#technocratic union

[bethanythebogwitch]

My favorite magic system from a game I haven't actually played is from Mage: the Ascension. It kind of fits as both a hard magic system and a soft magic system at the same time because there are some hard rules, but its mostly very open. To become a mage you have to realize that reality is not what it seems. In MtA, reality is whatever the majority of people believe it is, known as the consensus. The consensus in modern days is pretty uniform everywhere, with small variations based on where you are, but it used to be wildly different based on the cultural beliefs of the local people. A mage is a person who realizes that the consensus isn't true reality and gains to power to act outside of its rules. Any given mage's abilities come from their own personal view of reality, known as their paradigm. A mage's magic can do basically anything, as long as it is accounted for in their paradigm. So a mage who's paradigm includes the classic Aristotelian elements can perform magic based on that, but if their paradigm doesn't include animistic spirits then they can't commune with those spirits even though other mages could based on their own paradigm. The problem with this is that the consensus doesn't like it when you go around breaking its rules and will punish mages by slapping them with an effect called paradox. Paradox can be anything from a spell failing to getting shunted into your own personal pocket universe. Nothing generates paradox like being seen doing magic by sleepers (people who are not mages and still live fully within the consensus). Most mages either only use magic around other mages or, if they need to cast around sleepers, will disguise their magic as a mundane effect. Someone throwing a fireball from their hands will generate major paradox because the consensus is that people can't do that. However if a mage holds a lighter up to a spraycan before casting their fireball, the sleepers can rationalize it as something that exists within the consensus and not as much paradox will be generated.

In the dark ages, magic was part of the consensus and mages could openly rule over the sleepers because everyone believed in magic and therefore magic was part of the consensus. In response to the tyranny of the mages, a group was formed called the League of Reason, who wanted to introduce a new form of magic to the consensus that everyone could use. This form of magic was based on logic and reason and was called science. This led to the ascension war, where the League of reason sought to remove magic and superstition from the consensus and a very loose coalition of mages called the Council of Nine Mystic Traditions want to keep magic in the consensus. And the League of Reason won. A mostly rationalistic, scientific worldview has become the consensus worldwide, forcing the Council into operating underground. The League of Reason has become the Technocracy, a worldwide secret organization ruling the world from the shadows and trying to stamp out magic and any other form of "reality deviants" to keep humanity safe, even if they have to suppress basic human imagination to do so. Notably, the earliest books for the game very much said "Traditions good, Technocracy bad", but later books went for a much more grey approach to the conflict between them, making it clear that both sides really are doing what they think is in humanity's best interest even if their ideas for how to do so are fundamentally incompatible.

What's really interesting is that science and technology really are a form of magic and technocrats are mages, even if the Technocracy would vehemently deny this. Technology is a form of magic that everyone can use because its part of the consensus and science doesn't discover new facts about the world, It creates those facts and applies them to the world. The Technocracy's super-advanced technology creates paradox just as much as magic does because personal anti-gravity suits and mass-produced clones violate the consensus just like throwing around fireballs and conjuring demons does.

Mage: the Ascension is a super fun setting because just about any fantasy or sci-fi trope can exist here. Classic pointy hat and wand wizards can battle cyborgs armed with self-replicating nanotechnology. Anti-authoritarian punks can hack your wallpaper to spy on you because they believe all reality is part of a unified mathematical whole that the internet gives us access to. A group of spacefarers can ride the luminiferous aether to mars only to encounter Aztec shamans who asked the spirits to carry them there thousands of years ago. A powerful mage can create a time loop by convincing their younger self to obtain enlightenment through the power of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Two people can have an argument over whether the guy they just met was an alien from Alpha Centauri or an elf from the Norse nine realms and both of them can be right. Animistic spirit-callers can upload themselves to the internet to combat spirits of malware. And an angry mage might just teleport you into the sun because they believe distance is just an illusion and therefore have the power to make anything go anywhere with a thought. It's a wild ride.

[tlwebb]

[spotimy]

A recent emoji I made for a personal server, this is my character Richard Madden. He’s creator and head of the Technocratic Union’s OSHA department. This is called :OSHAapproved:

[mizziix]

In Mage the Ascension one of the most interesting conflicts for me is between the Technocratic conventions of the Syndicate and the NWO. To quickly summarize both, the Syndicate are the money wizards who provide the funding and materials for the other conventions to use, they control economics and the private sector. The NWO meanwhile charged itself with controlling culture, human thought, psychology and the development of new ideas.

They hate eachother, and seeing the ways their conflict plays out is so so so fun.

If you asked the Syndicate, the NWO is a bloated convention that needs to be reorganized, split apart between its disparate elements and have its authority redistributed and refocused. The Syndicate book makes it clear that they see themselves as essential, they are constantly playing up their own value, their own necessity to the whole union, and phrasing the actions of the NWO as an attack on their territory. But in doing so, they belie an anxiety undercutting everything, their convention is only useful so long as they are providing a service. It behooves them then to monopolize that service, the production of funding, Prime energy, and material goods, even at the expense of other conventions. They even admit that their applications of Primal Utility aren't the only possible ones, but they refuse to engage with those because they would fall under other conventions territory and thus lose their monopoly.

The NWO on the other hand don't even fight on the same level. Small aside, the NWO book is one of the best pieces of in universe propaganda and psychological manipulation written in all of Mage the Ascension, befitting the House of Mind. The NWO do not acknowledge the conflict between them and the Syndicate as a conflict, they only point out the Syndicates repeated failings and screw ups. The NWO doesn't need to fight the Syndicate, all they need to do is control the battlefield, control how people think about the conflict in the first place. They never mention their necessity to the Union, they don't state it directly but instead continuously imply it repeatedly, it's not a question, it's not something that could be replaced. It's a fact, and you agree with it.

[drawncap]

Can you imagine how pissed the Techocracy must have been at themselves after they caused the Dimensional Anomaly? I have to imagine that one of the conversations went like this:

New World Order: What the FUCK did you DO?!

Void Ennegineer: What did we do? THE FUCK DID YOU DO

NWO: WE were containing a MAYJOR HEMOPHAGIC ENTITY threat to reality!

VE: Oh, a Vampire huh? Well guess what GENIUS? Your dumbass orbital sun death laser cracked open the vaults to HELL

NWO:...

NWO: The what.

VE: YEAH. Now we got Demons just, out there now. What are they doing? HELL IF I KNOW.

NWO: Well thanks to your Spirit Nuke stunt, we can't contact Managment AT ALL.

VE: ...

VE: You what?

NWO: YEAH. All contact with everyone in the Horizon Contructs? Gone. Can't find them, can't detect them, zero communication.

VE: ...

NWO: ...

VE: We'll contain the Demons if you get the PR team to cover up management being gone

NWO: Deal. Let us never speak of this again.

