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You can fool some of the people, all of the time

economist.com

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Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#41

Post by lexandstuff »

sputr wrote: post #26
buboard wrote: post #10

My pet theory is that democracy is more tolerable because it alternates between incompetent people fast enough to keep people's hopes alive.

Democracy is nothing more than a system that replaces swords/bullets with votes. That's it. The fight for power (aka. resources) it inescapable and the only thing that democracy did, was to change the field that this fight is fought on. Democracy is more tolerable because no people die (in the open) when the landscape of power changes. The only two benefits of democracy to "the people" are: (1) the fact that they hav…

Getting a vote instead of a bullet to the head seems like a pretty significant upgrade to me.

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#42

Post by carry_bit »

smoll wrote: post #12

If most people are hard-wired to be duped, why does it feel like only recently people are getting even more conspicuously duped by their political leaders (a la Trump and Johnson)? Presumably this effect should have had a more uniformly distributed effect throughout history. Is it solely due to the weaponization of technology for this means? Or are there other reasons for “why now”?

People can also be duped about their political leaders, not just by them.

It's much easier to tell that someone else has been duped if you haven't been duped the same way. Until recently the main dupers were playing for the same team, so it was harder to notice since there was no mainstream "other". Now they've split into separate teams, so now there is a mainstream "other" that people can easily notice.

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#43

Post by Agebor »

sputr wrote: post #26
buboard wrote: post #10

My pet theory is that democracy is more tolerable because it alternates between incompetent people fast enough to keep people's hopes alive.

Democracy is nothing more than a system that replaces swords/bullets with votes. That's it. The fight for power (aka. resources) it inescapable and the only thing that democracy did, was to change the field that this fight is fought on. Democracy is more tolerable because no people die (in the open) when the landscape of power changes. The only two benefits of democracy to "the people" are: (1) the fact that they hav…

Resources? The real fight is now for people's minds.

We already have orders of magnitude more resources than 100 years ago and almost everyone can benefit from them.

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#44

Post by claudeganon »

chadcmulligan wrote: post #16
buboard wrote: post #10

My pet theory is that democracy is more tolerable because it alternates between incompetent people fast enough to keep people's hopes alive.

I have a similar theory, the right and the left each get to alternate so we stay sort of in the middle.

At least in the US, I think you’re mistaking controlled opposition in the form of a pseudo-left Democratic Party for things alternating. Post 1970s, the ideological continuity between the two parties (austerity for the people, largesse for the military, corporations, and ruling class) is quite obvious, but obfuscated in public discourse through various culture wars.

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#45

Post by [deleted] »

sputr wrote: post #26
buboard wrote: post #10

My pet theory is that democracy is more tolerable because it alternates between incompetent people fast enough to keep people's hopes alive.

Democracy is nothing more than a system that replaces swords/bullets with votes. That's it. The fight for power (aka. resources) it inescapable and the only thing that democracy did, was to change the field that this fight is fought on. Democracy is more tolerable because no people die (in the open) when the landscape of power changes. The only two benefits of democracy to "the people" are: (1) the fact that they hav…

[deleted]

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#46

Post by Nasrudith »

aww_dang wrote: post #36

Is it too much to ask the author to define his terms? The nature of truth is subject to an ongoing epistemological debate. The author's unspoken presumption is that fallible humans can even approach truth. Is it not more honest in a way if a politician or a criminal accepts that he can not do truth justice, and proceeds with the sausage making? Like an actor winking into the camera, self-irony becomes an important pa…

Really an honest politican is technically possible but only if and only if the inputs are guided to such via demands. A voter base which accepts the truth or honesty. It is just that it is expected and career suicide to be anti "anti-rhetoric" blunt with unsexy qualified stances and truths. Saying "I will agree to just about anything for farm subsidies because despite less than 10% of the population working in the agricultural sector because my voter base has made it their identity." would be something from a brutal satire.

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#47

Post by jessaustin »

aww_dang wrote: post #36

Is it too much to ask the author to define his terms? The nature of truth is subject to an ongoing epistemological debate. The author's unspoken presumption is that fallible humans can even approach truth. Is it not more honest in a way if a politician or a criminal accepts that he can not do truth justice, and proceeds with the sausage making? Like an actor winking into the camera, self-irony becomes an important pa…

It seems telling to this reader that TFA leaves unmentioned a very important aspect of lying in modern times: lying to oneself. Perhaps this was meant to be ironic. Seeing irony where none is intended is just about the only way I can stomach the output of the war media.

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#48

Post by ChrisSD »

sputr wrote: post #26
buboard wrote: post #10

My pet theory is that democracy is more tolerable because it alternates between incompetent people fast enough to keep people's hopes alive.

Democracy is nothing more than a system that replaces swords/bullets with votes. That's it. The fight for power (aka. resources) it inescapable and the only thing that democracy did, was to change the field that this fight is fought on. Democracy is more tolerable because no people die (in the open) when the landscape of power changes. The only two benefits of democracy to "the people" are: (1) the fact that they hav…

> Democracy is more tolerable because no people die (in the open) when the landscape of power changes

This isn't quite true. People are killed over regional political struggles in democracies. The difference is one of scale, not of absolutes.

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#49

Post by FrankyHollywood »

sputr wrote: post #26
buboard wrote: post #10

My pet theory is that democracy is more tolerable because it alternates between incompetent people fast enough to keep people's hopes alive.

Democracy is nothing more than a system that replaces swords/bullets with votes. That's it. The fight for power (aka. resources) it inescapable and the only thing that democracy did, was to change the field that this fight is fought on. Democracy is more tolerable because no people die (in the open) when the landscape of power changes. The only two benefits of democracy to "the people" are: (1) the fact that they hav…

"The only two benefits of democracy..."

In my opinion the one major benefit of democracy over all other forms is that a terrible leader can be voted away within 4 years. It's a political system with garbage collection :)

Re: You can fool some of the people, all of the time

#50

Post by AlexTWithBeard »

buboard wrote: post #10

My pet theory is that democracy is more tolerable because it alternates between incompetent people fast enough to keep people's hopes alive.

But on the other hand, hereditary monarchy allows a smart person to be at power every once in a while.
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