A "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" method of governing characterized by centralized control, blurred lines between public office and private gain, and a reliance on personal networks over transparent processes.

"The presidency itself is treated as a business opportunity. It has become corrupt by definition, because its reason for being is to exploit the state for gain; political, personal, and financial. At every turn, it is at war with the rules and institutions that impede rigging, robbing, and gutting the state. However, corruption is patrimonialism’s Achilles’ heel because the public understands it and doesn’t like it. It is not an abstraction like 'democracy' or 'Constitution' or 'rule of law.' It conveys that the government is being run for them, not for you.” -- Jonathan Rauch

Originally coined by Max Weber in Economy and Society,

Introduction

I know a lot about pokemon cards. Not as much as some people, but I know how to buy, value, sell, and trade them. I don't have all the cards memorized, and there's a lot of information that goes into figuring out exactly what card you have and how to value it, as well as avoiding scams when trading. It's not entirely straightforward. Hopefully this is helpful to someone. If not, at the very least I will be making E2 more "complete"; marginally closer to

Luigi Mangione, the man alleged to have killed Brian Thompson, wrote a review of Ted Kaczynski's Industrial Society and its Future on Goodreads and this sparked a flurry of renewed interest in it so I thought I might add my two cents on the controversial piece. The manifesto is available on this very site and several other places. I'm just going to outline the work and my two major problems with it rather than exploring the whole thing and