[twotiime2]

Reality Adjustment, Pt. 2

[[ Discord RP log to follow. The content has been edited for ease of reading on Tumblr.

tws for: existentialism, authoritarian deprogramming, heavy themes of unreality and being unable to trust your own senses, a nightmare sequence involving body horror with sexual themes and blatant propaganda/thought control, intent toward child harm (like hardcore), mentions of pregnancy, guns.

if you come across it and i haven't warned you, please let me know so that i can add it to the list. ]]

Simon awoke with a yawn, causing his ears to pop. His seat, a very well cushioned, tufted leather chair whose wooden legs were secured to a carpeted floor with bolts, trembled and shook lightly. All around him was the quiet rumble of a loud but distant engine. Other seats, like his own, sat in pairs up and down the length of the mahogany wood cabin with its round window ports through which sunlight poured in. Between each seat in each pairing was a finely made antique oval side table with a small shaded lamp and two velvet-lined indentations to hold cups. There was even a bronze handled drawer in the front of each table, accessible from either chair. These pairs of fine antique seating were separated by a wide walkway, whose carpeting was only slightly darker in color than the rest. The entire floor had a fine checkered pattern of burgundy and dark grey.

There was no one else in the room, though, with him. Only the oddly out of place finery, and sunlight through the little circular windows on either side of the forty foot wide room, some hundred and fifty feet in length. Overhead, the wooden ceiling arched slightly, with a single rail of cherrywood running the length of the room directly overhead of the darker carpet path that ran between the seats and their tables. From this, every twenty feet, hung very small chandeliers of elegant design and their crystals being of many hues, swaying gently as they dangled from black chains and casting everything in soft rainbows that were largely lost in the daylight but when the sun caught one of them - a shard of vibrant color danced briefly across some part of the room. The trembling of the place kept the tinkling sounds of the crystals in a constant white noise that was a beautiful as it was calming.

- - - -

Simon's first thought upon waking here was, Train? That would explain the slight rumble, the nice seating, but he had never been on a train this fancy or that dared to have some goddamn chandeliers in it while it rumbled and chugged along. He checked himself over, already having moved from confusion to slight irritation; why had he gone from nearly murdering a kitten to waking up somewhere completely different, without any idea how he had passed out or where he had been deposited? This wasn't another different Consensus, already, was it?

He grumbled to himself about "Goddamn bullshit reality-hopping, why can't I just stay somewhere," while he got up to complete his personal once-over.

- - - -

He was dressed in crushed velvet, leather, and satin finery, all of it in Victorian gentleman's fashions of the highest caliber - complete with a top hat and a dainty chain which held his folded spectacles with their rounded lenses, one tinted red and the other blue. His entire outfit was a mismatched series of black and white patterns which managed somehow to never have the same color touching itself anywhere across the entire affair.

The most adorable feminine voice came from a little ways behind him as he stood to check himself over.

"You shouldn't use such bad language. Maybe you're not staying anywhere because you can't decide who you want to be."

- - - -

He whipped around, caught at an awkward angle and ready to throw the top hat to the chair, to see the girl who spoke- oh. She matched her voice, and him, nicely. Her admonishment of his language brought out a reflexive, "Uh- sorry, I didn't think anybody else was here…"

Her words made him frown, though. "What to do you mean by that? I know who I am; it's everyone else who wants me to be- to act how they want."

- - - -

She came and sat in one of the chairs nearby, maid's dress kept primly in place, despite how short it was, by her laying her hands gently in her lap. She regarded him with sympathy through eyes mismatched. "Then… who are you? My name is Castor. Miss Simone Castor. I'm one of the cleaning staff here aboard the Gemini."

- - - -

He sat back down in his chair and took off his hat, setting it in his lap so that his hands could fiddle with the brim and texture of its fabric. "…Simon Castor. Whether that's who this reality expects or not."

Being faced with a maid-girl version of himself that he thought was cute was… uncomfortable, at best. Simon tried not to look at her too much. "What's the Gemini? I was just at home- some alt-me's home, that he probably got on his Union salary- and kinda conflicted about how to deal with a fairy that looked like a kitten. In my- in our?- colors."

All his displeasure at waking up somewhere new and strange had evaporated as soon as he realized this one was a far more personal-to-him space, possibly not even real in the sense of consensual reality's… reality. This wasn't some random new place; this was somewhere that had a strong connection to him.

- - - -

Her eyes practically shone with stars as she fangirled her answer to his question. "The Gemini is the most beautiful and wondrous of all the airships, anywhere in the Imagi Nations. It's become my home, and even though I'm just a maid, I've never been happier. I meet interesting people from all over the Nations, and I get to listen to their stories and their dreams, and be there for them when they have problems, and it's… it's just the best!"

She tilted her head quizzically at the rest of what he said. "Alt you's home? I suppose I'm happy for Alt You being part of a Union, sometimes the workforce can be hard to live in. But I'm sorry they took your home? I've never seen a fairy. Or a cat. I have a stuffed bunny, but… I haven't seen a real one of those either."

Her eyes took him in more carefully.

"You seem very sad. And frustrated. But… and I know it's none of my business, but… if you know who you are… why does it matter where you wake up? Won't you still be you?"

- - - -

That… was not a reality he was even remotely familiar with. He sort of wished he could share the visual of the kitten with her, just so that she would have that experience and knowledge, but he knew he had no way of doing so, which was also just slightly frustrating.

"…I'd explain the nuances of what I said, but, I don't wanna bum you out with the details of my usual reality…" He didn't want to dull this girl-him's sparkle, what she had of it and how she comported herself. He was kind of sad that he hadn't cultivated that sort of naïve kindness, actually, which fit into her observation of him pretty accurately.

"…Every reality I end up in, if I want a chance to be me, I've gotta fit the mold… the Union- the Technocratic Union- I was recruited by them 'cause I'm- I was- talented with computers, and had connections to a group of people they couldn't track down. And anybody who's in the Union has some serious rules to follow, or else they get brainwashed into compliance, or they just get killed for being a threat to the stability of reality, the way most people know it. If I don't fit their rules, it gets way worse for me, if I'm a member of the Union in the particular reality I wake up in. Which I have been, the last couple times."

And he just explained why everything sucked for him anyway. Of course. He couldn't help himself. "…Sorry if that, uh, upsets you, Simone."

The Imagi Nations. Was he in his own head, or was this another reality entirely? Simon was finding he couldn't trust himself to know, anymore. Maybe he was just going for-real nuts.

- - - -

She listened, obviously not understanding everything he said, but Doing Her Best™️.

"So… is following all of these rules a big part of… being you? Is that why you do it? You said you know who you are… and that the only way to get to be you is to join others and follow their rules."

She looked down at her hands in her lap. "I can understand that. I always wanted to fly in an airship, but… I was never good with the machinery and the smoke and the grease and the coal and stuff. I'm good with maps, though, and I understand how all of it works! I've read many, many books on aviation and ballooning and mechanical theory… but…"

She gave a little shrug. "I'm just not a mechanic, is all. So, I found other ways to be helpful aboard ships, and now…"

She looked around, beaming with excitement. "Now I get to sail the skies in the Gemini."

