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[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 55 points 6 months ago

People generally don't like actually participating in democracy. And fuck, who can blame them? The essential feature of changing policy in a democratic polity is the hard, arduous, thankless fucking task of fighting an apathetic or actively hostile majority. You don't get to be a hero. You don't get recognition. You may not even see any change at all from your own, personal efforts, sometimes not even locally. Success is measured on the scale of decades. It's fucking miserable. There's no sudden wave of support to ride to victory, there's no cheering crowds showing your opposition how utterly defeated and isolated they are, like you once were; there's no moment of vindication. It's nothing but struggle, toil, and tedium.

Yet, that is how societies change.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The essential feature of changing policy in a democratic polity is the hard, arduous, thankless fucking task of fighting an apathetic or actively hostile majority.

The TikTok ban flew through. The '08 bank bailouts passed practically overnight. War bills for rammed through in a matter of months. Weapons deals are routine and tax cuts happen under every presidency.

The corrupt legislation doesn't need to walk this arduous road. And corporate lobbyists regularly tout their jetset cocaine and hooker lifestyle.

This is the real face of American democracy. Not an army of petitioners fighting bad weather and apathetic crowds to scrap out civil rights from a clumsy bureaucracy. It's dudes in $10k suits wooing senators in wine caves and beach resorts. And those same senators denouncing their constituents as greedy, lazy, ignorant slobs when a protest over the latest turd of a legislative package comes through.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago

Sorry that the miserable task of democracy doesn't appeal to you. Maybe you can find somewhere where you can just parrot the Party Line and be happy with the Great Leader? I hear the PRC is nice.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 18 points 6 months ago

Imagine being this angry at a country with cutting edge mass transit, modern health care, and a retirement age of 54

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Keeping licking those boots, I'm sure your social credit score will serve you well in the future. Cretins like you adore fascism, after all.

I mean, imagine simping for a state currently involved in a genocide, putting hundreds of thousands of Muslims in concentration camps and executing them at will. And imagining that you're better than the Israeli simps?

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 19 points 6 months ago

My guy, you can't walk through a college campus in the US without getting gang tackled by police.

[-] PugJesus@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago
[-] Resonosity@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

The US has a representative democracy. We elect people by voting so that those people can represent our beliefs in the action of government without us being there to make sure our voice is heard and considered.

While I agree that everyone should be more involved in civics, especially at a local level, it's not really efficient for a society to implement a vanilla democracy. There are lots of other jobs like generating food/removing waste, generating energy/removing pollution, constructing/maintaining housing, transporting people including democratic representatives to and fro based on their obligations and desires, entertaining people so they can offset the pain in their lives and continue on with the struggle that is life, defend citizens from others or ourselves, etc.

Having a group of people act out government on our behalf is a good thing because we can specialize in other things to allow them to do so.

This all being said, there has been a disconnect with our representatives and with reality in general, so there is a giant need to reconnect with civic life in the US at all ages and at all levels for that matter.

this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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