It’s one of those things that are obvious to reasonable people but it’s nice to have proof for when you run into unreasonable people who deny it.

i love getting scolded about voting when even if I personally managed to pull off a miracle and convert one thousand people to vote for biden, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.

It’s been trending for some time. Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” describes a host of national policies that were intensely disliked when they began and only became normalized after years of mass media manipulation.

The Drug Wars, opposition to the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights movements, most of our wars after WW2, our large scale claw backs of social spending and ballooning security state budgets, our habit of subsidizing sports stadiums and toxic waste sites, etc - all need regular continued media investment for fear of a popular turn.

SCOTUS widened the spigots for political spending in pursuit of these goals. But it’s not like the WSJ or AM Radio or the cable news companies weren’t already flush with propaganda before the CU decision. It’s not like CU was necessary for the volume of social media manipulation, either.

Could we start discussing credible strategies to reverse this situation, or at least improve that number somehow?

I say this constantly, and everyone nods along happily when I say it, but almost nobody does it. What is it? It’s getting involved in your local politics.

The federal government, the US congress and senate and all the executive branch… they’re all supported and propped up by powerful institutions within the states that got powerful because nobody paid it any attention and still don’t. People get elected to represent us who run without opposition and then we wonder why nothing seems to change.

If you get involved with knowing who in your neighborhood, your school district, your city, your county and your state represent you, and then challenging that representation in any way you can, from actually running all the way to just getting on those horrible neighborhood forums and holding yard-sales to get to know your neighbors.

GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS. Jesus, this country is terrible about this one huge thing that could change everything, which is reforming communities. We scream and cry how bad the world is and make ZERO effort to make it better by forming support systems within neighborhoods. I mean fuck, most suburban neighborhoods have nothing else to do, might as well have some bake sales and yard sales and jogging groups and other things to help get to know each other, right? Or has all our cynicism completely overshadowed any possible chance of ever forming friendly communities in the US?

Get involved with Represent.Us, the site that was linked to.

They have a pretty good strategy, and they have been making progress.

Governance is discouraging because it’s complex. And when things are complex, it’s difficult to see progress and it’s easy to predict that there will be problems.

It’s also difficult (and unrewarding) to have serious conversations about this stuff on social media.

The posts get too long, with no satisfying simplistic conclusion, and even if you make an incredible magnum opus of a post that acknowledges enough complexity to be realistic while also being short and snappy enough to catch people’s attention… it drops off of the trending posts algorithm after a day.

As long as there is money to be made in politics the common man will be trodden upon. Good luck getting the people making all the money to change the laws.

If sad facts just bring you down instead of making you act to fix them, then you are part of the problem.

I mean that is basically how social media and news etc. work. Negative emotions are the strongest, and possibly produce the most reactions. And that’s what all of this lives from. Probably one of the reasons why the human world is slowly gonig to shit (well there I did feed it^^). I think though it’s really difficult to combat this shitty political situation we’re in basically worldwide, it’s almost self-driving into a well not so human-friendly (nor life at all) world.

But I obviously agree. Just actually do stuff that doesn’t feed this downward spiral. I.e. do stuff with friends, pursue hobbys, do sports etc. Be a good example for others (e. g. show that a more climate friendly life doesn’t need to degrade happiness, or could even be helpful). That IME leads to much more happiness, healthier life (physically and psychological), less misanthropism etc.

Expand the house. Drop the ratio to something much closer to the original one, (1 representative for 30,000 people). It’s theorized that a ratio around 1:100,000 is low enough to provide more accountability. It would mean a house around 3600 representatives but they’d be very responsible to their local communities. And we could institute a system where only senior members are in D.C. with others joining them only for very sensitive meetings that couldn’t be held using the secure intranet the military has.

This expansion would obliterate party control and lobbying. There’s just too many representatives at that point and too many seats to fund. The price tag of campaigning would drop precipitously, making elections intensely local again.

Same with Stevie Wonder’s “You Haven’t Done Nothin’”

We are amazed but not amused

By all the things you say that you’ll do

Though much concerned but not involved

With decisions that are made by you

George Bush doesn’t care about Black People

You don’t vote for people who don’t represent you.

Our first past the post voting system is mathematically flawed to always result in a two party system through strategic voting.

People are not free to vote for who best represents them because they would let someone who represents them even less win the election.

While this spoiler effect is inherent in First Past The Post voting, there are other voting systems where there is no spoiler effect.

So here we are, chained in the trunk of the car these two legacy political parties drove off a cliff into a river.

And the Water rises… take a deep breath.

Take a moment to stop focusing on the day-to-day so we can go out and water our trees.

2nd amendment. 😎

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

Municipal, provincial, federal. I don’t fucking know how your country works just fucking vote. Pretty pleaaaaaase.

I did, and the primary to. Then the people who I voted alongside of talked massive shit about me because I didn’t smile hard enough while voting for “the most pro-labor president”.

Then they didn’t do anything to fix the First Past the Post voting system and the spoiler effect that comes along side it. Despite lecturing people over and over about its mathematical flaws whenever anyone mentioned voting outside the two party system.

I will vote for your blue conservatives, but don’t try to fool me that I am represented with things as they are.

For what, exactly? The parties choose who we’re allowed to vote for. Until we abolish FPTP and implement RCV, there will be no democracy in America.

Perhaps the automated drone army is nearing completion.

Then finally us useless eaters can finally be dealt with.

And FPTP

And the Senate, while you’re at it.

Quintuple the number of seats in each district, use Sequential Proportional Approval Voting to elect the five members of each district.

Let’s add some seats to the Supreme Court while we’re at it.

We can’t do that or Republicans will never have control of government.

I mean that’s a good thing, and we’ll finally have some semblance of representation, but it’s exactly why we can’t do it. :(

Duh? We know already know this. Their main concern is staying in office for as long as possible and see how badly they can fuck up the country. much they can grow their own bank accounts.

The destruction of the country is just a byproduct of their greed. :(

I don’t think people realize how much graft is built into the system.

• Bribery is near impossible to prove. (Thanks SCOTUS)
• You can effectively keep left over campaign funds.
• Insider trading does not apply to you.
• Your paycheck is expected to cover 2 offices, staff at each, 2 homes, frequent travel between them, and your political advisors.
• Fundraising is organized by the party, stay on their good side and you get help and resources to raise money. Introduced to the right people, etc. Get on the wrong side and get cut off.

It’s no wonder our elected representatives treat small donations like mana from heaven, we’re effectively paying them. And they treat the capitol building like a stock trading room because that’s their real retirement fund, their key to independence from the party.

Representatives chosen by sortition like jury duty would be more representative compared to what we currently have, and that’s such a wild thought.

Is this a reference to some news article or did you get to have a chat with the FBI or something? I respect and support your First Amendment rights if it was the latter.