End-stage for any political faction within a market economy is "fuck your principles, let's get back to the old system." Beginning stage for any political faction within a market economy is "fuck the old system, let's get back to principles." For your reference as a Notamerican, our civil war ran from 1861-1863 and the period before that was...fraught. When they say the Republican Party is the "party of Lincoln" the mean he was literally the first Republican president. Like, founded in 1854 against the expansion of slavery, first ran nationally in 1856, won in 1860, time for civil war. Bad Things Happen when we follow leaders rather than their ideas.

Honestly? This is what happens when resources become limited. Every culture goes through it eventually - when you're used to getting whatever you want whenever you want and then you don't, Bad Things Happen. Growing up? I knew the following: (1) We were going to die in a nuclear fireball (2) but probably not before acid rain made us all live in caves (3) where we were probably heading anyway because a new ice age was coming so fukkit burn rubber wear fur eat beef and wipe your ass with the Amazon. That whole "ackshully we're heating the planet up an absolutely cataclysmic amount" thing took some real whiplash because the previous ten years had been all about Peak Oil, Soylent Green, Club for Growth and Silent Spring and in among that the petroleum lobbies had us all convinced the glaciers would starve us all out before any of it mattered anyway. Lo and behold, turns out you can outlive a cold war.

I hate economists. Openly, publicly, perennially. I hate them because clear back to Adam Smith, their argument is "this is moral that is not, this is worth modeling that is not." Wallerstein is the first one I know of to go there are no externalities in a closed system, morality has nothing to do with it. His take is the "world system" goes back to the Dutch, who were the first people to trade in a system without any real frontiers. The English took over but slowly and doing the same thing; the Americans took over from the English but slowly and doing the same thing. You can have your theories and theorems about isolated economic systems but the minute you start trading with every player on the map, the whole game changes. Start here.

I've only read that one Haidt book. I've a good idea why liberals hate it; he argues that their way of thinking is not only atypical, it's only about 10% thought. He even goes as far as implying that conservatives are being more true to themselves. He's a lot easier to take when you've drunk from the cup of the Hoover Institution because once you accept craven opportunism as your religion, you really don't give a shit what the suckers think.

I wish I had happier things to say. I guess that whole "the arc of freedom is long but it bends towards justice" thing still holds true; the expansions last longer and do more good than the contractions but that's small consolation when you're living through a contraction. Ultimately? Everyone would rather avoid conflict, they'd rather be rewarded for conforming to society and they want their children to have better lives than their own. Every now and then, though, a bunch of shitsticks have to fuck it up for everyone to remind us all why we bother.

Shitstick Season started in 2016. Not sure when it's over. Sooner Russia collapses the happier we'll all be.