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this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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You know while I do empathize with being asked to care about something and being annoyed at that, it's also annoying to be inundated with takes from people on complicated subjects, who aren't willing to put in some hours worth of work. Nobody's going to be willing to personally walk you through the subject matter and do all of the intellectual labor for you specifically, that's an unreasonable request of them, and frankly, less efficient than just reading.
Sure, but you need to sell someone on why the time is worth spending. Nobody here is asking anyone to walk them through the subject matter, just give an idea of why the subject matter is worth digging into.
I personally have read the The Communist Manifesto, and when paired with what I know about human nature and how it turned out in practice, my conclusion is that it's a bunch of idealistic nonsense. It can only work in the way described if everyone buys in and the leadership is noble, which is true for pretty much every governmental system out there (dictatorships can work well if the dictator works in the interests of the people). It doesn't work well when you remove the assumption, because people will game the system and consolidating power is a recipe for disaster.
And that's why liberal democracy has worked so well. Instead of assuming people are good and consolidating power is beneficial, it instead mitigates the damage bad actors can cause. There are obviously downsides, but the average liberal democracy should be better off than the average dictatorship.
So I'm not going to pitch The Communist Manifesto because I find it uninteresting. I will, however, pitch How Democracies Die, which is an interesting look at how bad actors have subverted or attempted to subvert democracy to turn it into authoritarianism, and it culminates in a discussion about Donald Trump and similar political figures. You won't find a pitch for an ideal political system, but you will find examples of weaknesses in past and existing institutions, and I think that's a lot more interesting than a non-existent, "ideal" system that we don't fully understand.
This is a great example of how you can take complicated subjects and express the ideas in a simple way while still recommending further reading. I'm absolutely more likely to read How Democracies Die now than I am to read anything the tankies have suggested.
If you can't explain something to a five year old then you don't really understand it.
I'm convinced the tankies understand less about government than they do about social media techniques and creating a cult.
Hell, I'm even trying to help them. Novel ideas are good for everyone. It's why we believe in freedom of speech and not banning books. Trying to bandwagon and browbeat and mock people into joining your "cause" is... less helpful.