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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one to c/leftymemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com

People who tell me the anti-trans anti-POC laws in my state are good actually because the majority support them. People who treat people as pawns in an electoral campaign.

So tired of people like that.

Update: Examples found within the thread! I don't even need to link to examples of this happening. They're right here!

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[-] ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 months ago

I'm confused, are you claiming the US is a tyranny of the majority or authoritarian? Or are you saying there are tyrannies of the majority in some state or local governments?

Nationally, we're definitely neither of those things. The presidency is determined by a minority because of the electoral college. In 2020 it was just a happy coincidence that it also lined up with the popular vote.

All through 2021 and 2022 the desires of the majority were stifled by the Senate because of the minority rule that's enforced there by the 2 senators per state part of the Constitution.

Looking at the House, it's minority rule there, too. Thanks to gerrymandering by state legislatures, a lot of Republican representatives are representing 60/40 districts and a lot of Democrats are representing 90/10 districts. You can see it by adding up the total votes by party. The Democrats would have a significant majority if seats were apportioned by the popular vote.

Now maybe it's the case in some states and counties and cities that you have tyranny of the majority. That definitely sucks if they're being abusive. But it's not the only alternative to authoritarianism.

[-] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one 2 points 10 months ago

But it's not the only alternative to authoritarianism

Tell that to the people this post is about. Also, as you have mentioned, the current system allows this. The majority of people could support ICE, and it would still be inequitable and oppressive. The majority may oppose returning land to tribal control, but it is still colonization and genocide.

Only ideologies like Anarchism preclude this, since they by definition oppose such hierarchies and don't rely on a glacially slow system that winks while people suffer.

It doesn't matter what the majority want. Often, the majority want to harm other people. If you don't believe me, then you haven't heard from enough American liberals who will make batshit claims such as this being the best system in the world or that they "have no other choice" but to force oppression and genocide as long as it's sanctioned by the law.

Clearly, this is not a good system. Never has been.

this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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