@benroyce @coltonwise @ProPublica

"and yet there is an audience of dimwits for this shit" is probably a good description of most if not all human history, but yes.

@benroyce @n1xnx Hear hear!

@coltonwise @ProPublica

@log @n1xnx @coltonwise @ProPublica

sure but this is navel gazing

we have fascists in the white house pushing straight lies about Minneapolis

and they won partly because so many on the left care more about tearing into each other rather than confronting the real enemy

endlessly micromanaging some absurd need to achieve purity

rather than, you know, notice that we're fucking drowning in fascism?

prioritizing that 5 alarm fire in our focus?

why the fuck do many on the left not see this?

@mivox @patrascan @coltonwise @ProPublica @propublicaguild

great

so we have an unresolved labor argument that is still ongoing, as there always is, and so you withhold your support?

you realize the guild you're supposedly championing could use the money too?

there's a bigot plutocrat owned media company somewhere happy to hire to push lies instead

i really really despise this sort of performative, empty, eventually self-defeating purity song and dance

attack the right not the left

@benroyce @Spacehistory

You can’t out reason stupid. Maybe you can influence some bystanders, which is something.
Just saw Sean Spicer talking about the Texas Senate special election.
In 2022 250 people voted Democratic , in 2026 50 thousand did.

Be a good person, live a good life, there is a good chance this thing is dying on the vine in front of us.

@coltonwise

a "bot" is not a markov chain chatbot per se

it also applies to real people that are pursuing a scripted agenda

and also people who don't think very much, and therefore are comparable in cerebral wattage to a small chatbot script

but i have to thank you Colton

you inspired my now top pinned post:

https://mastodon.social/@benroyce/115998438888912568

@utopiarte @Spacehistory @coltonwise

I gave you a favorite to help with your dopamin needs

@utopiarte @ProPublica @coltonwise

are you ok?

that's a lot of words to miss the fucking point

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Governing a country shouldn’t have to be any different from governing a company or an industry.

Do we vote among patients who is going to be entitled to yield the scalpel in the operation room? Do we vote among the airplane passengers who’s going to be their pilot in command? We already know that would going to be a disaster. Instead, everyone in the surgery room and cockpit is required to have the relevant education, and be screened for psychological features such as a proper balance between being decisive and cooperative, and be ruled out if any psychological features are found that are not compatible with being in charge with the safety of a few hundred passengers.

Why would we have to allow any politicians who don’t have a relevant education and have obvious psychological defects? Why can’t we just select politicians on their suitability for their job?

Why do we have a high court with judges, but not a high counsel which is seated by leading scientists, whom can block any regulations that harm our planet?

Democratus (the founder of “democracy”) never intended the voting proces to be participated by literally everyone, but only among the well educated.

If you were an alien, how would you look upon a governing system where the word of a highly educated climate scientists can be nullified by any nitwit? Especially while it is safe to assume that the nitwits outnumber the scientists? Would you be surprised that this planet turned into a big smoking mess?

Although I just like to pinpoint why the world turned into such a big mess, and don’t feel I have to provide a solution just to be qualified to point it out, I can imagine some ways to improve on this.

There are options, like answering a short questionare on the voting form, to show that at least you know the program of the candidate you vote for. If you don’t even know his/her policies, your vote is invalid. At least, this blocks any votes from people who don’t understand what they are voting for. Tell me why that wouldn’t make sense. Another option is to weigh votes based on a mix of education, society contribution, etc. The more you know, the more you care for your fellow humans, the heigher the weight of your vote.

Again, there might be other and better solutions, but I’m not the one who has to find them, just to be qualified to point out the problem.

The current concept of “democracy” is invented by capitalists, for capitalist, because they know that this will keep them in control. There is a reason why the government consists mainly by economists, billionaires, etc. It is not a coincidence that America has always been very aggressive in “installing democracy” in other countries.

This concept of democracy has been forced fed to us during our entire lifes, and has become to many as some sort of religion. It is the best and not worth any rethinking, right? And reject anyone who questions it as if it is a blasphemy.

You might disagree with (some of) what I have said. But I hope that at least we can agree that the world is a big smoking mess and that democracy doesn’t seem to be able to achieve a sustainable, safe live for all human beings.