Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts • Hacker News Board

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#151

Post by zw123456 » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 10:09 PM UTC

undersuit wrote: post #122

zw123456 wrote: post #84

I think that a solution this problem as well as many others like undo influence, too much money needed and so on, could be solved by increasing the number of representatives. I believe that the only stipulations in the constitution is that each state must have at least one and that a representative cannot represent less than 30K citizens. The number was frozen 35 in 1911 by the house, but they could change that if th…

Prior to the Civil War our Representatives voted and worked from the same desk, the one they had in the Capitol Building in the House Chambers. Now they have offices and support staff. Why don't we just convert those ~5000 support staff( and their offices ) into a much more representative democracy?

Perfect, I agree completely.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#152

Post by triceratops » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 10:48 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #69

TremendousJudge wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...just do away with districts entirely? why are they needed?

The original point of having districts was because states are "too large" and you want people representing an even smaller geographical area so that truly local issues are represented. And in many places that's still the case, and is actually useful and important to get local issues surfaced properly. For states with heavily gerrymandered districts, though, I agree: might as well just do away with districts and have…

So instead of making a choice between 2-5 candidates (major 2 plus a few independents/smaller parties), every voter has to rank up to 50 candidates (assuming ranked choice voting)? How do you expect voters to know the policy positions of that many candidates? They may as well be picking at random.

If not ranked choice voting, how would this even work?

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#153

Post by triceratops » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 10:50 PM UTC

TremendousJudge wrote: post #50

legitster wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was exactly the point discussed in one of the episodes. Artificially create a black delegation? Or have no black delegation at all.

...just do away with districts entirely? why are they needed?

Because otherwise every voter would need to cast a vote on every single candidate for every single seat in the legislature. It's impossible to make informed choices with so many options.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#154

Post by memetomancer » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 10:55 PM UTC

blackflame7000 wrote: post #141

LocalPCGuy wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is because what you are referring to as "one particular subset of the population who aren't generally allowed specific representation" does not need any help in making sure they have representation. One, they are not (currently) a minority and two, they have the vast majority of the power in this country already. So no, it isn't interesting.

I'm confused about why being a minority means you need more help? Are they not as capable as the rest of us? Why do you think they are so disadvantaged as to require special education and assistance? I mean we're not talking case by case basis here, your sentiments were clearly blanketed statements.

yours would best be described as the 'naive' take on the situation, and rests on a false premise.

These minorities need 'help' in that a majority is going to be self-interested and lacking compassion or any sort of integrity at larger scope.

In the U.S. this might take the form of tax loopholes for speedboats and golf memberships eating into funding for basic social services (infrastructure, law enforcement, education resources and such) on the other side of town.

If you can unpack the above and place yourself in the shoes of the people on the bad end of that deal, you might start to get the idea.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#155

Post by harimau777 » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 11:13 PM UTC

raldi wrote: post #124

undersuit wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>these are some of the last districts that should ever be considered for inclusion. Maybe there were, and the author had to use them for their relatively sane shapes compared to calling Maryland's 3rd District the X.

Be that as it may, it substantially undermines the premise of the work, which is presumably, "Gerrymandering is so rampant that you can make an entire alphabetic font out of gerrymandered districts".

I think that "Gerrymandering is so rampant that you can make 24 of the 26 letters out of gerrymandered districts" still demonstrates their point.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#156

Post by artur_makly » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 11:17 PM UTC

I just love it when deft minimal art...spurs such comprehensive critical conversation. We need more of this on HN ;-)

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#157

Post by harimau777 » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 11:27 PM UTC

BookmarkSaver wrote: post #145

Spivak wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the arguments in favor of the electoral college is that it boosts the voice of people who are in areas with lower population density. This is to ensure that minority interests are respected and taken into account by presidential hopefuls. Without this protection the voices of people who live outside the 5 major metropolitan areas simply wouldn't matter and candidates would have no reason to listen to their iss…

>One of the arguments in favor of the electoral college is that it boosts the voice of people who are in areas with lower population density Why should people get more say because they live more spread out? Why do 100k people living across the countryside get more say than 100k people living in a city? If 5 million people live in a city and 2 million people live in the countryside, the people in the city should have…

I think that the idea is that as much as possible everyone's preferences should be heard and allowed for. The preferences and priorities of people living in cities tends to be dramatically different than those of people living in rural areas. The concern is that a scenario where cities have enough higher population that their preferences are advanced to the exclusion of the priorities of people in rural areas, while more democratic, would undermine ideals of freedom, equality, self determination, etc.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#158

Post by blackflame7000 » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 11:43 PM UTC

memetomancer wrote: post #154

blackflame7000 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused about why being a minority means you need more help? Are they not as capable as the rest of us? Why do you think they are so disadvantaged as to require special education and assistance? I mean we're not talking case by case basis here, your sentiments were clearly blanketed statements.

yours would best be described as the 'naive' take on the situation, and rests on a false premise. These minorities need 'help' in that a majority is going to be self-interested and lacking compassion or any sort of integrity at larger scope. In the U.S. this might take the form of tax loopholes for speedboats and golf memberships eating into funding for basic social services (infrastructure, law enforcement, educatio…

There will always be a majority and there will always be a minority. But the thought process behind, "they are a minority, therefore they need assistance" is elitism at best and racism at worst. Furthermore, the laws that we pass that give special treatment to one group over another make that divide all the more permanent.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#159

Post by caf » Thu, Aug 01, 2019, 11:47 PM UTC

AlanSE wrote: post #31

EForEndeavour wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only three letters in this project include California; only the letters T and X are represented exclusively by California. The statement is powerful and hilarious, not "lost."

It's not even a very good T. Some letters are more impressive than others. Q is totally worthless for the political point. But N, D, U, and a few others are real gems.

K and H are pretty egregious at first glance.

Re: Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts

#160

Post by dahdum » Fri, Aug 02, 2019, 12:05 AM UTC

jellicle wrote: post #112

Spivak wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the arguments in favor of the electoral college is that it boosts the voice of people who are in areas with lower population density. This is to ensure that minority interests are respected and taken into account by presidential hopefuls. Without this protection the voices of people who live outside the 5 major metropolitan areas simply wouldn't matter and candidates would have no reason to listen to their iss…

Can't we make the exact opposite argument? In the unbalanced system which currently exists in the USA, rural voters are given huge, disproportionate advantage in electoral power, leading to national decisions being made that favor them (have some more farm subsidies!) and ignoring the voices of the millions of citizens who happen to live in large cities and populous states. Why are rural people better than city peopl…

If you look at educational attainment, health, poverty rates, and other factors it doesn’t seem to biased towards rural communities. They fall behind in all those measures.