local control and "community knowledge" is beloved by *romantics*, who were *anti enlightenment* and *conservative*. they were deeply fucked up assholes! they opposed human freedom and democratic process! marx himself was a *modernist* who hated these guys and believed in systematized institutions!

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love it when anarchists say this because most "local community" councils irl in places like new england or small rural towns are typically deeply *right wing* and hate immigrants and queer people despite representing a "broad swathe" of the entire population. leftism is supposed to be COSMOPOLITAN.

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The romanticization of decentralized traditional society has this extraordinary habit of forgetting that power does not disappear when the state withdraws. It becomes private. You haven't abolished government. You've created a vacancy, and the local patriarch is delighted to apply.

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The other trick is to get a PAC to buy up pallets of books, put them in gift bags for event attendees or offer "Donate $75 and get this book" incentives. All written off as a PR expense for the PAC and all that money gets funneled to the author via their oversized advance from publishers in on it.

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I should note, although this was pioneered by conservatives, D-listers, podcasters, techbros, and social media "celebrities" are also big fans of artificially inflating sales. It's attractive to pretty much anyone desperate to seem more infuential, famous, and listened-to than they actually are.

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