to a new academic article in American Political Science Review, where the authors propose a new subdiscipline of political science, Analytical Democracy Theory:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/analytical-democratic-theory-a-microfoundational-approach/739A9A928A99A47994E4585059B03398

What’s “Analytical Democracy Theory?” It’s the systematic study of when and how collective decision-making works, and when it goes wrong. Because the libertarian elitists aren’t completely, utterly wrong — there are times when groups of people make bad decisions. From that crumb of truth, the libertarian elitists theorize an entire nihilistic cake in which self-governance is impossible and where we fools and sentimentalists must be subjugated to the will of our intellectual betters, for our own good.

This isn’t the first time libertarian political scientists have pulled this trick. You’ve probably heard of the “Tragedy of the Commons,” which claims to be a “realist” account of what happens when people try to share something — a park, a beach, a forest — without anyone owning it. According to the “tragedy,” these commons are inevitably ruined by “rational” actors who know that if they don’t overgraze, pollute or despoil, someone else will, so they might as well get there first.

The Tragedy of the Commons feels right, and we’ve all experienced some version of it — the messy kitchen at your office or student house-share, the litter in the park, etc. But the paper that brought us the idea of the Tragedy of the Commons, published in 1968 by Garrett Hardin in Science, was a hoax:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/01/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-how-ecofascism-was-smuggled-into-mainstream-thought/

Hardin didn’t just claim that some commons turned tragic — he claimed that the tragedy was inevitable, and, moreover, that every commons had experienced a tragedy. But Hardin made it all up. It wasn’t true. What’s more, Hardin — an ardent white nationalist — used his “realist’s account of the commons to justify colonization and genocide.

After all, if the people who lived in these colonized places didn’t have property rights to keep their commons from tragifying, then those commons were already doomed. The colonizers who seized their lands and murdered the people they found there were actually saving the colonized from their own tragedies.

Hardin went on to pioneer the idea of “lifeboat ethics,” a greased slide to mass-extermination of “inferior” people (Hardin was also a eugenicist) in order to save our planet from “overpopulation.”

Hardin’s flawed account of the commons is a sterling example of the problem with economism, the ideology that underpins neoclassical economics:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse

Economism was summed up in by Ely Devons, who quipped “”If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’”

Hardin asked himself, “If I were reliant upon a commons, what would I do?” And, being a realist (that is, an asshole), Hardin decided that he would steal everything from the commons because that’s what the other realists would do if he didn’t get there first.

Hardin didn’t go and look at a commons. But someone else did.

Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel for her work studying the properties of successful, durable commons. She went and looked at commons:

https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons

Ostom codified the circumstances, mechanisms and principles that distinguished successful commons from failed commons.

Analytical Democratic Theory proposes doing for democratic deliberation what Ostrom did for commons: to create an empirical account of the methods, arrangements, circumstances and systems that produce good group reasoning, and avoid the pitfalls that lead to bad group reasoning. The economists’ term for this is microfoundations: the close study of interaction among individuals, which then produces a “macro” account of how to structure whole societies.

Here are some examples of how microfoundations can answer some very big questions:

Backfire effects: The original backfire effect research was a fluke. It turns out that in most cases, people who are presented with well-sourced facts and good arguments change their minds — but not always.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-019-09528-x

Rational ignorance: Contrary to the predictions of “rational ignorance” theory, people who care about specific issues become “issue publics” who are incredibly knowledgeable about it, and deeply investigate and respond to candidates’ positions:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08913810608443650

Rational ignorance is a mirage, caused by giving people questionnaires about politics in general, rather than the politics that affects them directly and personally.