- - - -

He frowned down at the hat in his lap. "…No, I… I don't like following those rules, a lot. Having structure in my life is nice, and all, but mostly I just kind of like all the cool technology the Union has. I don't want to fight monsters in the field, I'd much rather be part of the division that makes all the field operatives' cool toys." He swallowed. "Not that being in the field and fighting monsters and protecting reality doesn't feel good, you know? It's important, I know it is, I nearly got killed by a monster, myself, before all this weirdness started happening- I don't want anybody else to have to go through that. And I feel like being with the Union and following their rules and stuff is a better way to do that than trying to work with people who don't have all the Union's resources, much less by myself."

Finally, Simon looked at the sweet, kind, bright-eyed Simone, with a sort of pleading to his expression. "I guess… I guess we've both settled, rather than doing what we really want. I'm sure you could figure out a better way to operate an airship like this; it doesn't have to use the stuff you're not good with, not necessarily. Where I'm from, we also had steam-powered engines- and eventually we figured out how to produce energy in even cleaner ways, and package it up so that it could power things without having to be generated constantly. If we're anything alike in more than looks, Simone, I'm sure you could figure something like that out. You could absolutely be the pilot, not just a maid." He looked down at his hat again. "…If you wanted to. I know that can seem like- like a lot of work and responsibility, and this might be preferable to maybe messing something up and crashing the ship of your dreams."

Simon went quiet, considering his own sentiments. Much like this girl, he was good at solving other people's problems, but had a hard time translating his advice into his own actions.

"…I know I'm scared of failing, on my own. The structure of the Union is… safe, I guess, 'cause they know what they're doing and if I mess up, it's not a huge deal- someone can pick up my slack. If I were trying to do all this myself, if I wanted to do it alone, it'd be so much harder to figure out the hows and the conditions and everything. 'Cause I'm not a monster-hunter by nature, I'm just a geek with a brain that works well with computer logic. And I don't know what to do with that on my own, when I know all this other stuff is way more important. I need some kind of direction or else I get paralyzed by indecision, I guess."

He sighed, heavily.

"…I dunno. Sorry. That was a lot."

- - - -

"It doesn't sound like you need direction," she offered, kindly. "It sounds like you have a direction… you just need the… resources?… of those other people. Or, maybe some of your own!"

She smiled. "Maybe if you had your own workshop to build in, and parts and stuff to make things with, I bet you could do just as good as those other people! Better even, without their rules telling you what not to do!"

She beamed at him. "You could build your dreamship, sir! I'm sure of it!"

- - - -

Simon considered this quietly for a moment, staring down at that hat he woke up in. When he had seen the R&D Division of the Agency and what they were working on, he had been inspired- he wanted to help innovate on their ideas so very badly, to take their work and notch it up and make it function exactly how they wanted. That was what he always did when he had the chance- he took something that existed, and he wanted to make it better. With those skills, he had always broken things down by tearing into their base code and exploiting flaws, making viruses other people needed or wanted, between projects where he tested the limits of what a virus could do to the code it was built on. He was always trying to find or make better parts for his computer, so that it could do more than top-of-the-line, expensive hardware big companies peddled to consumers (apparently at the whim of the Union, based on what they thought the consensus could "handle" being added to their reality without it breaking down entirely)…

"…Maybe. I'd have to work within the rules until I had built up my resources… but the big thing is, I know what the Union can do- I don't wanna be on their shitlist. People who do things too fast and break their rules, who break away from them, they get hunted down because they're dangerous to how the world wants to work. Or… how they make sure it works? Rogue elements are likely to break the illusion of reality for people who don't know monsters exist, and then the monsters… they could do whatever they wanted. It'd be chaos. I don't want to be considered someone who would do that."

- - - -

She offered a sad, understanding nod. "I know how it feels to have to stay in your place, when nobody wants you to be yourself. You said I could be a captain? But… girls aren't allowed to be pilots. Or mechanics. I suppose… I could cut my hair very short, and… um…"

She blushed, looking away. "… I could bind… my chest…"

She swallowed uncomfortably. "Maybe if I did all of that and wore men's clothes, nobody would know it was really me! I know they say that women aren't all untrustworthy, but I… I guess enough of them are, that… society just doesn't want us doing important things on our own. I mean, what if we messed it up? Or what if we changed something important? I don't like it… but… the Nations' leaders have been in charge of how things are, since forever. They must know what they're doing, right? What's best for everyone?"

She looked thoughtful. "But… I suppose if I cut my hair very very short and hid my chest, to fit in… tried to talk with a deep voice maybe? If I put enough dirt and grease on my face and hide my hands in work gloves, maybe nobody will notice that I don't fit in, and I can do what I really want to do. Do you think?"

- - - -

Simon frowned at her.

"…I think you could do your utmost and change how people see women, here. Be unabashedly a girl and do what you wanna do, how you're gonna do it, and don't let anybody tell you they know better. If you change something important, maybe it wasn't that important- or maybe it was outdated and needed to be changed- but regardless, generally speaking, if people who have had power for their whole lives are in charge of how everyone else lives, they're not going to make the best decisions for everyone 'cause they don't have everyone's perspective. They only know what they know. "

His eyes went far away, imagining the men in Congress he had seen on TV while with his dads and how they argued, twisted the rules to their own ends, and kept anyone who didn't agree with them, down.

Simon supposed that might apply to the Union, too, even if something in his head railed against that idea and made his stomach do flips.

"What do men know about being a woman, anyway? Like, really know, not just what male doctors have studied about the objective, physical facts of women, and what they think they know about how girls's brains work. Being men, they don't know shit. So you should try and challenge those old, wrong beliefs, if you feel up to it- 'cause you deserve better, and so does every other girl, and nobody is gonna realize that, if things stay the same way they've always been."

Do "normal" people in the Consensus deserve better than a safe, stable reality?

Is that really what they're living in, if the monsters are just hiding, but still doing horrible things within the confines of the rules of reality anyway? Twisting the system so that they can get away with their crimes? Are people entitled to knowing how the world works?

It would… it would drive some people insane. It would prove some insane people to actually be entirely sane. It would have consequences he couldn't possibly account for.

Was the Union doing the right thing? Or holding the world back?

The lessons about the world the Union had imparted on him from hours of conditioning railed against the idea that the Consensus could handle their own safety, if they just knew what they were up against- but everything he knew from what little time he had as a Hunter, what Madison had proven to him, and all of his allies, was that humanity could find a way to fight anything. They had a will, and the tools to do something with it, even if some of them died in the process… some people weren't ready, but that was true of any war, wasn't it? Any change? It would be resisted until it couldn't be, and then they had to make of it what they could.

There may have been a war for how reality should be, that he had never paused long enough to think about, being fought for as long as monsters had existed.

And did the Union really have the right to decide their version of reality was the most correct one? Were they really the shepherds that humanity didn't know they needed? Or were they keeping their domesticated, normal human stock, in the dark on purpose, so that they could control the rest of reality for themselves and never really be challenged about that?

What side was he on?

Simon's mind was conflicted, and he was starting to get a stellar headache. He pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers and breathed, trying to halt his thoughts for a moment.

- - - -

Simone listened, seemingly struck and a little uncomfortable with the notions that he was imparting to her. After his long silence, she said, very softly - as if almost whispering to no one - "I'm only one girl. I can't change anything."

