4 ms·
Down from, like, two at the best of times. It's always either them or us, which is likely part of the problem
by zwirbl 5y ago
Down from, like, two at the best of times. It's always either them or us, which is likely part of the problem
- spockz 5y agoI’m by no means an expert in US political history but all books and papers I’ve read indicate that this polarisation between the parties did not always exist. Members were allowed to vote according to their own principals instead of just the party line which is basically always opposing the other party. Senators and other politicians would have bbq on Saturday at each other’s place. It appears that this no longer happens.
- inglor_cz 5y agoToo much transparency. If thousands of eyes of gatekeepers are at you at all times, and immediately start screaming that you are a DINO or a RINO if you do not hold the party line at all times, you have all the incentives to be strictly partisan. We generally consider transparency in politics a good thing, especially because it may reduce corruption. But it comes with significant downsides. Only very resilient personalities are able to ignore the psychopathic monkey cesspool that is the political Twitter. The rest will submit to Moloch. (Scott Alexander's "Meditations on Moloch" are a good read; I was lucky enough to meet the author two days ago at a meetup in Prague.)
- Radim 5y agoOh. What meetup, what did I miss?
- inglor_cz 5y agoPrague-Karlín, Sunday Oct the 3rd.
- GoblinSlayer 5y ago>Only very resilient personalities are able to ignore the psychopathic monkey cesspool that is the political Twitter. Then don't visit twitter and post on an obscure nntp newsgroup instead.
- inglor_cz 5y agoI am talking about career politicians here, who usually use social networks to keep in touch with their electorate. Though they often have staff to do the lowly comment/response work. Maybe it is a bad idea and a NNTP newsgroup would be better. Should be tried.
- randomsearch 5y agoDeregulation of lobbying seems to have been the trigger, but any two party state with silly electoral systems like the U.K. and US is vulnerable to such polarisation.
- mellavora 5y agoAlso "winner take all" election system combined with gerrymandering. The gerrymandering works short-term by helping you win the election, but it also makes you hostage to the more excitable and active of your party's members.