Are Politicians Puppets? Who Really Runs the World? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by NobodyIsPito@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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We vote. We debate. We argue over politicians like they’re the real decision-makers. But are they really in charge? Or are they just well-dressed puppets, reading from a script written by those with real power?

Behind every election, there are corporations, lobbyists, billionaires, and hidden networks pulling the strings. Policies aren’t always shaped by public interest but by those who fund campaigns, control the media, and influence economies.

The question is: Who truly holds the power? The government? The wealthy elite? Tech giants? Intelligence agencies?

And if politicians are just the face of a system much bigger than them, does voting even matter? Or are we just choosing between different masks of the same machine?

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[-] NobodyIsPito@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

You make an excellent point campaign funding absolutely impacts the democratic process, raising questions about the authenticity of our votes. It's a reminder that power structures often go far beyond what we see on the surface. History shows us how systems evolve and shift, and understanding that, along with how economics like globalization shape politics, is key. Curtis’ work on media manipulation and how it influences public perception is a great resource for seeing how we’ve been conditioned, and I agree that understanding economic history and theorists like Milton Friedman helps put today’s political climate into context. The real challenge is figuring out where the line is between genuine democracy and systems that mainly serve a select few.

[-] Binx85@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago

Your take on genuine democracy is fair, especially if we’re referring to the US (as per my assumption). According to this Wikipedia article on The Economist Democracy Index:

In 2016, the United States was downgraded from a full democracy to a flawed democracy; its score, which had been declining for some years, crossed the threshold from 8.05 in 2015 to 7.98 in 2016. The report stated that this was caused by myriad factors dating back to at least the late 1960s which have eroded Americans' trust in governmental institutions.

The question we’re facing is, if we make it through Trump’s term(s?) with a functional federal gov’t, how can we begin to return to a full democracy, and is that even possible given the trajectory of our economic system.

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

They’re not wrong about democratic backsliding in this case, but I generally ignore this index, which The Economist Group[^1] publishes for the purposes of imperial core propaganda against states that it wants to regime change.

[^1]: The tribune of the aristocracy of finance. — Karl Marx

[-] Binx85@lemm.ee 1 points 2 days ago

What are better indexes for this data?

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this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025

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