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Re:Yet another novel I will no longer write by gwern on Saturday April 04, 2020 @05:52PM (#22781839)
> His observation is wrong. In all societies in which there is a power vacuum gangs take over. Witness Africa, South America, Burma, and the middle Eastern countries in which we have removed the “dictators.”

And it's particularly amusing because he just mentioned Haiti. What happened in Haiti is precisely why the American plantation class was so terrified: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_Haiti_massacre

Re:Yet another novel I will no longer write by coliveira on Saturday April 04, 2020 @06:29PM (#22782065)
The plantation owners in Haiti knew fully well that the revolt was deserved.
Re:Yet another novel I will no longer write by gwern on Sunday April 05, 2020 @10:24AM (#22785692)
'deserved' has nothing to do with it. The American South elites deserved it almost as much as the Haitian planters did; and they were likely correct to fear it, contrary to Stross's glib dismissal of their fears as irrational.
Re:Yet another novel I will no longer write by mcguire on Saturday April 04, 2020 @06:50PM (#22782173)
Did you miss the rest of that comment: "Even the term “elite panic” is lie. The elite are fine in a disaster and they know it."
Re:Yet another novel I will no longer write by gwern on Sunday April 05, 2020 @10:23AM (#22785676)
The Haitian elites were not fine in their disaster. And other elites (viz the American south's elites) knew it. That's the point.