5 ms·

Please don't call it elections. Nothing even close.

by Arech 5y ago

Dah00n 5y ago
Well, it's all in the eye of the beholder. As someone living in Scandinavia looking at the US that doesn't look like elections much either. Pick your favourite animal: A: Black horse B: Brown horse Z: Pony
- Arech 5y ago
  No it is not. (if you really "living in Scandinavia") You literally don't understand what are you talking about, which is damn obvious when you comparing Scandinavia or even US to Russia. You basically comparing Tesla car to horse-drawn carriage and draw similarities on a basis that both have 4 wheels and therefore they are both great and safe transportation devices.
  - jhgb 5y ago
    I'm not from Scandinavia and the vast majority of US politicians look like interchangeable parts to me as well.
    - ansible 5y ago
      > I'm not from Scandinavia and the vast majority of US politicians look like interchangeable parts to me as well. USA citizen. What's hilarious is that 10 years ago, I would have readily agreed with you. Both parties were too deeply beholden to special interests and corporate interests. There were some policy differences, but not that much, really. In the last five years, however, one party has gone completely batshit insane. Norms, precedent, common decency, acceptance of basic facts, acceptance of basic common sense... these have all gone out the window. And been replaced with cult-like unwavering loyalty to a single man. The other party, though still frequently dissapointingly inept and incompetent, now has my unhesitating support. It is not even close in my mind anymore.
      - sershe 5y ago
        The way I see it, one party has gone dumb, and the other party is obviously going evil (I am from Russia so you can guess what I think of leftism). The question is whether you prefer your government dumb or evil; I think dumb is... the lesser of two evils. But I can agree on the timing aspect, I'd vote for Obama OR Romney over literally any politician prominent in 2021.
        tialaramex 5y ago
        If you're from Russia, what part of the Democratic party looks like "leftism" to you?
        ansible 5y ago
        The "left wing" in the USA is the "center-right" in other parts of the world. We're still a ways away from basic stuff like universal health care that every other developed country has.
        sershe 5y ago
        Not really... somebody posted here recently, I cannot find a comment; supposedly posting CDU (German center-right party) policies into the recent NYT poll gets you lumped with trumpist wing of GOP. Many policies that are considered right-wing in the US enjoy broad support in European countries (e.g. official languages). Some things practiced Europe, like the Danish "immigrant ghetto" policies, would cause the US left to melt down so hard they'd burn a hole thru the Earth and come out in the Indian ocean (to be clear, I don't support or don't know/care enough to have an opinion about most of this stuff). Universal healthcare is provided by many countries from Singapore, that few would call left-wing; to outright totalitarian regimes, e.g. modern Russia. It's an indicator of statism, not leftism; I am not a big fan of that either, but non-leftist statism (a-la Singapore) is ok and totally different from what I'm talking about. Tangentially but helpfully, I would recommend looking up the difference between social democracy and democratic socialism, as described by democratic socialists.
    - Arech 5y ago
      It doesn't matter. What matters are how many of them and their staff or supporters gets bullied by the authorities, forced to flee the country, found themselves or their relatives in the middle of absurd lawsuits, gets beaten, poisoned or killed?
      - jhgb 5y ago
        My point was purely about elections, and that elections only matter if you have a reasonable amount of choice. You're arguing about something completely different.
        Arech 5y ago
        My arguing is exactly about that! You can't name something as "elections" when ~~a huge~~ any part of country's people not just don't have a political representative at all, but gets actively counteracted to have such representative.
        jhgb 5y ago
        What is "a huge any part"? Looks like too many determiners to me, so I'm not sure what you're saying there. > don't have a political representative at all That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you live in a place like Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if Russia has similar places, but I assume it doesn't.
        Arech 5y ago
        > What is "a huge any part"? HN doesn't support a strike-through markup. "~~a huge~~" means striked-through font here. I've written it first and then after some thought tried to show that actually the proper word there is "any". > That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you live in a place like Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if Russia has similar places, but I assume it doesn't. You are so much disconnected from what is and how it's happening here...
        5y ago
- mcntsh 5y ago
  As someone living in Scandinavia you probably have a King. Anyway, these law makers are still democratically elected in the US (more than we can say about the king of Norway), and these parties are more like coalitions anyway since they're so large and broad.
  - jhgb 5y ago
    The king of Norway is not a lawmaker, though. He's not even a minister.
- lotusmars 5y ago
  Why do you always start talking about US when somebody talks about injustices in other countries? Like really.

