Daniela Gabor in Phenomenal World:
We often hear that the new Trump administration inaugurates the age of technofeudalism. Just look at Elon Mask, pontificating about so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) democracy from the Oval Office while undemocratically occupying the US Treasury payment system. But is the administration simply using bullying as a mode of power, as Adam Tooze recently diagnosed it, destroying institutions without measure or plan?
The smashing of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) makes a good case for both. For American liberals, USAID stands as a beacon of progressive values—a vehicle for delivering essential public investments in sexual and reproductive rights, climate resilience, or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the global South. The many voices defending it from the DOGE onslaught described it as a force for good, even as, or precisely because, it quietly advances US soft power objectives. This view is widely shared. As Bernie Sanders put it, “Elon Musk, the richest guy in the world, is going after USAID, which feeds the poorest people in the world.”
But this was not smashing without a plan.
More here.
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