“Myside” bias: Even when people strongly identify with a group, they are capable of filtering out “erroneous messages” that come from that group if they get good, contradictory evidence:

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674237827

Majority bias: People are capable of rejecting the consensus of majorities, when the majority view is implausible, or when the majority is small, or when the majority is not perceived as benevolent. The Asch effect is “folklore”: yes, people may say that they hold a majority view when they face social sanction for rejecting it, but that doesn’t mean they’ve changed their minds:

https://alexandercoppock.com/guess_coppock_2020.pdf

Notwithstanding all this, democracy’s cheerleaders have some major gaps in the evidence to support their own view. Analytical Democratic Theory needs to investigate the nuts-and-bolts of when deliberation works and when it fails, including the tradeoffs between:

“social comfort and comfort in expressing dissent”:

https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/S0065-2601(05)37004-3

“shared common ground and some measure of preexisting disagreement”:

https://sci-hub.st/10.1037/0022-3514.91.6.1080

“group size and the need to represent diversity”:

https://www.nicolas.claidiere.fr/wp-content/uploads/DiscussionCrowds-Mercier-2021.pdf

“pressures for conformity and concerns for epistemic reputation”:

https://academic.oup.com/princeton-scholarship-online/book/30811

Realism is a demand dressed up as an observation. Realists like Margaret Thatcher insisted “there is no alternative” to neoliberalism, but what she meant was “stop trying to think of an alternative.” Hardin didn’t just claim that some commons turned tragic, he claimed that the tragedy of the commons was inevitable — that we shouldn’t even bother trying to create public goods.

The Ostrom method — actually studying how something works, rather than asking yourself how it would work if everyone thought like you — is a powerful tonic to this, but it’s not the only one. One of the things that makes science fiction so powerful is its ability to ask how a system would work under some different social arrangement.

It’s a radical proposition. Don’t just ask what the gadget does: ask who it does it for and who it does it to. That’s the foundation of Luddism, which is smeared as a technophobic rejection of technology, but which was only ever a social rejection of the specific economic arrangements of that technology. Specifically, the Luddites rejected the idea that machines should be “so easy a child could use them” in order to kidnap children from orphanages and working them to death at those machines:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/20/love-the-machine/#hate-the-factory

There are sf writers who are making enormous strides in imagining how deliberative tools could enable new democratic institutions. Ruthanna Emrys’s stunning 2022 novel “A Half-Built Garden” is a tour-de-force:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/26/aislands/#dead-ringers

I like to think that I make a small contribution here, too. My next novel, “The Lost Cause,” is at root a tale of competing group decision-making methodologies, between post-Green New Deal repair collectives, seafaring anarcho-capitalist techno-solutionists, and terrorizing white nationalist militias (it’s out in November):

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865939/the-lost-cause

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Mountain View, Berkeley, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: A lab-coated scientist amidst an array of chemistry equipment. His head has been replaced with a 19th-century anatomical lateral cross-section showing the inside of a bearded man's head, including one lobe of his brain. He is peering at a large flask half-full of red liquid. Inside the liquid floats the Capitol building.]

#pluralistic #epistocracy #analytical democracy #echo chambers #issue publics #stop confusing the issue with facts #cognitive elites #rational ignorance #backfire effects #analytical democratic theory #scholarship #political science #democracy #epistemic democrats #microfoundations #libertarians #elinor ostrom #ostrom #deliberation

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rodismancave · 5 months

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Ooc. Yknow how every once in a while I get possessed well.

I think personally it’s really sad and frustrating how absurdly inconsistent hot Rod is written In Idw. Like sure this is a problem with others too but this is the Rodimus Account where I come to bitch and whine about Rodimus. So anyway

My point is. Rodimus has all these important and tragic things that have happened to him as well as important developments that are mentioned once and never again. Yeah Hot Rod blew up a whole city. But to get to that point he had to have a really high, or at least respectable and trustworthy position in a resistance that nearly took up the entire city. Never mentioned again— Nyon fades into nothingness, whatever the fuck happened there is never acknowledged again, not even when talking about zeta. Then there’s that other team doubledealer killed, and the whole major plan hot Rod managed to carry out to free doubledealer from a max security prison to just kill him without second thought. But that’s like. Minor.