- - - -

Her soft uncertainties brought Simon back to the moment, despite his nagging headache, and with it his conviction brought from years of stories of one man, one hero, changing things because they had been empowered to do so. Because they had a responsibility to do what they could, with the power they had.

His fist very gently knocked against his forehead a few times, then came to rest on it.

"Yeah, that's true," He started, just as softly, "But- you- even if you're the first, you won't be the only one. You won't be the last. If you can achieve something you want this desperately, despite everything against you- you'll be an inspiration to everyone who comes after you, you know?" Simon put his hand down, eyes still closed against the pain in his head, but grew calmer in feeling as he spoke. "That's how heroes happen. One person decides something needs to change, so they do their best to make that happen- and yeah, it's hard, and yeah, it hurts, often- but making the path for others to follow is hard, and there are gonna be things you'll have to fight so that they don't have to. You don't think you're the person to do it; nobody who changes things thinks they're the one person who can make it happen. But nobody else is gonna step up unless someone does first. And if you want it bad enough… well, then that someone's gonna be you, isn't it?"

Simon opened his mismatched eyes to look in their feminine mirror, sympathetic but understanding of his own conviction in this principle.

- - - -

"I… I just want to be a pilot. I don't know if the world has to change for that… it'd be nice if the world were better, but… I don't want my life to be pain and hurt, to make my dream easier for someone else to get to be happy. Do I really have to do all that? Can't I just… fly? Or… or, I guess, stay a maid? It's not what I want, but at least I'm in the sky, and on a beautiful airship. I don't like cleaning, or always having to wear a maid's uniform, or do everything the custodians ask of me, or any of that stuff… but… I'm in the ship, aren't I? Does it matter if I can't fly?"

She shut her eyes and held herself. "It feels like it matters… but I'm not a revolutionary. I'm just an airship enthusiast with some self taught skill at maps and navigation and how the bridge works. My dream isn't to change the world… it's to fly."

She looked at him, lost in a whirlwind of unfamiliar thoughts.

"What do I do, to make my dream come true, even though I'm a girl?"

- - - -

Simon considered her discomfort for a long moment. It reflected in him; if anyone else were trying to tell him all of this, he would have been uncomfortable and lost on where to start, too. But he felt like he had a solid enough grip on the rules that he could work with, in, or around them, for his goals. They weren't much- he just wanted to make cool things that could help people, and keep people safe- but they were perfectly achievable if he planned right.

"I don't know how things work here. How does someone usually become a pilot? Forget about the prerequisite of being a boy, I mean, what are the steps for it?"

- - - -

She sniffled and looked up at him, confused. "A boy? No, no, boys can't be pilots, either."

She then stood, trying to wipe away the tears that had begun to form in her eyes and straightening her uniform as best as she could and stood up straight, before offering a curtsy. "Captain."

A fluffy, fat, persian cat that was black on one side and white on the other, wearing a monocle and a tiny top hat, then strode leisurely down the aisle to where they'd been talking and offered a single "Mew."

Simone nodded urgently, "Right away, sir!", and hurried away to an old-style tap-phone with a cone for speaking and another for listening, hung from the box by a cable. She picked up the listening cone and tapped the bar three times, before saying into the cone mounted to the box, "Captain Whiskers requests minced tuna to be served for dinner, with a milk saucer and yumyum paste."

- - - -

Simon had to do a double-take. This just went from reasonable to completely ridiculous.

- - - -

Captain Whiskers bid his passenger farewell with a nod and then turned, tail held high and anus proudly displayed as he sauntered back toward the bridge.

- - - -

Simon muttered quietly to himself, "What the fuck."

Once Simone was off of the phone/loudspeaker system, he addressed her again, jabbing his thumb back toward the cat-captain. "OK, nowhere did you imply this society was run by cats."

- - - -

Simone hurried over to him and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you for your help." She licked his nose.

"Thank you." She licked his lips.

"Thank you." She licked his jaw.

"Thank you." She licked his nose again.

He awoke to the frantic licks of the tiny white and black kitten with the mismatched eyes, as it stood with its rear paws on his upper chest and front paws on his cheeks.

- - - -

Simon startled and nearly threw the kitten off of him- but after just a handful of milliseconds, did not, in fact, chuck the little fuzzbutt across the room, instead reaching up to pull him off of his face after scrunching his nose up at the cat-breath and licking. "Augh, okay, okay, little guy, I'm awake," he muttered, settling the kitten onto his chest instead. "Did I pass out…?"

He cast his eyes about his immediate vicinity, trying to get his bearings again.

- - - -

Instead of answering, the kitten circled the spot he'd laid it on, on his chest, before pricking at Simon's undershirt with its tiny claws to make sure this was acceptable place to lay by happy-paws'ing the shit out of it before settling into a kittyball.

The room was dark and Simon was again in his underwear and an undershirt. It was much the same as he remembered it from waking up here last time… except with a kitten on him, and this time there was no sunlight coming through the curtains.

- - - -

Simon did his best to reach for his glasses, remembering they should have been on the nightstand next to the crystal-clock, while also calling out for his maid.

"…Otome? Hello?"

The kitten's purrs of contentment were genuinely pretty comforting, despite his earlier moral crisis over its life. He pet it with his other hand.

- - - -

His glasses were right where they should have been. Otome, however, did not respond.

- - - -

That brought a frown to his face. He gently held the kitten to his chest as he sat up, then stood from the bed, moving to the doorway that lead into the living room so that he could turn on the lights for the bedroom. What had happened? Why had he passed out? Given the time (02:22, nice), it was likely Otome was asleep… he should let her know he was awake, and figure out what happened. Or maybe go back to sleep and wait til she woke up on her own… he didn't know her schedule, after all.

After the lights were on, he turned the VDAS in his glasses on, fixing his gaze on the little kitty again. Was it still acting up?

[[ OOC REPETITION WARNING ]]

- - - -

His glasses seemed to be just… glasses.

When he flicked the lights on, every action figure and stature was featureless, faceless, white, and without discernible emblems or clothing. Like pose dolls, each one was a unisex nothing. His framed art and metal posters were all white as well, with grey writing on them.

The computer was on, its screen black and scrolling the same message over and over again, line after line, in barely visible off-black text.

DO NOT QUESTION

EVERYTHING IS FINE

YOU ARE SPECIAL

DIET AND EXERCISE

WORK IS IMPORTANT

OBEY AUTHORITY

DIFFERENT IS DANGEROUS

MONEY MATTERS

LEADERS LISTEN

DISRUPTION IS CHAOS

INNOVATION IS RISK

BODY IMAGE MATTERS

SCIENCE IS THE LAW

SLEEP BUT DO NOT DREAM

EVERYONE IS WATCHING YOU

LIFE IS TOO SHORT

EVERYONE HAS THEIR PLACE

BE WHAT IS EXPECTED OF YOU

CHANGE IS DIFFICULT

PUBLIC PERCEPTION MATTERS

TECHNOLOGY IS NECESSARY AND COMPUTERS ARE THE CORNERSTONE OF ALL GOOD THINGS IN THE FUTURE

Even the screen of his phone was doing it, though the message was different.

