Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/11/20/word-of-the-day-kakistocracy.html
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All hail President Kaki!
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Considering the origins of most of the world’s aristocrats - in the UK piracy, land theft, slavery and warfare featured heavily - it’s often easy to confuse aristocracy and kakistocracy. So here’s the difference. If you take a typical aristocrat, this is someone who has always been rich, has inherited a family fortune, and used it to get into politics. During the process the family fortune may have shrunk somewhat, or it may have increased, but at no point has the aristocrat ever worried about where his next meal is coming from. A kakistocrat, on the other hand, may be someone who has always been rich, has inherited a family fortune, and used it to get into politics. During the process the family fortune may have shrunk somewhat, or it may have increased, but at no point has the kakistocrat ever worried about where his next meal is coming from.
I hope this clears up the confusion for you, and you now have no risk at all of confusing, say, Donald Trump, GWBII, Nigel Farage or Jacob Rees-Mogg.
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Shit, there’s another one?
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Not one, two!
Dick Cheney must have been cloning him for practice.
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Remember, reality catches up with everyone eventually.
George H.W. Bush had military and intelligence experience, and knew not to send troops into Iraq in 1991.
But is son George W. Bush had no such experience, and surrounded himself with ideological yes-men who didn’t let facts get in the way of their think-tank dream-worlds. They promised a war that would be over in six weeks, welcomed as liberators, and oil revenues would pay for everything. Didn’t happen, there weren’t even any WMDs, and as soon as the Iraqis got the democracy we promised they voted for the troops to leave.
Trump is surrounding himself with the same kinds of idiots who prefer ideology over reality. It won’t end well for him, unfortunately we have to ride in the back seat while he drives over the cliff.
Prepare yourself with the facts so you can counter every argument your Fox-News-loving friends bring up in defense of the shit Trump will be serving us. Maybe it won’t make a difference but silence won’t help either.
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Another key difference between Bush II and Trump; Bush II had enough sense to surround himself with smart (albeit slightly evil) people. I would go so far as to say that Bush II was probably a yes-man to Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, and the other PNAC architects.
I have no such confidence Trump is capable of making the same kind of hiring decisions.
Moreover, Bush II had experience in office and (I imagine) picked up something by osmosis. Trump? ::shrug::
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A couple of times back there, Fox News was looking like the voice of reason for GOP voters.
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I’m sure Trump has picked up a couple of things over the years. Hopefully most of them were cleared up with a strong round of antibiotics…
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Sounds like a nice greek term for the figureheads ruling an Ochlocracy.
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Way ahead of ya’. Although after the election it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite the same. From Have you tried prune juice, it keeps your Trumps nice and regular…to Man, that burrito went right through me like President-Elect Trump through a goose.
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The place where I work is both a khakistocracy and a kakistocracy.
And let me tell you, the only thing worse than a khakistocracy is a pleated khakistocracy.
(Seriously though, I had heard this term before and always thought it was referring to pants)
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My Dear Wormwood…
Be sure that the patient remains completely fixated on politics. Arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they have never met serves as an excellent distraction from advancing in personal virtue, character, and the things the patient can control. Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration, and general disdain towards the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing. Ensure the patient continues to believe that the problem is “out there” in the “broken system” rather than recognizing there is a problem with himself.
Keep up the good work.
Uncle Screwtape
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What about an Albisocracy?
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Not to be confused with:
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Ah, the grief is still strong in the left.
also a great band and really nice people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thnvn2Is4W8
Fun fact: To trump is a colloquial term in british english for to fart.
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Not just British English.
“ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta” - Dante, Inf. XXI “And he of his arsehole made a trumpet.”
It’s a very, very old conflation.
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What do Republicans have to do to be classed as, say, very evil?
I ask just so as to know what we might expect over the next 4 years, and to find out how much concrete and rebar I need on my shelter.
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