Yeah, the flip side of this argument is also "Being a great writer doesn't necessarily mean you have great ideas." (Not impugning LeGuin, just that I trust activists who actually do politics to make policy more than the poets)

I read the detailed contrast between SP and the EV ways as clear didactic markers inside the clearly speculative setting

There's a tradition of didactic fiction and poetry (not just for children, not poorly written) that it fits with-- speculative fiction can easily (and has) been part of it, I'd argue

Yeah, in a more serious vein, they needed to push bolder policies closer to 23-24 (esp. '24), but Fed policy is a real constraint--doesn't let them off the hook, but I would tell the failure of "Bidenomics" differently.

So for years under Biden, the job market was too good and corporations got mad because of labor power? Sounds like a good start!

But the problem *here* is not Bluesky--the social pressure to dissemble or pretend things are different is found on Twitter and similar spaces.

I think the substantive discussion was a large function of the lower barrier to entry for knowledgeable commenters, especially from industries & disciplines that 1) Had expertise & 2) Norms around open discussion and debate, whereas the "social" function of blogs had similar bad incentives to today

you say tomato [9 million years later] I say potato

Chris Cornell could most definitely sing.