STAY INFORMED KEEP READING ALWAYS CHECK SOURCES

There… was nothing in his room that was how he remembered it. Even his mismatched socks, laying next to the bed beside his shoes, were only 'mismatched' by a fraction of a color… not even enough to call it a different hue.

[[ REPETITION ENDS ]]

- - - -

Oh, Jesus Christ. Simon held the kitten close, squeezed his eyes shut, and made his way out of the room, trying to get some respite from the sudden onslaught of subliminals coming from all of the media in that room. He looked down at the kitten again. Was it real, at least? Could he bury his face in soft fur and feel it purring and have some kind of anchor to sanity?

They both walked the dark hall into the room where he had met Loane, Simon fully expecting more of… that, from his room, in this room's various displays of media, and dreading it. None of this had been so blatant before.

- - - -

The kitten remained as it had always(?) been… fuzzy, soft, tiny, black and white, with one blue eye and one red eye. Upon closer inspection, however, he'd been wrong about its sex.

The hallway and rooms beyond were too dark to see, but he did hear Otome's voice, sleepily, coming from somewhere ahead and to the right.

"Sir? You're awake?"

- - - -

Simon held the kitten close as he approached Otome, keeping her softness against his hands and her warmth against his chest. "Yeah, I am. What happened? Did I pass out again?"

- - - -

"Again? You've-- I mean, Sir's been asleep for days. Ever since the accident at Sir's office. How is Sir feeling? When did we get a cat?"

- - - -

Oh, shit, Otome could see the cat! Reality had turned slightly to the left, it seemed. "Oh. I… thought I remembered waking up the day after, when Loane came to check on me. Sorry it's so late, I just, uh, I thought you'd wanna know I was up."

He waited in the intersection of the living room and the hall leading to Otome's room, for her to come out and be seen. "I dunno about the cat- but she's kinda perfect, right?"

- - - -

"I don't know… I mean… isn't she a little… different?"

- - - -

Simon scritched the kitten behind the ears. "She's my favorite colors. I'll take the 'different' as a win, on this one."

- - - -

"But… different is dangerous. Why don't we get a normal cat? We can put that one up for adoption. I'm sure some defective family will want it."

- - - -

Simon's lip curled, and he stepped back a couple of feet, trying to draw Otome closer. "…Different is good, Otome- you're different, I'm different, every person is unique, and that uniqueness is like, essential to the human experience. Are you okay?"

He had a feeling she was going to be some blank-faced propoganda-doll, too.

- - - -

"I'm fine, Sir. Could you help me down?"

He heard the faintest, familiar feminine voice from all around him, but from so far away.

"Wake up!"

- - - -

He tried to see past the darkness of the hall and actually see Otome. "Down?"

He never woke up by his own volition, he had no idea how to start now. Even if this was definitely not a good… whatever this was. Dream? Version of this reality? He couldn't tell anymore.

- - - -

"Please, Sir? I can't serve you like this."

[[ OOC WARNING FOR THE SEXUAL BODY HORROR SCENE ]]

"Simon, you've got to wake up!"

"They're inside your dreams!"

"Fight it! Wake up! Please!"

The lights around him came on, as every bulb in the house lit all at once. Everything was white, save for the cat in his hands - still as he remembered it. At the end of the hall, hanging by a series of thin chains, was a life-sized and seemingly alive woman-shaped sex doll with its only feature being a hole where its mouth should have been. Tiny hooks studded its nipples, outer labia, and its nostrils, keeping all of these places open and perky looking. Larger hooks impaled the collarbones and pelvis, to keep it upright. Its body was obviously extremely lifelike, but was still a blend of silicone and flesh, artificial in the light but real in the dark. From the blowjob-hole came Otome's voice.

"Does Sir want something to help him sleep?"

- - - -

Like something out of Hellraiser. Simon was not expecting that drastic of a nightmare-vision, and he clutched the cat close to him, shuddering and closing his eyes to try and shut out that visual- but it was too late; it already overwrote his idea of Otome and all of her strangeness.

He backed up into the hall again blindly. Out loud, to nobody, he frantically whispered, "I don't know how to wake up! This is really fucked up!!!"

He needed some clothes. He needed to get out of here. Simon definitely wished he were anywhere but in this house of horrors.

[[ SCENE TRANSITION TO MENTIONS OF PREGNANCY, CHILD HARM, MORE REPETITION AND THEMES OF HUMAN SUPREMACY/IMPLIED GENOCIDAL IDEAS, PLUS MENTION OF NAZIS ]]

- - - -

Simon fell backwards over a box, barely caught on his way down by a firm hand on his back and his arm. He was wearing his normal clothes - casual clothes from before, not the suits he'd gotten used to - and he was standing in Al's Army Surplus, having tripped over an ammo box that was tall and thin and metal and olive green… and probably from Vietnam or something. Connor shook her head at him disapprovingly. "Watch where you're going, or you're going to end up dead."

She turned her attention back to the portly old redneck behind the counter.

"Seven of them. We're going to need rounds fitted for nine mil and standard twelve gauge. Preferably something silver on the outside and incendiary on the inside. Not poppers, though… we don't want any collateral damage to nearby civvies."

The cat was gone and, judging by the light through the windows and the big analog clock on the wall, it was around 3 in the afternoon.

- - - -

Simon's eyes widened in shock as Connor caught him, Madison, the woman he'd only met through their mutual recruitment by the Agency all that time ago. He took her help to stand, shaky, and looked around as if he had no idea how he had gotten here (because he didn't, of course). "I… Connor? What'2 going on?"

Was QDiv trying to fix their mistake? Was he just traveling through his memories as his mind shattered into a million pieces, as he was physically kept in a looney bin or something? He couldn't recall ever being with Connor on a Hunt, much less against werewolves… He had to play along for a second, just to get his bearings. Again.

- - - -

"Well, I got holla' point oughtta do th' job fine. Ain't nothin' speshul 'bout 'em, 'cept theys' gonna make a real bad mess'a things when they hit. I c'n fill 'em up full'a fire juice, f'swhatcha wanna do."

She nodded, ever resolute. "Do it. We'll take six magazines for the nines and thirty two shells."

She slapped down a trio of hundred dollar bills, though the faces on them were … was that a nazi soldier's portrait on american money?

"How long?", she asked.

"Few hours. Prolly less'n three."

Connor nodded and gestured with her head for Simon to follow her out. Outside, was a civilian humvee covered in Hunter symbols… he knew they were Hunter symbols… but he couldn't read any of them.

"Once we get the rounds we need, we can head out. We know where they'll be and we know when. We just have to be there to make it happen," she said while climbing in on the driver's side.

- - - -

Simon frowned at her as he followed her out.

"I- No, Madii2on," he nearly tripped over her name, tongue getting in the way of his words again after years of not having to worry about that, "What the fuck are we doiing here? Wa2 that Natzii2 on your money? What??"

