356
Moron rule (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 5 days ago by thal3s@sh.itjust.works to c/196
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[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 36 points 5 days ago

Conversely, as democracy is perverted by moneyed interests, government will more and more resemble the will of the short sighted shareholders obsessed with the next quarterly gains. Leading to a useful idiot government selling the country to corporations through regulatory capture and privatization.

That's what happened in the real world. Not the will of the broader populace, but the will of the few people who pay the politicians in charge of both parties.

[-] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 31 points 5 days ago

If only us North American scum could perceive this idea of proportional representation.

[-] BreadOven@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

What about the Northern peoples? Sadly I think they may be voting for the wannabe Trump. I really hope not.

[-] Saljid@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Well, us Kiwis are following not that far behind and catching up quickly.

[-] princessnorah 1 points 5 days ago

What a dumb thing to say. Australia has the same things said about it, yet we aspire to be closer to the NZ system. Neither of us is anywhere close to the disaster of US politics. It would take fundamental changes to our voting laws to "catch up" to them.

[-] DarkShaggy@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

That's what we thought.

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 21 points 5 days ago

implying that an election to choose a single representative for 300 million people with a 2-horse race is particularly democratic

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yep, America has only ever had the least democratic system that can possibly exist before it's essentially classified as a dictatorship... and Americans are like "peak freedom". Lol. No wonder it's a failed fucking state.

[-] TotallynotJessica@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

Honestly, Trump isn't that much dumber than most presidents. He actually understood how to break the system, mostly because he wasn't clouded by love for it. I wouldn't call him a mastermind, but he has better political instincts than anyone. He's an idiot, but he's fully aware what he's doing.

[-] NaevaTheRat@vegantheoryclub.org 16 points 5 days ago

Hnngh hnngh yes yes quite the unwashed masses need to be kept far from power hmm yes Tallyho good man hmm hmm.

[-] psmgx@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago

Mencken had a lot of good one liners

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

[-] BluesF@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

If the purpose of a system is what it does, then it seems the purpose of democracy is the self flagellation of the masses.

[-] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

E.A.Poe had similar concerns. He called the then hypothetical president "King Mob". On the other hand, he was a fan of Andrew Jackson.

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 9 points 5 days ago

What kind of antidemocratic horseshit is this?

[-] protist@mander.xyz 15 points 5 days ago

Can you describe what about this quote is antidemocratic?

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 days ago

It states that in a perfect democracy, the masses would elect morons because they themselves are morons.

[-] protist@mander.xyz 13 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It's a fucking joke. And what about that is antidemocratic?

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It implies that the people are too dumb to govern themselves; that as they get get closer to a perfect democracy, the choose dumber leaders.

[-] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Implies? It’s not exactly very subtle about it. The joke is how unfortunately prophetic it is.

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago

Apparently it's too subtle for anyone who didn't interpret it as antidemocratic.

The joke is how unfortunately prophetic it is.

Do you think the US is meaningfully democratic? When's the last time any leader did something that favored the people over capital?

[-] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I feel like the quote has gone over your head just a tad. The joke/quote is saying as time progresses people will continue to vote against their own best interest and eventually elect someone as moronic as the common people. And well here we are. It’s been a long time in coming yes, we’ve gone through a number of presidents who progressively did less and less in the interests of the people till we got here and elected the absolute worst person with only self interest at heart.

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 2 points 5 days ago

Prophetic because it calls people stupid after an undemocratic election?

[-] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Sadly it wasn’t exactly wholly undemocratic. It wasn’t even what you could call close. There were attempts voter suppression and intimidation, but in the end voter apathy won out. I don’t think there’s anything dumber than choosing not to vote in such an important election, but that choice in itself was a vote.

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah, I don't mean that this election was rigged or anything, I just mean that the US presidential election isn't really the combined will of every single American. Other countries have more democratic systems. Even the house races are more democratic.

[-] NoForwardslashS@sopuli.xyz 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You think that the US is actually a perfect democracy, that's sweet.

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago

No not at all, hence why I'm not antidemocratic. Democracy didn't give us Trump, the dictatorship of capital did.

[-] Fontasia@feddit.nl 2 points 5 days ago

It's not a bug, it's a feature. Perfect representation would actually by sortition (selection of public office by jury duty type random selection), but that scares people because "I don't want just anybody to be in power" but that doesn't stop people who should from getting it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

[-] Fontasia@feddit.nl 5 points 5 days ago

Yes.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

[-] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 7 points 5 days ago

holy crap and that was before nixon.

[-] psmgx@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Nixon was smart and ruthless.

Evil, sure, and an alcoholic, but no moron.

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago

The US is not a perfect democracy lol. I'd hardly even call it an imperfect one, atleast for the working class.

[-] protist@mander.xyz 15 points 5 days ago

Did you even read the quote

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago

he is the quote

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Did I misunderstand it? He is claiming that in a perfect democracy the leader would eventually be an idiot because the people are idiots no?

I'm claiming that thats a stupid fucking way to view society and that it isn't even close to being reflective of our reality.

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago

Lotta scratched liberals around these days.

this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2024
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