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I don't actually feel this is a particularly modern thing, this has happened before with 1920s prohibition, McCarthyism, the war on drugs, etc. It seems to be

I don't actually feel this is a particularly modern thing, this has happened before with 1920s prohibition, McCarthyism, the war on drugs, etc. It seems to be one of the weaknesses of American democracy, that a minority can enforce their will on a majority by sparking some sort of moral outrage that most voters don't actually share. Not sure what exactly causes it. If it's the electoral college system, the senator system, the belief in laissez-faire capitalism, the American "dream", the lack of history, or what. Maybe European democracies are just as vulnerable to it, but I'm just not as exposed to their news as I am to American news and it's something completely different. But, for example, in the UK we had Mary Whitehouse who tried this tactic but it was generally ineffective. Be interested to know if anyone's seen any good social or political explanations of it?

karmakurtisaani 4y ago
I think the two party system causes a lot of problems like this. Over time, a certain party has drifted towards an extreme that if the same happened in a European multiparty democracy, this party would have been replaced by one of the many similar, but sane parties.
- jones6ofMont 4y ago
  Doubt so. Many of my Asian collegues aghast seeing Euro zone commiting economic suicide. Without Putin cheap energy, Russo-Indo-Sino-African huge market, plus extreme competitions from Chinese+Indian, Euro will not be prosperous. There was one centuries old company in Germany collapse bankrupt because of the support of Ukraine causing economic downturn. All my colleagues and friends in high places private side are finalizing retrenchment and liiquidation for coming quarters. Everyone of then blame it on stupid government policies of supporting Ukraine. Euro political parties arent that independent from controls of Dems and Rep in USA. As sanity, if you are having Asian views, none would use the wording sane to describe any of Euro parties.
tails4e 4y ago
It's been around a long time, but a major contribution to the worsening of late is the US news media. When my family visited the us in the early 2000s we thought fox news was a parody at first. We could not believe it was being held up as news, when the bias, and outright misinformation was passed off as fact. This platform was used with great effect to seed mistrust in all media, and now it's completely polarised, with most folks refusing to look at certain media sources as they can't be trusted. Other countries regulate the media, news is much closer to fact. News media can and does get sanctioned for any wrong information and have to publicly retract, etc. There are solutions, but the US doesn't want them. Now social media is here, it's made it a lot worse and more global, but the US had an opportunity in the 90s and 2000s to improve it's media and did not.
- waselighis 4y ago
  The first amendment of the US Constitution makes it virtually impossible to pass any meaningful regulation of news media. As long as it's framed as opinion and not fact, these news outlets can say pretty much whatever they want.
giantg2 4y ago
Probably the puritanical background and history of the US more than any particular structure. In the article's example, it doesn't seem many of your points would apply. The school board is elected at the local level which rules out a good bit of those. There's also the possibility that the voters/parents don't care about the nudity, but rather empathy about the lack of notification. They probably want to be notified of other sensitive topics and see the utility in such a policy in general. That was the real issue here. Coming back to structure though. The biggest thing leading to outsized impact of minority groups are primaries. Primaries have such a low voter turnout that a minority group can have an outsized impact. To exacerbate this even further for the president, that only has to happen in the first few states for other candidates to drop out due to the staggered primary dates. So you end up with about 20% of voters in the first 10 states or so deciding who the main two candidates will be for president. The two party structure also contributes to the polarization as candidates are more concerned about opposition to a single party rather than alliances with other parties.
the_only_law 4y ago
> I don't actually feel this is a particularly modern thing, this has happened before with 1920s prohibition, McCarthyism, the war on drugs, etc. Honestly the more I see about US history, it just feels like it’s always been like this.
jones6ofMont 4y ago
[flagged]

karmakurtisaani 4y ago

I think the two party system causes a lot of problems like this. Over time, a certain party has drifted towards an extreme that if the same happened in a European multiparty democracy, this party would have been replaced by one of the many similar, but sane parties.

jones6ofMont 4y ago
Doubt so. Many of my Asian collegues aghast seeing Euro zone commiting economic suicide. Without Putin cheap energy, Russo-Indo-Sino-African huge market, plus extreme competitions from Chinese+Indian, Euro will not be prosperous. There was one centuries old company in Germany collapse bankrupt because of the support of Ukraine causing economic downturn. All my colleagues and friends in high places private side are finalizing retrenchment and liiquidation for coming quarters. Everyone of then blame it on stupid government policies of supporting Ukraine. Euro political parties arent that independent from controls of Dems and Rep in USA. As sanity, if you are having Asian views, none would use the wording sane to describe any of Euro parties.

tails4e 4y ago

It's been around a long time, but a major contribution to the worsening of late is the US news media. When my family visited the us in the early 2000s we thought fox news was a parody at first. We could not believe it was being held up as news, when the bias, and outright misinformation was passed off as fact. This platform was used with great effect to seed mistrust in all media, and now it's completely polarised, with most folks refusing to look at certain media sources as they can't be trusted. Other countries regulate the media, news is much closer to fact. News media can and does get sanctioned for any wrong information and have to publicly retract, etc. There are solutions, but the US doesn't want them. Now social media is here, it's made it a lot worse and more global, but the US had an opportunity in the 90s and 2000s to improve it's media and did not.

waselighis 4y ago
The first amendment of the US Constitution makes it virtually impossible to pass any meaningful regulation of news media. As long as it's framed as opinion and not fact, these news outlets can say pretty much whatever they want.

giantg2 4y ago

Probably the puritanical background and history of the US more than any particular structure. In the article's example, it doesn't seem many of your points would apply. The school board is elected at the local level which rules out a good bit of those. There's also the possibility that the voters/parents don't care about the nudity, but rather empathy about the lack of notification. They probably want to be notified of other sensitive topics and see the utility in such a policy in general. That was the real issue here. Coming back to structure though. The biggest thing leading to outsized impact of minority groups are primaries. Primaries have such a low voter turnout that a minority group can have an outsized impact. To exacerbate this even further for the president, that only has to happen in the first few states for other candidates to drop out due to the staggered primary dates. So you end up with about 20% of voters in the first 10 states or so deciding who the main two candidates will be for president. The two party structure also contributes to the polarization as candidates are more concerned about opposition to a single party rather than alliances with other parties.

the_only_law 4y ago

> I don't actually feel this is a particularly modern thing, this has happened before with 1920s prohibition, McCarthyism, the war on drugs, etc. Honestly the more I see about US history, it just feels like it’s always been like this.

jones6ofMont 4y ago

[flagged]