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If you convince their constituents to whom they are beholden, sure. Behind closed doors, not at all, I very much agree with GP, there's a lot of pernicious shi

If you convince their constituents to whom they are beholden, sure. Behind closed doors, not at all, I very much agree with GP, there's a lot of pernicious shit going on that is actively harming democracies across the globe. Corporate lobbying is for the most part a well-funded, knowledgeable adversary generally in opposition to a bunch of people who at best can sign some petitions or march in the streets. It's an asymmetrical game that should be acknowledged.

pasiaj 7y ago
Sure, bad things happen. We have chosen a non-direct, representative political system and lobbying is a direct causal result of this chosen system. It is not a side-effect. We intentionally wanted to create a group of people who could spend their time educating themselves on the issues at hand better than people as whole ever could. Lobbying is what we wanted as a result of this system. Unfortunately this sometimes leads to regulatory capture. Some countries have been better at managing political corruption than others.
- mtgx 7y ago
  Except the US is by far the worst at this because it allows lobbying and political influence through donations. In most other democratic countries this is illegal. It's intellectually dishonest to pretend that lobbying just means "reaching out to politicians about an issue and educating them about it." Lobbying wouldn't be such a problem and corporations wouldn't have such unshaken influence on politicians compared to the People, if that was all there was to it. But it's not just that - it's about those companies making "donations" to politicians that will then be much easier to "convince" to vote their way. Watch this video if you aren't convinced, which is just a nice visual presentation of a study that was done and found out that what People want doesn't matter, but what corporations want has a direct correlation to how politicians vote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig Also, I remember when one Congressman said post-SOPA that the anti-SOPA petitions made by people and all the calls were nice and all, but it wasn't until Google and other big companies got involved that politicians started really listening and many changed their minds on the vote.

pasiaj 7y ago

Sure, bad things happen. We have chosen a non-direct, representative political system and lobbying is a direct causal result of this chosen system. It is not a side-effect. We intentionally wanted to create a group of people who could spend their time educating themselves on the issues at hand better than people as whole ever could. Lobbying is what we wanted as a result of this system. Unfortunately this sometimes leads to regulatory capture. Some countries have been better at managing political corruption than others.

mtgx 7y ago
Except the US is by far the worst at this because it allows lobbying and political influence through donations. In most other democratic countries this is illegal. It's intellectually dishonest to pretend that lobbying just means "reaching out to politicians about an issue and educating them about it." Lobbying wouldn't be such a problem and corporations wouldn't have such unshaken influence on politicians compared to the People, if that was all there was to it. But it's not just that - it's about those companies making "donations" to politicians that will then be much easier to "convince" to vote their way. Watch this video if you aren't convinced, which is just a nice visual presentation of a study that was done and found out that what People want doesn't matter, but what corporations want has a direct correlation to how politicians vote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig Also, I remember when one Congressman said post-SOPA that the anti-SOPA petitions made by people and all the calls were nice and all, but it wasn't until Google and other big companies got involved that politicians started really listening and many changed their minds on the vote.