This was not a reality he was familiar with, either, even if it had all the trappings of his oldlife.

- - - -

"What do you care who's on the money? It all spends the same, now get in. We have a job to do."

- - - -

"Becau2e the natiion ii2n't run by fuckiing Nazii2, Madii2on!" He was being a little petulant, but he definitely also was not getting into that fucking humvee. "II don't know what fuckiing job you iintend two be doiing, either! What the fuck ii2 going on?!"

[[ DIRECT CHILD HARM AND HUMAN SUPREMACY REFERENCES ]]

- - - -

"Seven werewolves are laid up in Wintram Central's OB wing. They went in as a group, all pregnant and about to deliver. We're going to go down and keep an eye on them, check out the fathers to see if any of them are lycan. If they are, we wait until we have the rounds. But, if they're all human, we flash some badges, get them outside and pop them, real quiet. I already have a tarp down in the trunk. That way they can't pass on the gene to anyone else. When we have the munitions we need, we go in there and clear out the maternity ward. Mothers and cubs, one two, just like that. Seven mass murderers and however many they would have birthed, all in under ten minutes. Now get in the fucking jeep, Gemini, we've got work to do!"

- - - -

"What the fuck!" He backed up from Connor. "Werewolve2 about two giive biirth- you're planning two ju2t, ju2t off them?! No fuckiing way! II'm not gonna murder a bunch of mom2 and theiir brand-new kiid2 ju2t 'cau2e they deciided two exii2t!"

Simon kept backing up, away from both not-Connor and Al's storefront, along the sidewalk. "Nope. No way. You'd never murder kiid2, Madii2on, II know that. Fuck thii2."

Maybe if he wanted it hard enough he could go back to the cat-flown airship and get away from this mess.

- - - -

Madison angrily climbed out of the humvee, words burning themselves into her skin like brands, fresh and hot and sizzling and smoking as her skin reddened and dug into her flesh without her notice. She drew her sidearm as she approached and leveled it at his head as the words came close enough to be readable.

A mew from nearby drew his attention as she began yelling at him like a drill instructor, "Get in this truck and help me kill the enemies of Man or so I will put you down, as a traitor to your own people! You think you know what's best!? YOU!? I've killed thousands in this war for peace and I will kill thousands more to win it!"

DEATH TO THE ENEMY

BULLETS ARE THE VESSELS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

WRATH IS A VIRTUE

THE UNCLEAN DESERVE TO DIE

EARTH BELONGS TO HUMANITY

NO ONE DEFIES THE MESSENGERS

MARTYRS AND MURDERERS AND VICTIMS WE ARE ALL THE SAME IN THEIR EYES

The mew was louder this time, coming from the corner of the building. It was his tiny kitten.

"You can do this!"

- - - -

Simon socked Not-Connor in the face, putting all his force behind the left-hook.

"NO!"

- - - -

Her jaw was as hard as steel. He not only heard but felt every single bone in his hand, from his knuckles - down his fingers - and down to halfway along his palm, shatter inside his hand.

She gripped his shirt and lifted him from his feet, growling in his face.

"You pathetic traitor. I knew you didn't have the balls for this life. You never did! You were a spineless, worthless shit stain when I found you and you're even more disgusting now. Slithering around, licking the heel of every Technocracy shoe that passes by and is close enough to stick to, like the pus slime that you are."

She threw him backward, landing hard against the wall to Al's.

"All so you could pretend to be somebody, with their toys and gadgets, instead of the nobody you were when that monster nearly got your sorry ass the first day on the job."

She pulled back the hammer on her handgun.

"I've passed bowel movements with more drive than you've had since the day we met."

- - - -

Simon's heart dropped like a rock, racing like a rabbit having a heart-attack, chilling his bones even over the aching fire in his dominant hand. He held it against himself, tears welling up from the pain and fear, but faced Not-Connor (a manifestation of the Messengers?) despite it all. The iron feeling of her jaw reminded him of the ItX Terminators they had worked with, but her words only spewed fire and hate, opinions and feelings even the most advanced HIT Mark couldn't possibly have had.

She drew her gun on him on the floor. He swallowed the fear in his throat. Turned out, he couldn't banish nightmares like these by hitting them really hard, even if their spouted hatred welled up all of his own like bile at the back of his throat.

That's what she embodied. That self-hatred, that feeling he always had of kicking himself when he was down and going lower, saying these things to himself like they were true.

But this wasn't true. This wasn't even real.

None of it lined up with what he knew, and that meant anything could happen.

Simon did his best to pull himself off of the floor, trying to ignore the aches in his body where it had believed it impacted the wall and concrete. He set his jaw.

"Gue22 there'2 no rea2oniing wiith you, then."

- - - -

The first bullet tore through his left shoulder, sending white hot lances of pain through his entire left side, even as his felt his clavicle break inward and his shoulder blade break outward, with the shuddering thunder of kinetic force ripples that shot through him in waves that took only microseconds to make their way through him and back.

He couldn't hear anything but the silence of a deafening tone, stronger in one ear than the other. Then the burning sting came, of exposed tissue, and a feeling like something had spilled on him. He didn't need to look to know he was bleeding. Probably badly.

Her mouth kept moving as she no doubt gloated over how feeble and inferior he was. It was a kind of tragedy, really, that even when deafened, he still knew exactly what she was probably saying.

"▄█▀ █ █▚▞▌ ⬤ █▚▌ ◣▌ ⬤ ▐▄█ █▬█ ▅▀▅ ▀▄▀ █☰ ▀█▀ ⬤ ▀▄▀▄▀ ▅▀▅ ▐◀ █☰ ▐▄█ ▐◣ ! ▐◣ █▄ █☰ ▅▀▅ ▄█▀ █☰ ! "

- - - -

Despite everything, Simone's voice, distorted as it was, chimed over his deafness from the gunshot. You have to wake up! Please!

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to focus on her voice through the pain, to make it clearer. He had to shut this stupid, brutal dream out, and focus on that one constant.

END SCENE

[ascensiondifficult]

[awakenedsalamander]

would you be willing to speak moron the Technocracy? you have very interesting takes on it and I would like to know more

Happily!

So to me the Technocracy (in its 20th and 21 century incarnations, anyway, the early Technocracy/Order of Reason is different in some significant respects) represents a view of the world that is divorced from anything other than data and hard facts. This viewpoint is not exclusive to scientism, the paradigm I discussed in my recent post on the Technocracy, and is in fact an arguable core of pragmatism itself— there are times when it is essential to put aside ideals, emotions, and speculation and work only with what you can tangibly interact with. Sometimes, you have to put aside how the world should or could be, and work only with what it provably, unquestionably is.

But if you’ve ever discussed politics with someone who keeps insisting “well, that’s just how the world is,” rather than engaging with new ways of thinking or unconventional ideals, you’ll probably have realized that this way of looking at things can be profoundly limiting.

(Incidentally, this is why I think there’s the tendency to align most Technocrats with Stasis/The Weaver— the paradigm of technology itself can be Dynamic, Entropic, and Questing in a lot of cases, but the way the Technocracy uses it is broadly static, I think.)

