Observation, trial and error, scientific method, logic, principle—foundational critical thinking skills can suffice to help navigate information. — NOS4A2
Yes, but if well-meaning democrats find they can't compete except by copying that approach we get into Animal Farm territory - the pigs become men..Simply put it: Authoritarian regimes and governments in general have now learned how to control and use (or abuse) the new media called the internet and social media. That's just it. — ssu
The difference getween a meaningful democracy and a dictatorship, by the way, is that the former has the means of turfing out corruption and ineptitude on the part of leaders. — Tim3003
Exactly. One of the most perilous strategies is to think that if in a democracy some actors use dubious methods, to protect democracy you have to use similar dubious methods.Yes, but if well-meaning democrats find they can't compete except by copying that approach we get into Animal Farm territory - the pigs become men.. — Tim3003
I'm not sure if you've seen a lot of US schools.. but a lot of them have nothing to do with the kind of education needed to engineer weapons.. Are we talking urban or suburban schools? Because urban schools are often just trying to keep the kids and its own funding afloat for four years... — schopenhauer1
The US Republican-Trump party is now working to install loyalists in swing-state election-admin posts, so that they can manipulate the 2024 count to ensure he wins - all in defense of the stop-the-steal lie, which 2/3 of them still believe. — Tim3003
Here we can't do anything until the next election, and then we have a choice about which lying sack of crap gets in, — Book273
Shows only the integral weakness built into the regime. Why once in power, do you still have to attack others as viciously as before? Your showing your weakness. What your base actually would want is for you to do what you promised to do, simple as that. It's the populists dilemma: once in power, you are those "powers to be" that you have criticized. Hence if you want to follow that act and not keep your promises, you have to enlargen the "conspiracy" to the international level. Good luck with that. In the end you do have to have a support base and they have to be happy.What when it's the government/state who is the actor who uses dubious methods? — baker
This is true, but any government or regime has to have a support base. There simply has to be people who at least think that supporting the present leadership and system is better than the alternative. Otherwise the whole apparatus will come apart in a drop of a hat.Democracies are not kept in check by informed citizens, they are kept in check by powerful legal institutions and as well as various other rules and systems. — Judaka
If you just copy-paste the Swiss system into an existing power structure in many countries, yes, that would be something to be dreaded. Or simply would tarnish the name of the Swiss model. Because having the institutions and system in name only wouldn't help many countries.Without a doubt the closest country to having an actual ‘democracy’ on Earth is Switzerland. The thought of that system on a global scale fills me with dread not hope. — I like sushi
I think it's simply racist to think that some people (unlike others) would be incapable of having a democracy. It's the above mentioned things that have to work. — ssu
Democracies are not kept in check by informed citizens, they are kept in check by powerful legal institutions and as well as various other rules and systems. — Judaka
Shows only the integral weakness built into the regime. Why once in power, do you still have to attack others as viciously as before? Your showing your weakness. What your base actually would want is for you to do what you promised to do, simple as that. — ssu
Perhaps a democracy wherein the requirement to vote, or hold office, is an IQ above 130. That should remove a substantial amount of dead weight. Then at least I could say that my representative might be corrupt and a asshole, but not an idiot. That would be a good place to start. — Book273
↪Athena Canada. I used to vote. My friends used to vote. Most don't now, for the reasons I listed. Nobody listens to our letters, might as well burn them, the end result is the same. I figure democracy is a scam: nice sales pitch but the final product isn't worth a damn. — Book273
The whole point of democracy is that the dictator isn't the one who decides what is "allowed", the institutions do. A democratically elected leader, whether he's going to get voted in again or not, lacks the legal power to undermine the democratic institutions. Otherwise, it wouldn't matter what the vote was, and that's normally how democracies become dictatorships because a leader is able to interfere with the election process and undermine it in some way. — Judaka
So it's not the existance of the institutions that safeguard democracy, it's their ability to continue to function without interference from the govt. — Tim3003
Usually it's a problem of motivation. Who cares? Elections happen very rarely and it's a vote among millions. But let's say their careers where on the line with the choice they made in the election booth (which btw. goes against the crucial anonymity of voting). If their candidate does do what he or she promises they keep their job, if he or she doesn't, they lose their job. Suddenly there would be a lot of interest to elections and many of your colleagues and they would follow politics.I look around at the people I work with, arguably educated and literate, and listen to their spoken values and am appalled at the profound absence of thought processes and shallow values being yammered about. These are the educated voters, Bachelors and Masters degrees all around, and very little substance or critical thought to be found anywhere. — Book273
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.