• @[email protected]
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    386 hours ago

    The average American doesn’t know what capitalism, socialism, communism, or fascism means. They don’t know what representative democracy means. They don’t know what first past the post means. They don’t even know that they have an electoral college let alone its role. The 3 branches of government are largely a mystery. And most Americans are under some kind of impression that the POTUS is some kind of benevolent dictator.

    I’m not surprised that someone on twitter thinks capitalism solves poverty.

    • Cowbee [he/him]
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      32 hours ago

      That’s fair, but that’s all the more reason why it is the duty of Leftists to read and spread Marxist theory!

    • @aidan
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      -165 hours ago

      “I resent the average american, someone smarter like me should dictate their lives”

      Not a criticism of you, you’re free to have your own opinion. I’m just saying the quiet part out loud.

        • @aidan
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          -94 hours ago

          I’m restating what was said.

            • @aidan
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              -64 hours ago

              Where do you believe it differs?

              • @[email protected]
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                84 hours ago

                Alright, I’ll bite

                someone smarter like me should dictate their lives

                You added that as what you imagined the original poster’s point was, yet I see no call for action in their post. They simply made an observation. This would be like me saying “I notice that wild animals can often be aggressive when they have young children to protect”, then someone else acting like my solution would therefore be to prevent them from having children.

                It’s a wild and unfounded extrapolation made from your preconceived notion of how this person thinks, based solely on their distain for the ignorance they’ve observed. I’ve seen many who make the same observation but their proposed solutions were better education, not dictatorial rule.

                • @aidan
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                  -74 hours ago

                  You added that as what you imagined the original poster’s point was, yet I see no call for action in their post.

                  That’s true and a fair criticism. I think its a pretty probable guess though.

                  but their proposed solutions were better education

                  Education is a complicated matter in itself, that I’d rather not get involved in here, but Prussian schooling has a long history of politically motivated meddling.

                • @aidan
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                  -44 hours ago

                  Something that many Americans are dearly missing

                  Yeah this is what I’m talking about.

      • @okamiueru
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        115 hours ago

        I find it confusing why you put that in quotes, then suggest it’s not necessarily their opinion, but following it up by implying that was the implied statement.

        The guy just said American political literacy is embarrassingly lacking, which is far worse than what is needed for a functional democracy. Which has nothing to do with your “interpretation”

        • @aidan
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          -64 hours ago

          then suggest it’s not necessarily their opinion,

          I believe it is their opinion, I suggested that pointing that out isn’t a criticism. Its a very common opinion.

          The guy just said American political literacy is embarrassingly lacking

          Because they don’t know esoteric terms nerds like us argue about on the internet. They do know what they believe is right and wrong, and what they value in their lives. They vote for people who talk about what they value. You can criticize what they value, but that’s just pitting your values against theirs. You can also criticize them for trusting, but if the last 20 years has shown anything, voters are actually not that much worse than technocratic governments at figuring out lies. And most lies that trick voters are lies to the people that tell them, or believe them.

          • @[email protected]
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            13 hours ago

            I think you’re doing yourself a disservice here by calling these terms esoterica. Political ideologies being clearly defined and understood on a wide scale is not a negative thing. Most of the terms here in this dude’s post are talked about as solutions (or status quo) in the current era, all of it should be fresh unless you willfully ignore every single political post on every social media you use.

            Way more importantly: You really think the last 20 years were a shining example of public intelligence? Truly? With the denialism, the outright lies that have been signal boosted, the public outrage over hypothetical people and made-up organizations who never existed? How can you justify saying “these terms are esoteric” when they are literally modern? How can you justify this position you’re taking where low/no information being the norm needs to be enforced for things to be “normal” for you? You’re flippantly dismissing the idea that people could have opinions or motivations you aren’t instantly aware of, which is stupid beyond belief.

            The entirety of democratic politics is conflicting opinion/value/ideology being weighed by the many. What the hell is the problem with letting people who are informed talk about it in a public space?

            • @aidan
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              02 hours ago

              Political ideologies being clearly defined and understood on a wide scale is not a negative thing.

              I think the concept of a political ideology needs to die. People not identifying with them and instead listening to peoples actual ideas is a good thing. Essentially everyone has a unique set of values shaped by their experience, they should listen to and interpret the ideas of others based on those values- instead of trying to categorize them and build an identity off them. Its a similar problem to the DSM, and leads to tribalism.

              You really think the last 20 years were a shining example of public intelligence?

              I think way more people are questioning authority figures, though that might be recency bias.

              the outright lies that have been signal boosted

              When before the lies were the narrative.

              How can you justify saying “these terms are esoteric” when they are literally modern?

              They exist to categorize ideas and people into neat little boxes, rather than actually evaluate individual ideas. They are also totally ineffective for communication, when each boxer disagrees where and what the boxes are.

              How can you justify this position you’re taking where low/no information being the norm needs to be enforced for things to be “normal” for you?

              Where did I say that?

              You’re flippantly dismissing the idea that people could have opinions or motivations you aren’t instantly aware of

              When did I do that? Instead I’m stating my own opinions, and I’m happy to hear yours.

              What the hell is the problem with letting people who are informed talk about it in a public space?

              When did I try to stop that, I’m one of the nerds I was talking about.

          • @okamiueru
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            34 hours ago

            Gotcha. It’s very effective if you want to make up stuff, and then argue that. But, in that case, don’t you have better things to do?

            • @aidan
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              -14 hours ago

              It’s very effective if you want to make up stuff, and then argue that.

              Thanks for the insight.

              But, in that case, don’t you have better things to do?

              Procrastinating is fun.