In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that increased reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform ran a corrective, debunking his claims.
“Get the facts about mail-in voting,” a content label read. “Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud,” the hyperlinked article declared.
This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American voting system, putting forth distorted and false notions that American elections were wide open for fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens.
This time, there were no fact checks. And the X algorithm — under Mr. Musk’s direct control — helped the posts reach large audiences, in some cases drawing many millions of views.
Since taking control of the site, Mr. Musk has dismantled the platform’s system for flagging false election content, arguing it amounted to election interference.
Good luck in November, America. Seems you’ll need it more than ever.
The world needs it.
Democracy already lost to capitalism. Authoritarianism is the natural progression of allowing a minority to control most of humanity’s wealth/power/resources — a return to the mean that applied for 99% of recorded history.
Isn’t authoritarianism the default type of government humans gravitate towards because there’s always some dumbass who wants to be king or emperor and they somehow pull it off?
Because the rich promise to lift a specific subset of people out of the muck, in exchange for that specific subset allowing them to rule and to keep the rest of the population far from their golden thrones. Capitalism has always been the fault, greed has always been the motivating factor.
People need to stop thinking that their life is any more important than their neighbor’s and start thinking that we’re all in it together and we should all enjoy the time we’ve got as best as we all possibly can. From king to peasant, from president to street rat we are all the same and should all be treated equally. How we can have billionaires and millionaires when someone will die homeless from hypothermia is beyond me. It’s not an individual responsibility either, that should be the goal of a good government; that all its citizens have in abundance and it should also be the goal of world leadership that nations work collectively to make sure that every citizen of every nation has in abundance.
Instead we have dragons laying atop golden mountains
I read a while ago that capitalism is cancer but industrialization isn’t. I think I see what you mean. Being driven by profit caused our well being to diminish to critical levels
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There is no full democracy, that can’t be attacked by fascists, if they get elected. There are enough examples for this in the world. Democracy needs the support of the citizens or it will not work. It is not a self-sufficient system.
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The word is spelt “sophisticated”
And yes, a democracy with a sufficiently educated populous is immune to authoritarianism
That’s probably why the American right attacks education
I propose that we either get governed by our AI children or let the alien invaders plant a puppet government that will take us to the stars, once they invade of course.
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Wiktionary disagrees with you. It gives only one spelling which is the one I used. Your spelling is correct for the equivalent Italian word
Then no true democracy according to your definition exists.
I do not have a better suggestion.
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Did you follow the last elections in the Netherlands? A right populist party with only 1 member just won it and one of his policies is to change, that the law is equal for everyone.
All of these countries have right-wing populist movements. In Sweden it’s the Sweden Democrats, who are second in polls. Finland also just elected a right-wing government including the right populist party Finns. Every time right-wing governments come into power, that include far right parties, they slowly chip away at the base of democracy: electing judges, that share their views, weakening the balance of power and so on.
I mean, Germany tried to learn from the time of national socialism to strengthen it against the takeover of anti-democratic parties. Yet, German democracy is still vulnerable if the AfD comes into power.
The law will never apply equally, or be just. So long as we still pursue capitalism. It’s a deeply flawed system that has long outlived it’s usefulness. Since the advent of our industrialization it’s become an increasing threat to humanity.
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There’s a whole host of things even from the 19th century to try that we haven’t thoroughly looked at yet.
Basically broad strokes. Dilute power. Not just in government but society as well. All power corrupts. Put workers and managers on an equal footing. No ownership class. Push to make society value society and not capital. A person, their life, their health, and their shelter should never be treated as capital. And as a society we should punish anyone who tries.
The US also has a problem because the federal elections are first past the post, which excludes minor parties
I’m pretty sure that’s the root cause for the polarisation in American politics
If you look around the world at the Orbans, the Bolsanaros, the Le Penns, the AfD, etc., you will find that polarization and the rising far right is global. First past the post is not a good thing, but the causes are far deeper.
A past global trend was how the center left parties (Democrats in the US, 2nd International Socialist parties in most of the rest of the world) discredited themselves, abandoning their core constituencies and pushing neoliberal economic policies (in the US, free trade, dismantling welfare, the banking deregulation behind 2008). I think that’s the proximate cause in the rise of the global far right.
The cause of that trend is the inability of regulated capitalism to both provide for everyone AND provide the necessary ever increasing rate of profit.
While there have been stirrings of possible left reformist parties (Sanders, Corbyn, Lula, etc) even those that make it into state power are ineffective at creating a new, stable, political economy.
Meanwhile climate change is haunting the globe and the clock is ticking.
I was going to send my drone to Ukraine but I might need it here. Hilarious the maga folks think they’re the only ones with weapons
I am fairly sure Dump will win. I’m already prepping my brain for 4 years of idiots, scheming, sexism, racism, and all hail God. I’m sorry everyone, we have a lot of raging dumb idiots here
If you think it will end after your years, you’re not prepping anywhere near hard enough.
I am out of the country before the election. Fuck it. I’m done with this country.
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Where are you heading?
I bought a little bluewater sailboat about a year ago and went through most of my life savings getting it ready. Don’t get me wrong, my “life savings” was pretty paltry for 30+ years of employment, and it’s a really small boat. Next month I’ll be leaving the west coast and heading west.
That sounds amazing–and terrifying! You’re one of those real life “I bought a boat and just went people.” While I couldn’t do a boat open ocean, one day I hope to emulate you and do something like the Great Loop, and other adventures. Fair winds and following seas.
Hey, thanks. Yeah, I sailed a lot as a kid, then just didn’t for several decades. It was always my dream to just go, but there was no way I could afford it. Then I found a pretty good deal, looked at my life and this country and just kind of said fuck it. It would be a blast to do the Great Loop! I hope you get to do it.
Damn, person just expressing their opinion and preparing for the worst and they get downvoted. They weren’t even supporting the win. The hive is buzzing.
Orange man ftw 24