this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Political Memes

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago

You can't really have checks and balances that survive those supposed to safeguard them allowing the system to be dismantled. Not to mention apathy or active wish from the public towards the system being dismantled.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

7th grade for him saw the government well on its way to setting up the coming storm

[–] [email protected] 7 points 23 hours ago

deleted by dictator

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago

I was having a good night I didn't need this reminder

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Our laws evolve, as our society evolves, and so must our governmental institutions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

Chopping regulations and ignoring background checks dont make our institutions evolve. Maybe devolve.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

... today ...

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My teacher in middle school did specifically call out that it would take a project over several decades to co-opt the system.

Well, they've been going after the judgeships for decades.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago

Yeah. That's exactly what happened.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Maybe it's time you guys rewrote your constitution into something more modern instead of treating the old one as a holy scripture handed down from Olympus.

But I doubt that'll ever happen.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The document is open to interpretation. It can mean anything you want it to mean. For example, the first amendment is used to guarantee that unlimited amounts of money can be spent on election campaigns. So I'm not sure rewriting the thing would accomplish anything other than forcing the oligarchs to figure out new legal loopholes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Or let people with money/power now write whatever they want. Because who is going to stop them?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'd like the 1st amendment to be altered slightly. Sure, everyone should be free to speak without government sanction but that shouldn't mean freedom to lie. Fox and the rightwing have been abusing the shit out of it for years.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is a terrible, horrible idea. It would give the government the power to censor anyone and anything, and all they have to do is claim that the thing they are censoring is a lie.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Well treating lies to be as valid as fact has brought you half a population living in their own reality and Trump as president.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Placing exceptions on the freedom of speech does not mean that lies will get silenced. It means that whatever the government wants to censor will get silenced. Because the government will be the one who does the censoring. Or, if the censoring is not done by the government directly - the government will still be the one appointing the organization who does the censoring.

The freedom of speech must be protected - even if it means letting bad agents spread their lies uncensored. Because if you try to give the government the power to censor them, you'll end up with a new Department of Truth led by Alex Jones (who is now unoccupied)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So basically you want to give trump the power to censor you because he says you're lying?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How would you tackle the lies or are you happy that Fox is able to conjure up its own version of reality with no pushback?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago

I wouldn't. I would teach people critical thinking skills so they can tell a lie from a truth. How would you determine what is a lie and therefore needs to be censored?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago

Instead of modifying freedom of speech, make large-scale lies jusification to banish someone from the industry, like sex-offenders and schools.

Still a bit vague and as always figuring out what's true is hard and ajudicating truth is even harder, but any errors won't be nearly as bad, and it would still be effective.

The core issue here is still agreeing on truth though. Can you define a method of ajudicating truth that can't be misused by an overwhelming amount of bad-faith actors? Can you bind an organization to a method even if every member wants something else?

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Trump is about to rewrite our Constitution, just not the way it should be written.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If he does, at least it'll show that it can be rewritten.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Why do people pretend like a piece of paper matters. Trump has all the power and there are no checks and balances left. Imagine if he breaks the constitution, are zombie Washington, Jefferson and Franklin going to rise from the grave and enact vengeance?

Every rule that’s been broken was unbreakable until it was broken.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Now is definitely not the time to rewrite the constitution. Could you imagine what the powers that be would do to it?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Subscription based rights.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago

Already in effect. Lost of basic services require a mailing address, which means either rent or property taxes. Medical care often requires a job to grant insurance, and any chronic or ongoing illness is the definition of a subscription.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

When I was growing up, they told us the US was the greatest country in the world. Now that I'm older, I realize it's one of the worst in the Western world in nearly every statistic.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

So...the us is the greatest at being the worse!

[–] [email protected] 84 points 2 days ago (20 children)

America was built on the ideas of freedom and equality by slave owners who didn't think women should be allowed to vote.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago

I mean, they did give an earnest try at preventing a king from happening, and it did work for a couple hundred years.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Regulatory capture and citizens united both exist to undo those checks and balances. No system is immune to corruption.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Interestingly the US system was always more vulnerable to corruption, and everyone knew it. Our executive branch is far too powerful. That’s why when the US has engaged in nation building they never install governments like ours. Germany, Japan, Iraq, etc. the pentagon always insists on a parliamentary system, because they’re better in every way (less prone to grid lock, less prone to tyranny of the minority, weaker executive, etc.).

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A lot of people are being shown that a lot of stuff that kept their country going was decorum, shame and tradition, not rule of law.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Interesting take on The Social Contract.

But basically when your entire socoety is disingenuous to some extent, shit falls apart eventually.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Turns out it only works if the population doesn't believe they want that.

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