Please don't call it elections. Nothing even close.

by Arech 5y ago

Please don't call it elections. Nothing even close.

Well, it's all in the eye of the beholder. As someone living in Scandinavia looking at the US that doesn't look like elections much either. Pick your favourite animal: A: Black horse B: Brown horse Z: Pony

Arech 5y ago
No it is not. (if you really "living in Scandinavia") You literally don't understand what are you talking about, which is damn obvious when you comparing Scandinavia or even US to Russia. You basically comparing Tesla car to horse-drawn carriage and draw similarities on a basis that both have 4 wheels and therefore they are both great and safe transportation devices.
- jhgb 5y ago
  I'm not from Scandinavia and the vast majority of US politicians look like interchangeable parts to me as well.
  - ansible 5y ago
    > I'm not from Scandinavia and the vast majority of US politicians look like interchangeable parts to me as well. USA citizen. What's hilarious is that 10 years ago, I would have readily agreed with you. Both parties were too deeply beholden to special interests and corporate interests. There were some policy differences, but not that much, really. In the last five years, however, one party has gone completely batshit insane. Norms, precedent, common decency, acceptance of basic facts, acceptance of basic common sense... these have all gone out the window. And been replaced with cult-like unwavering loyalty to a single man. The other party, though still frequently dissapointingly inept and incompetent, now has my unhesitating support. It is not even close in my mind anymore.
    - sershe 5y ago
      The way I see it, one party has gone dumb, and the other party is obviously going evil (I am from Russia so you can guess what I think of leftism). The question is whether you prefer your government dumb or evil; I think dumb is... the lesser of two evils. But I can agree on the timing aspect, I'd vote for Obama OR Romney over literally any politician prominent in 2021.
      - tialaramex 5y ago
        If you're from Russia, what part of the Democratic party looks like "leftism" to you?
        ansible 5y ago
        The "left wing" in the USA is the "center-right" in other parts of the world. We're still a ways away from basic stuff like universal health care that every other developed country has.
        sershe 5y ago
        Not really... somebody posted here recently, I cannot find a comment; supposedly posting CDU (German center-right party) policies into the recent NYT poll gets you lumped with trumpist wing of GOP. Many policies that are considered right-wing in the US enjoy broad support in European countries (e.g. official languages). Some things practiced Europe, like the Danish "immigrant ghetto" policies, would cause the US left to melt down so hard they'd burn a hole thru the Earth and come out in the Indian ocean (to be clear, I don't support or don't know/care enough to have an opinion about most of this stuff). Universal healthcare is provided by many countries from Singapore, that few would call left-wing; to outright totalitarian regimes, e.g. modern Russia. It's an indicator of statism, not leftism; I am not a big fan of that either, but non-leftist statism (a-la Singapore) is ok and totally different from what I'm talking about. Tangentially but helpfully, I would recommend looking up the difference between social democracy and democratic socialism, as described by democratic socialists.
  - Arech 5y ago
    It doesn't matter. What matters are how many of them and their staff or supporters gets bullied by the authorities, forced to flee the country, found themselves or their relatives in the middle of absurd lawsuits, gets beaten, poisoned or killed?
    - jhgb 5y ago
      My point was purely about elections, and that elections only matter if you have a reasonable amount of choice. You're arguing about something completely different.
      - Arech 5y ago
        My arguing is exactly about that! You can't name something as "elections" when ~~a huge~~ any part of country's people not just don't have a political representative at all, but gets actively counteracted to have such representative.
        jhgb 5y ago
        What is "a huge any part"? Looks like too many determiners to me, so I'm not sure what you're saying there. > don't have a political representative at all That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you live in a place like Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if Russia has similar places, but I assume it doesn't.
        Arech 5y ago
        > What is "a huge any part"? HN doesn't support a strike-through markup. "~~a huge~~" means striked-through font here. I've written it first and then after some thought tried to show that actually the proper word there is "any". > That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you live in a place like Puerto Rico. I'm not sure if Russia has similar places, but I assume it doesn't. You are so much disconnected from what is and how it's happening here...
        5y ago
mcntsh 5y ago
As someone living in Scandinavia you probably have a King. Anyway, these law makers are still democratically elected in the US (more than we can say about the king of Norway), and these parties are more like coalitions anyway since they're so large and broad.
- jhgb 5y ago
  The king of Norway is not a lawmaker, though. He's not even a minister.
lotusmars 5y ago
Why do you always start talking about US when somebody talks about injustices in other countries? Like really.