Let’s use an example here, and talk about climate change. There’s a tendency to view the people most effectively driving climate change— the executives who profit off it, the lobbyists and politicians who sustain it, the demagogues and conspiracists who argue against its reality— as malevolent. They know what they’re doing, they know how it hurts the world and the people who inhabit, and they’re fine with it. Maybe some of them even enjoy it. This is basically the tack Werewolf: The Apocalypse takes with Pentex, for instance.

And that view is, to a larger extent than I think is remotely comfortable, true. Reckoning with the truth in that is part of what makes Werewolf fun, and it’s also one of the drivers on Mage’s own Nephandi.

But, I think it’s also true that most of the people responsible for ecological collapse don’t see themselves as doing anything wrong, and are instead able to just elide the details of the morality and ramifications of their industry/system/ambition and focus purely on the benefit. As said earlier, that is sometimes necessary— in an immediate crisis it can even be a godsend— but in the long-term and on a wider scale it can be quite damaging.

See, if you focus only on quantifiable data, there’s a way to look at climate change as kind of a trade-off you make for important numbers to go up. Industrialization is, economically speaking, incredibly beneficial, the advancement of technology improves not only wealth, but also security, communication, and even quality of life, and from the point of view of certain fields (at least as they currently exist) like agriculture, commercial shipping, energy production, and so on, the policies that really combat the bad effects of climate change would be disastrous! Can’t we afford a few more degrees Celsius for all that?

And if you want to get really dark, there’s the fact that wealthy countries and their oligarchs are going to be the least affected by natural disasters, resource conflicts, and pandemics. It won’t be easy, sure, but nothing ever is, and from a realpolitik standpoint, if other nations (which are potential threats after all) suffer those bad effects more than you do, then maybe weathering the storm is tactically viable…

So all in all, don’t pump the brakes, and certainly don’t reinvent the wheel here! We’ve got a good thing going, and it could be chaos to stop it! Hell, with all the benefits we’re getting, we might even invent some gadget or technique to solve the worst of it.

But of course, this misses so much. In the same way that topics I wanted to touch on, like algorithmic culture and automation, may have valuable benefits from certain points of view, you have to look at the whole picture. With climate change, you already see mass extinctions, and no amount of restorative cloning is going to reverse the ecological damage there. We’re going to see an increase in displacement and homelessness by disasters and the need for people to relocate from dangerous areas, which will ruin lives, if not end them. To say nothing of the inhumanity of allowing suffering on this scale when something can be done about it, right now!

But how do you prove that “ecological damage,” “ruined lives,” and “inhumanity” are worse than the loss of trillions+ of dollars which we’d have to spend to avoid them? It’s apples to oranges— no, it’s the abstract to the concrete. If someone only wants to think about the numbers, then there’s at least a debate. There’s cost benefit analysis and logistic comparison— but not action.

Now, I am simplifying significantly here. There are many reasons that climate change and other societal crises aren’t addressed beyond scientism, or political inertia, or even just greed and selfishness. To name a few, we also struggle against ignorance, against fear, against exhaustion, against bigotry, against the unknown. It’s not so simple. One of the problems with the worldview I’m attacking is its tendency to simplify things by smoothing over the issues, so I don’t want to do that.

But I do think that the biggest issues in our society can’t be tackled with cold math and a focus on what nets the best cost-to-benefit ratio. I think in a lot of cases, that kind of thinking— which, to bring it back to the point, is the kind of thinking the Technocracy embodies— is what got us these issues in the first place.

God, was this too serious for a World of Darkness discussion?

Anyway, thanks for the question! I appreciate the chance to analyze the topic.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Women Back Men In Logging Dispute," Vancouver Sun. October 12, 1943. Page 6. --- Special to The Vancouver Sun ΝΑΝΑΙΜΟ, Oct. 12. - District Council No. 1, Women's Auxiliary of International Woodworkers of America, at a meeting here on Sunday with representatives from New Westminster, Ladysmith, Alberni, Victoria, Lake Cowichan, Camp No. 6, Youbou, and Courtenay passed a resolution to support the IWA morally and financially in its efforts for collective bargaining and union agreements.

[rgr-pop]

was going to tweet this but i think it won’t be taken well in the wake of the trot stuff this week so it’s better here for now, but. i genuinely think that where unions have norms of hiring dsa people as staff there’s a degree of understanding on the part of those unions that dsa people are useful in the management of workers. and the degree to which dsa people who are labor people treat stuff like this like it’s a matter of who is right (or god forbid, pragmatic) rather than a struggle over the union itself— i feel rough about that!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

NLRB rules that any union busting triggers automatic union recognition

Tonight (September 6) at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

American support for unions is at its highest level in generations, from 70% (general population) to 88% (Millenials) – and yet, American unionization rates are pathetic.

That's about to change.

The National Labor Relations Board just handed down a landmark ruling – the Cemex case – that "brought worker rights back from the dead."

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-08-28-bidens-nlrb-brings-workers-rights-back/

At issue in Cemex was what the NLRB should do about employers that violate labor law during union drives. For decades, even the most flagrantly illegal union-busting was met with a wrist-slap. For example, if a boss threatened or fired an employee for participating in a union drive, the NLRB would typically issue a small fine and order the employer to re-hire the worker and provide back-pay.

Everyone knows that "a fine is a price." The NLRB's toothless response to cheating presented an easily solved equation for corrupt, union-hating bosses: if the fine amounts to less than the total, lifetime costs of paying a fair wage and offering fair labor conditions, you should cheat – hell, it's practically a fiduciary duty:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/468061

Enter the Cemex ruling: once a majority of workers have signed a union card, any Unfair Labor Practice by their employer triggers immediate, automatic recognition of the union. In other words, the NLRB has fitted a tilt sensor in the American labor pinball machine, and if the boss tries to cheat, they automatically lose.

Cemex is a complete 180, a radical transformation of the American labor regulator from a figleaf that legitimized union busting to an actual enforcer, upholding the law that Congress passed, rather than the law that America's oligarchs wish Congress had passed. It represents a turning point in the system of lawless impunity for American plutocracy.

In the words of Frank Wilhoit, it is is a repudiation of the conservative dogma: "There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect":

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288

It's also a stunning example of what regulatory competence looks like. The Biden administration is a decidedly mixed bag. On the one hand there are empty suits masquerading as technocrats, champions of the party's centrist wing (slogan: "Everything is fine and change is impossible"):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

But the progressive, Sanders/Warren wing of the party installed some fantastically competent, hard-charging, principled fighters, who are chapter-and-verse on their regulatory authority and have the courage to use that authority:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

They embody the old joke about the photocopier technician who charges "$1 to kick the photocopier and $79 to know where to kick it." The best Biden appointees have their boots firmly laced, and they're kicking that mother:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

One such expert kicker is NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. Abruzzo has taken a series of muscular, bold moves to protect American workers, turning the tide in the class war that the 1% has waged on workers since the Reagan administration. For example, Abruzzo is working to turn worker misclassification – the fiction that an employee is a small business contracting with their boss, a staple of the "gig economy" – into an Unfair Labor Practice:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/10/see-you-in-the-funny-papers/bidens-legacy

She's also waging war on robo-scab companies: app-based employment "platforms" like Instawork that are used to recruit workers to cross picket lines, under threat of being blocked from the app and blackballed by hundreds of local employers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

With Cemex, Abruzzo is restoring a century-old labor principle that has been gathering dust for generations: the idea that workers have the right to organize workplace gemocracies without fear of retaliation, harassment, or reprisals.

