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The West is on the rise technologically and in decline socially. But I wouldn't be too quick to call the decline irreversible. The democracy is still in a good
by dgudkov 6y ago
The West is on the rise technologically and in decline socially. But I wouldn't be too quick to call the decline irreversible. The democracy is still in a good shape despite some challenges.
The West went through many crises. This is not the first one, and not the last one. So far, nothing indicates that the social crisis is irreversible and the West won't be able to bounce back.
- TheAdamAndChe 6y ago> The democracy is still in a good shape despite some challenges. What political pathways do you see for correcting both our two-party system and increased gerrymandering? It seems to me like those two factors are large contributors to our increasing political polarization, and fixing them would require the political parties to behave irrationally from a game theory perspective.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoEasy: give the individual states more responsibility. This has already begun. There is really no reason why California and Alabama need to have 100% of the same laws on highly contentious issues. It's not called the United States for nothing.
- TheAdamAndChe 6y agoI'm sorry, I don't understand. How would increased state rights reverse gerrymandering within those states?
- ceilingcorner 6y agoI think polarization across the country is mostly a consequence of too much centralization. The federal government has too much power, so the political parties organize themselves in that way. Everything becomes zero sum. If states had more variation, I think you'd see less polarization, because the threat of a federal decision applying to everyone is far less of a worry.
- stjohnswarts 6y agoActually there is because southern states are well on their way to removing women's rights to do what they want with their body, installing theocratic governments, and resurrecting Jim Crow laws. If that's not a reason for more federal involvement I don't know what is.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoThis comment is exaggerated hyperbole and oversimplification.
- pope_meat 6y agoNo, not really, it's getting pretty bad in the southern states lately, or perhaps it's just the propaganda I prefer...but it does appear like a bunch of red states have passed abortion restrictions, some states worse than others, and these laws will be challenged in court, and with the supreme court being the way it is, it's really iffy.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoAbortion is a complex moral issue and if you think it isn’t, you haven’t researched the topic well enough. Ditto for the other issues mentioned in your comment. The lines you’ve used (“control of their bodies, Jim Crow”) are indications that you get your information from propagandistic sources.
- pope_meat 6y agoAll sources are propaganda in the United States.
- Balgair 6y agoGerrymandering is being fought at the state levels with some real teeth now. A fair few states have laws already on the books, and many more are considering such laws. It's by not means a solved issue, but awareness of it is quite high and there is real activism towards ending it.
- tenpies 6y agoThe most interesting parts to me are seeing areas where the US corporations finally tell the US political class "fuck off". Sure, they'll slap a BLM web page and hire more [whatever race you tell us is cool to hire]. They'll tribute some token amount to the cause du jour propped up by Democrats, but allow unions? That's open war and it got crushed exceedingly fast as we saw with Amazon.. It's fascinating to watch the dynamic as companies sing praises on one hand, but are clearly preparing their daggers on the other. The Democrats don't understand what they're doing by openly being hostile to half the country and its values, and they're in for a rude awakening when the corporations decide that they've had enough.
- fellellor 6y agoSocial decline or social change. It’s difficult to say for sure, unless they also go into technological decline very soon.