3 ms·

> It's not the smartest point of view, but it's very common. And the opposite view, that the government is an evil entity lurking in the shadows, out to get yo

• jerf 10y ago
  That's one of the more naked uses of "false dichotomy" that I've seen in a while.
• erikb 10y ago
  That's not the opposite view. The contesting view I support is that the government is a group of struggling humans playing game of thrones with each other (but mostly without the killing, firing is enough). E.g. the change of mind of Erdogan (a very common topic in European media these days). Coming from the taxes-for-political-service point of view, one would argue that Erdogan has become a really bad leader, killing and firing many of his people and fighting against the EU who is publicly acting like the big supporter of human rights. From the game of thrones point of view though it looks like he's struggling for years to get support from the EU, but they don't really support him. Now he seems to get support from Russia and maybe even China, so he decides to make EU the big enemy because that gains him favor with his people and strengthens his ties to Russia. From that point of view it's suddenly a very logical, maybe even smart move. One might even argue that he doesn't have another chance and if he wouldn't do it, he would end up losing his job, dead, or in jail and being replaced by another who is more willing to play good boy for the Russians.
• bordercases 10y ago
  "Rent extraction" is a much more banal but also evil class of explanations.