Comment by lolinder

Comment by lolinder 19 hours ago

Who is we, though? I can't do anything about it. Can you?

The people who can do something about it are the people who are already in power in the US. They understandably don't want to share with the CCP, but most of them came to power by manipulating enough voters into voting for them. They stay in power by ensuring that enough voters continue to want to vote for them. Which means that someone like Zuckerberg or Musk has an insanely inordinate amount of influence over whether these people who are in power stay in power.

Yes, I think it's marginally better that that influence remain out of the hands of the CCP, but I would rather that that influence not exist at all. It's too dangerous and too prone to corruption.

senordevnyc 18 hours ago

Who is we, though? I can't do anything about it. Can you?

Isn't this true for literally all problems in a democracy? Do you have a better solution?

Hopefully we'll get AGI soon and it'll take over and rule as a benevolent overlord. Short of that, everything in your comment feels like it has always applied to every societal problem, and always will.

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lolinder 18 hours ago

> Isn't this true for literally all problems in a democracy? Do you have a better solution?
Create a level playing field where money does not amplify speech. Our existing democracy is basically a spending contest with a very small component of eloquently persuading voters to vote against their own interest. The richest of the rich have voices and can manipulate the platforms on which others express their voices, and so those rich people either pick the victors or become them.
For democracy to survive we have to get past the idea that a "free market" approach to speech leads to democratic outcomes. It doesn't, it leads to plutocratic outcomes, which is painfully obvious on both sides of the aisle right now. Americans haven't had a true representative of the people in generations.

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slt2021 18 hours ago

US is not a democracy in a strict sense, it is more like plutocracy (people with money have the power).

  - the electoral college where winner takes all, so minority opposition vote is always suppressed
  - gerrymandering that dilutes and suppresses the minority opposition vote
  - oligopoly of two parties
  - unchecked financial influence by allowing unlimited funding via PACs
  - legalized lobbying/bribery
  - influence of special interest groups
  - the influence of legal system with expensive lawyers (that only rich can afford)

this all indicate that it is people with deep pockets who have all the power

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