Hot Rod outranks Prowl. He is Important™️. He had his own special little team. He’s part of high command strategy meetings. This is acknowledge a total of once and then never again, and even though he’s got this rank and seems particularly good at carrying out special missions when they’re not being hijacked by people called “betrayer” he’s still constantly made fun of and called reckless and stupid and it’s just. Gives him brains one page and the very next he’s being treated like he’s 17 and doesn’t know better and it’s sooo frustrating

#I need to read through transformers again just so I can put myself through the misery #oh oh the misery… every single person is my enemy #ooc / misty forest

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marcelskittels · 7 months

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Neve Bradbury of Canyon//SRAM Racing, Eva van Agt of Team Jumbo-Visma & Julie Van de Velde of Fenix-Deceuninck during the 2nd Tour de Romandie Féminin 2023, Stage 3 a 131.9km stage from Vernier to Nyon on September 17, 2023 in Switzerland. (Photos by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

#neve bradbury #eva van agt #julie van de velde #canyon sram racing #team jumbo visma #fenix deceuninck #tour de romandie feminin 2023 #women cycling #cycling

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nethwan · 1 year

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NyoWan x NyoNed. I was thinking about a High school AU. Wan is a jock, he is the star of the baseball team, but he needs help with a subject, so he asks Ned to help him, because she is one of the best students even though she is very quiet...

#nedtai #aph taiwan #aph netherlands #aph: taiwan #aph: netherlands #hws taiwan #hws netherlands #axis powers ヘタリア #hetalia axis powers #axis powers hetalia #nethwan's art

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outlier-roddy · 3 months

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Sorry to invade your askbox again, but Rodimus was, by word of god, from the Alyon hot spot in the time travel arc. Which means he's old enough to have lived through part of Sentinel's reign and survived the entirety of Zeta's which also means that Hot Rod at this time should not have had the attitude he did in Autocracy regarding the Decepticons because he's also fighting back against the government AND he would've been seeing the movement grow bigger as he got older because he was literally born around the same time Megatron killed that guard on Croteus 12 and gained a mass following once he became a gladiator. He's literally old enough to remember when Sentinel got murdered and probably went "LMFAO" when Sentinel's head went missing from the Primal Basilica because he thought it was a weak attempt to frame the Decepticons. And yet in Primacy he's like "oh the Decepticons are worse" honey. You were a witness to and survivor of Autobot crimes. You dragged Optimus beneath the Acropolex to see the truth for himself and told him that it wasn't just Nyon that was being bled dry, it was other cities as well. You were getting weapons from Swindle, who at the time is heavily implied to be a true believer in the cause as analyzed in this post, and was willing to die for it just like you when you offered yourself up as a sacrifice in case he still decided to arrest you.

Also this just crossed my mind, but when Hot Rod is telling Orion about the energon tanks and how the facilities are all over Cybertron, he specifically says "And you've helped him." Not about how blind he was to what was happening and/or his innocence in it, he says that Orion helped this happen. By having this phrasing we can assume that whenever the tanks were conceived, by the time they were fully operational whoever Orion and his team arrested probably didn't end up in prison, they were being sent to the facilities to get drained and died because of it. And because of it, in Hot Rod's eyes, Orion isn't innocent of the crimes he committed but he's taking a chance exposing himself because he hopes that his morals will direct him to help the people of Nyon instead of condemning them to die a slow and painful death.

DEFINITELY think that autocracy would have been soooo much better if hot rod hadn't immediately joined the Autobots at the end It feels very trite lol . I do like him taking a chance with IDW optimus's supposed moral high ground that he's heard about and I think The idea was to have his relationship to Optimus be the driving force behind joining the Autobots at the end. But I don't know, considering everything you just mentioned plus the fact that the decepticons being shoehorned as the bad guys makes very little actual sense It just doesn't sync very well.

I appreciate hearing somebody be as absolutely unhinged about hot rod IDW as I am 🤝

#asks

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