31
The Ratchet Effect (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 hours ago by DougHolland@lemmy.world to c/aiop@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 9 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Can't say I'm a fan of this in any sort of 'universally true' sense. I mean, if you want to go after corporate democrats, poor message-making from dems, or dems uselessly trying to aim for bipartisanship in the past, then IMO you're in to some strong points that can and should be addressed and dissected.

OTOH, I feel like painting everything with 'the whole system is the same' type-message is one of the most inaccurate and disempowering things you can possibbly do as a potential voter or agent of democracy. It may seem clever, it may seem edgy, it may express a certain reality in terms of one's outlook, and in some cases I do agree that it's very much true. But ultimately, going hard in to this message is to me like saying... "well, there's no point in doing anything, so let's just sit back and watch our rights continue to erode by the workings of late-stage capitalism."

The reality as I currently see it is this-- the modern "GOP" is now the complete antithesis of everything that it was founded for, and it's always worth remembering that it was the nation's most progressive major party for its first ~50yrs or so. (feel free to look that up if you need to) Point is, nowadays it's little more than a fusion of corporate interests, extreme right-wingers, and a voting base that's... I can't even find the words to describe.

Meanwhile, the dems indeed have problems at the top, much of it arguably based on establishment politicians being pretty much neutered by the flow of money. Or worse. OTOH, you look at federal-level voting records, and it's in fact the dems who still commonly vote for the interests of the body of American citizens. So the whole idea of 'both sides are the same' is ludicrous when the above info is added to the mix.

Fortunately, there's hope on the horizon if you really do believe in hopefulness and useful politicians truly representing the people. National examples would of course be AOC, Mamdani, and the rising El-Sayed, on top of others already in congress, doing their thing a little more quietly.

As I see it, these midterms are basically the very last chance for the nation to recover itself from the awful, self-damaging, 50-60yr history of the nation leaning in to republicans message-makers and button-pushers, who did a tremendous job of stoking up voters on various hot-button topics, but who were ultimately corporate sellouts to the nation.

Lastly, for whatever the truth and limited usefulness of the OP message, you should know that it's exactly the kind of thing that Russia, the CPC, N.K., and other hostile entities are cheerfully willing to flood online spaces with. Because they're doing it for a reason, and it's working, sadly.

Just for the record, much of their known method is to reduce a complicated issue in to a *gotcha* kind of thing that makes the reader feel clever, reducing them as much as possible in to a single-issue voter, or hopefully non-voter if the message worked.

[-] Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online 2 points 44 minutes ago

So the whole idea of 'both sides are the same' is ludicrous when the above info is added to the mix

This is not the meaning of the meme. Even if you take it in the most literal sense.

Many countries with parliamentary systems have two major parties who serve similar functions, but I think the america experience is really unique. Sure, a system with n number of parties could end up with the same effect but one of the biggest differences is that you don't have one party (successfully) dodging accountability because they are "better option."

In the 2021 canadian election no party got > 50% of the seats so a confidence and supply agreement had to be made. The center right party (Liberal) made an agreement with the slightly more left NDP. We got universal coverage for drugs started. There is no way that would have happened without the NDP making that agreement. At any time until the 2025 election, the NDP could have forced an election if they didn't like what was happening.

Another way to look at what the meme represents is an edge reinforced random walk. Imagine a tug of war with a rope of infinite length so it can't end. If you assume each election is random but the chance of winning increases ever so slightly for the next election (like an incumbent). Each election win pulls the rope in your direction. Because of the slight advantage to the previous winner, the rope will move in one direction over time and it will never return to the start.

When elections can happen because the government can't agree enough to pass legislation this gives parties the chance to run hard on a certain topic they know people care about. Yes, the promises are often not realistic but people also take away their votes from the main parties when they are mad. It's a lot harder to say "vote for me or bad things will happen" when you know you're not signing up for a set term.

In a two party system elections are a zero sum game. The parties need to try to appeal to everyone to win elections and the people are agreeing to let the elected officials govern the for a set term no matter what. It cannot reflect the desires of the population as new issues come up and there is no motivation to push for anything people who vote for the other party night not like. That means you can't win them over.

this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
31 points (100.0% liked)

AMUSING, INTERESTING, OUTRAGEOUS, or PROFOUND

3151 readers
29 users here now

This is a page for anything that's amusing, interesting, outrageous, or profound.

♦ ♦ ♦

RULES

❶ Each player gets six cards, except the player on the dealer's right, who gets seven.

❷ Posts, comments, and participants must be amusing, interesting, outrageous, or profound.

❸ This page uses Reverse Lemmy-Points™, or 'bad karma'. Please downvote all posts and comments.

❹ Posts, comments, and participants that are not amusing, interesting, outrageous, or profound will be removed.

❺ This is a non-smoking page. If you must smoke, please click away and come back later.

❻ Don't be a dick.

Please also abide by the instance rules.

♦ ♦ ♦

Can't get enough? Visit my blog.

♦ ♦ ♦

Please consider donating to Lemmy and Lemmy.World.

$5 a month is all they ask — an absurdly low price for a Lemmyverse of news, education, entertainment, and silly memes.

 

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS