4 ms·

Be that as it may, none of this is a good justification for moving further towards oligarchy or totalitarianism. There has been much talk about how support of b

by ajxs 7y ago

Be that as it may, none of this is a good justification for moving further towards oligarchy or totalitarianism. There has been much talk about how support of big-tech censorship is skewing left, which I consider to be quite ironic since I had always associated the left, at least historically, with egalitarianism.

chillacy 7y ago
Those are a lot of big conceptual ideas, I think at the end of the day people just want to know what will make their lives better. And if the big conceptual idea of democracy starts to lose its shiny appeal then fewer people will jump in to defend it as an inherent good. Or to put it another way, what would be good justification to reconsider our political system? If the answer is nothing then we're just following our system like a religion. We ought to be able to discuss the upsides (there are some pretty great ones) and downsides (everything has tradeoffs).
- ajxs 7y ago
  Of course we should question our political beliefs, I would never advocate for anything else. I like to employ a rhetorical device against myself sometimes to question my more hard-line stances: I ask myself "What evidence would convince me that I'm wrong?". It's quite an interesting question to ask, I think it helps you come to a better understand of your beliefs. I disagree with your dismissal of my point, with your saying that " Those are a lot of big conceptual ideas". These are big, but _important_ ideas. Abstract as they may be, they describe tangible concepts that have a lot of importance. "I think at the end of the day people just want to know what will make their lives better" - Yes, therein lies the unfortunate complexity of politics. As I said in my original post ( way up there ), I don't defend democracy because I believe that it best serves me ( I've felt for a long time that it serves other people's needs far better than mine ). I defend it because it's the best system I'm aware of for egalitarianism at scale.

by ajxs 7y ago

chillacy 7y ago

Those are a lot of big conceptual ideas, I think at the end of the day people just want to know what will make their lives better. And if the big conceptual idea of democracy starts to lose its shiny appeal then fewer people will jump in to defend it as an inherent good. Or to put it another way, what would be good justification to reconsider our political system? If the answer is nothing then we're just following our system like a religion. We ought to be able to discuss the upsides (there are some pretty great ones) and downsides (everything has tradeoffs).

ajxs 7y ago
Of course we should question our political beliefs, I would never advocate for anything else. I like to employ a rhetorical device against myself sometimes to question my more hard-line stances: I ask myself "What evidence would convince me that I'm wrong?". It's quite an interesting question to ask, I think it helps you come to a better understand of your beliefs. I disagree with your dismissal of my point, with your saying that " Those are a lot of big conceptual ideas". These are big, but _important_ ideas. Abstract as they may be, they describe tangible concepts that have a lot of importance. "I think at the end of the day people just want to know what will make their lives better" - Yes, therein lies the unfortunate complexity of politics. As I said in my original post ( way up there ), I don't defend democracy because I believe that it best serves me ( I've felt for a long time that it serves other people's needs far better than mine ). I defend it because it's the best system I'm aware of for egalitarianism at scale.