Progressive Politics

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Democrat reformists finding out that Democrats will only play dirty against the left. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

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[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net -3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Exactly, it's a voter problem. We have a ranked choice voting system in Australia with cumpolsory voting, same as everywhere, we mostly elect fools and asshats.

But then some some 2000 years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses

Juvenal originally used it to decry the "selfishness" of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase implies a population's erosion or ignorance of civic duty as a priority.

80% simply don't really give a shit.

Susan Sontag was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10% of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10% is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80% could be  moved in either direction” —Kurt Vonnegut

[–] anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's not a voter problem, it's a capitalism problem.

In a capitalist democracy, it's capital that sets the rules for governance, not the other way around. You can have a social democracy, but you can't undo capital in a capitalist democracy by voting.

[–] yucandu@lemmy.world -2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You're incredibly defeatist. You absolutely can, that's why they keep spending so much money trying to influence our vote.

[–] anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I agree that spending boatloads of money on propaganda is an effective way of dictating the terms of an election.

It's possible that you just don't agree that capital owners have more money and influence than the rest of the country by orders of magnitude, and that somehow if we just yell really really loudly that we can overcome that immense power differential.

[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Australia uses IRV, not STV, which is basically just FPTP with a fancier ballot. And nobody else on the planet uses this for multi-seat legislative assemblies. Only Australia.

But if you're advocating for increased educational funding so that voters aren't idiots, I'm all for that, too.