But as Harold Meyerson writes for The American Prospect, the Cemex ruling has its limits. Even if the NLRB forces and employer to recognize a union, they can't force the employer to bargain in good faith for a union contract. The National Labor Relations Act prohibits the Board from imposing a contract.

That's created a loophole that corrupt bosses have driven entire fleets of trucks through. Workers who attain union recognition face years-long struggles to win a contract, as their bosses walk away from negotiations or offer farcical "bargaining positions" in the expectation that they'll be rejected, prolonging the delay.

Democrats have been trying to fix this loophole since the LBJ years, but they've been repeatedly blocked in the senate. But Abruzzo is a consummate photocopier kicker, and she's taking aim. In Thrive Pet Healthcare, Abruzzo has argued that failing to bargain in good faith for a contract is itself an Unfair Labor Practice. That means the NLRB has the authority to act to correct it – they can't order a contract, but they can order the employer to give workers "wages, benefits, hours, and such that are comparable to those provided by comparable unionized companies in their field."

Mitch McConnell is a piece of shit, but he's no slouch at kicking photocopiers himself. For a whole year, McConnell has blocked senate confirmation hearings to fill a vacant seat on the NLRB. In the short term, this meant that the three Dems on the board were able to hand down these bold rulings without worrying about their GOP colleagues.

But McConnell was playing a long game. Board member Gwynne Wilcox's term is about to expire. If her seat remains vacant, the three remaining board members won't be able to form a quorum, and the NLRB won't be able to do anything.

As Meyerson writes, centrist Dems have refused to push McConnell on this, hoping for comity and not wanting to violate decorum. But Chuck Schumer has finally bestirred himself to fight this issue, and Alaska GOP senator Lisa Murkowski has already broken with her party to move Wilcox's confirmation to a floor vote.

The work of enforcers like DoJ Antitrust Division boss Jonathan Kanter, FTC chair Lina Khan, and SEC chair Gary Gensler is at the heart of Bidenomics: the muscular, fearless deployment of existing regulatory authority to make life better for everyday Americans.

But of course, "existing regulatory authority" isn't the last word. The judges filling stolen seats on the illegitimate Supreme Court had invented the "major questions doctrine" and have used it as a club to attack Biden's photocopier-kickers. There's real danger that Cemex – and other key actions – will get fast-tracked to SCOTUS so the dotards in robes can shatter our dreams for a better America.

Meyerson is cautiously optimistic here. At 40% (!), the Court's approval rating is at a low not seen since the New Deal showdowns. The Supremes don't have an army, they don't have cops, they just have legitimacy. If Americans refuse to acknowledge their decisions, all they can do it sit and stew:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/26/mint-the-coin-etc-etc/#blitz-em

The Court knows this. That's why they fume so publicly about attacks on their legitimacy. Without legitimacy, they're nothing. With the Supremes' support at 40% and union support at 70%, any judicial attack on Cemex could trigger term-limits, court-packing, and other doomsday scenarios that will haunt the relatively young judges for decades, as the seats they stole dwindle into irrelevance. Meyerson predicts that this will weigh on them, and may stay their hands.

Meyerson might be wrong, of course. No one ever lost money betting on the self-destructive hubris of Federalist Society judges. But even if he's wrong, his point is important. If the Supremes frustrate the democratic will of the American people, we have to smash the Supremes. Term limits, court-packing, whatever it takes:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/20/judicial-equilibria/#pack-the-court

And the more we talk about this – the more we make this consequence explicit – the more it will weigh on them, and the better the chance that they'll surprise us. That's already happening! The Supremes just crushed the Sackler opioid crime-family's dream of keeping their billions in blood-money:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

But if it doesn't stop them? If they crush this dream, too? Pack the court. Impose term limits. Make it the issue. Don't apologize, don't shrug it off, don't succumb to learned helplessness. Make it our demand. Make it a litmus test: "If elected, will you vote to pack the court and clear the way for democratic legitimacy?"

Meanwhile, Cemex is already bearing fruit. After an NYC Trader Joe's violated the law to keep Trader Joe's United from organizing a store, the workers there have petitioned to have their union automatically recognized under the Cemex rule:

https://truthout.org/articles/trader-joes-union-files-to-force-company-to-recognize-union-under-new-nlrb-rule/

With the NLRB clearing the regulatory obstacles to union recognition, America's largest unions are awakening from their own long slumbers. For decades, unions have spent a desultory 3% of their budgets on organizing workers into new locals. But a leadership upset in the AFL-CIO has unions ready to catch a wave with the young workers and their 88% approval rating, with a massive planned organizing drive:

https://prospect.org/labor/labors-john-l-lewis-moment/

Meyerson calls on other large unions to follow suit, and the unions seem ready to do so, with new leaders and new militancy at the Teamsters and UAW, and with SEIU members at unionized Starbucks waiting for their first contracts.

Turning union-supporting workers into unionized workers is key to fighting Supreme Court sabotage. Organized labor will give fighters like Abruzzo the political cover she needs to Get Shit Done. A better America is possible. It's within our grasp. Though there is a long way to go, we are winning crucial victories all the time.

The centrist message that everything is fine and change is impossible is designed to demoralize you, to win the fight in your mind so they don't have to win it in the streets and in the jobsite. We don't have to give them that victory. It's ours for the taking.

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/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks

[bethanythebogwitch]

[tlwebb]

[starfieldcanvas]

trying to sell the technocrats on unionization like

[drawncap]

Hey all! I posted a short story to AO3 about Mage! Would appreciate it if you'd give it a read

https://archiveofourown.org/works/49206736

[spectrolitha]

My Mage: the Ascension lady from the Technocratic Union has evolved in both her backstory and her looks 😌

Her codename is Marionettist (or Marie for short). She is from Iteration X and she doesn't like her pathetic meat body and wants to change it for a mechanical one as soon as she gets the chance. She already uses some mechanical prototypes, that's how she got her codename — she kinda pulls the strings of those extra bodies of hers, y'know?

About her t-shirt... I kinda headcannon that if the N.W.O. makes messed up jokes based on "1984", then Iteration X really should do so with "I have no mouth and I must scream", so there's that... I wonder what other man-made horrors can be used by other conventions. I'm open to suggestions xD

Yeah, this girl doesn't like Syndicate one bit. Actually everyone in her Amalgam doesn't like Syndicate, even the guy who is a Syndicate member. They are cautious about voicing their dislikes, though. I wonder why.

Meme on her t-shirt was made by ᛕᚤᛚⰓᛁᚹ ᛜ'ᛟᛋᛖ on Steam