[andi999]

Can anybody tell me what 'a onetime Fabian' means?

[ForHackernews]

> [the Fabian Society; from the members' belief in slow rather than revolutionary change in government] : of, relating to, or being a society of socialists organized in England in 1884 to spread socialist principles gradually

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society

[andi999]

Thanks! Is this actually common knowledge in the UK (and US?)?

[ForHackernews]

To a reader of the London Review of Books? Almost certainly. To the general public? Probably not.

Though perhaps worth mentioning that the Fabian Society has long been influential in the British Labour Party, so plenty of Labour party members or folks in unions will have a passing familiarity.