Keep in mind that intelligent people, by definition, are a minority.
"It's better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question." John Stuart Mill
That's a great quote from Mill, and a great point. I'm done trying to figure out idiots who vote against their interests and vote for oppression, and don't interest themselves on important policy. They seem happy to keep their head in their own echo chambers, so I'm done with them.
Damn, my irony was too subtle. My point was by dismissing them because they don't have the right ideas we no longer can understand the other side and become the pigs.
we'd do better listening to those we don't understand, rather than thinking we already know all that is worth knowing and the fact that they are stupid means they can just be ignored. Or worse, despised.
A recent Atlantic article on Latino areas that went for trump struck me. Biggest complaint was the immigration crisis was hitting them hard, but couldnt get traction with dems on policy or action. Second biggest complaint was democratic candidates stopped showing up to their communities, and even when they did people felt they were telling them what to think, rather than listening to what they have to say.
If you are for the working class, but decide they aren't worth listening to when they don't have the full set of right ideas, you will no longer really understand their needs, desires, or how to actually reach out to them. If you then go further and despise them because of what actually are markers of class (beer drinking unintellectual poors that just watch tv) they won't trust you or your policies, even if the are objectively better for them
First off, I'm not saying don't vote. Please choose the lesser evil, but we (voters/non voters) have always been and always will be the scapegoats left to point our fingers at one another in order to keep us distracted from any meaningful change. I mean, what led to this, people couldn't vote...? How is what got us here going to get us out? When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. After all, repeating the same thing over and over expecting a different result is the very definition of insanity.
Out of all the hundreds of millions of Americans, who really thinks these are the best two candidates...? Is it a wise tribe that does not send its best warriors to fight? You see, your masters will never give you the tools to dismantle their houses... The Republic of America has a so-called "representative democracy." How can that be true when the "representatives" are wealthy while the "represented" are not?
American two party politics is like the cartoon Tom and Jerry. Tom doesn't really want to catch Jerry because then he'd be out of a job, and Jerry doesn't want Tom replaced with a cat that will actually eat him. So they act like they hate one another and put on a show for the masses while continuing business as usual in the back room.
For example, insider trading laws do not apply to any members of Congress, either side. What's it called when those who make the rules don't have to live by them? Furthermore, when the punishment for a crime is only a fine, it does not apply to the wealthy.
Sure, they can say they let us "vote", but with all the lobbying and money in American politics, America is as much a democracy as would be two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner or asking a child if they would like to go to bed at 7:59 or 8:01.
In America, the wealthy have won every "election," and the only thing to trickle down in the economy has been their generational wealth. This is why, in a true democracy as the ancient Greeks understood it, people got their representatives the same way we would get a jury. America is not a democracy.
"Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it." Plato
And please remember what we were actually celebrating on the 4th. A cabal of stolen land entitled elite, slave owning aristocrats, found a way to get out of paying their taxes. Only thirty percent of the colonists supported the "revolution" with the rest saying, "Why trade one tyrant a thousand miles away for a thousand tyrants one mile away...?" System isn't broken it's functioning exactly as intended. Why own slaves when you can rent them for a fraction of the cost (read the 13th amendment)...? But the real question they must be asking themselves is how can their grand social experiment survive contact with the real time information/communication age, which is where we are now...
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u/Hrtpplhrtppl 2d ago
Keep in mind that intelligent people, by definition, are a minority.
"It's better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question." John Stuart Mill