silver-and-ivory said: seems like there’s a v strong division
silver-and-ivory said: between high status men who get away with everything
silver-and-ivory said: and low status men who get arrested for, idk, wearing a shirt crooked or some shit
yessish, but I’m not sure if that’s the best framing for it as it offloads the difference onto vague notions of status instead of institutional position.
While a prison guard may be “low status” relative to a movie producer or a member of congress, they can still get away with very creepy and exploitative behaviour towards prisoners, sometimes even up to the point of torture and murder without repercussions.
Michael Bay didn’t have that kind of power over Megan Fox, but he still had some power that say a Citibank executive wouldn’t have had, in that his position includes the right to decide who has a career and who doesn’t, with no real oversight or feedback on how he makes that decision.
“you can’t avoid the guy, have to work with him, have to be nice to him, and can’t complain to anyone about his behaviour” is a toxic combination anywhere.
Status is also a factor beyond just institutional power.
People will let popular and attractive people get away with doing things that they would never let an unpopular, unattractive person do, and they’ll make excuses for them that they wouldn’t make for an unpopular person.
I don’t agree with BA that it’s all-consuming, there are things that can pierce and overcome it, but it’s definitely a factor.
Most non-AnCap Anarchists I’ve seen don’t seem to have anything to stop weaponized popularity, except that the communes are limited in size.
Most non-AnCap Anarchists I’ve seen don’t seem to have anything to stop weaponized popularity, except that the communes are limited in size.
This is a feature, not a bug. A large part of the ancom fantasy – a large part of many political fantasies, actually, especially the more naive breeds of anti-capitalist fantasy – involves the restoration of popularity to its rightful level of influence over human interactions.
“When the revolution comes – the fact that I’m a good person, lovable and beloved, will be enough to make things go my way.”
“When the revolution comes – that jerk boss that everyone hates will get taken down a peg or two.”
“When the revolution comes – snotty unlikable young nerds won’t be able to lord it over me just because they’re good at weird abstract tasks.”
Sometimes, of course, this also involves the fantasy that you are secretly popular, and that this will be recognized and rewarded when the drama plays out. But not always. Sometimes it is a fantasy held by genuinely popular people annoyed that post-high-school contemporary life doesn’t reward popularity in the ways that they’ve come to expect that it should.