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Dismissing politicians as stupid is a simple way to feel good about yourself, but does nothing to solve the actual problems. Politicians are just as human as ev
by usrnm 3y ago
Dismissing politicians as stupid is a simple way to feel good about yourself, but does nothing to solve the actual problems. Politicians are just as human as everybody else, and they love money and power more than they love some abstract "greater good". They understand the problem just fine, it's not a very complicated problem. We need a better system, not smarter politicians
- RenThraysk 3y agoThat is precisely the problem. The average human is ignorant of almost everything. So why then do we select a tiny number of people to make laws concerning everything?
- yladiz 3y agoIs there an alternative?
- RenThraysk 3y agoThe court system with a jury. A set of people are presented with evidence and become knowledgeable of the matter in hand.
- sofixa 3y agoThat doesn't make them smarter or more knowledgable outside of a very narrow scope, where they knowledge is entirely dependent on what biased experts called by either side tell them.
- RenThraysk 3y agoYes. But it distributes the work load across larger number of people, so they have time to learn. The current system has politicans not even reading the bills they are voting on, let alone any attempt to understand them.
- ben_w 3y agoI’ve tried reading a few Bills and Acts. They’re more legible than patents, but harder than code in a programming language I’ve not learned. I’d like legislation by sortition, but only if the laws can actually be made simple enough for normal people to follow them. If that can’t be done, it’s very easy to pull wool over people’s eyes in either direction, getting them to pass bad laws they don’t understand and to refuse to pass good laws they don’t understand.
- CamperBob2 3y agoMaybe don't allow central governments to accumulate so much power.
- infamouscow 3y agoBut how else can I force people to do things they would never do voluntarily?
- vasdae 3y agoFewer laws.
- sgjohnson 3y ago> Dismissing politicians as stupid is a simple way to feel good about yourself, but does nothing to solve the actual problems. There is no actual problem. Politicians see problems where they don’t exist.
- dimask 3y agoI think the comment meant that the problem is the political system, not the politicians' personalities, or education, or ignorance per se. Imo, when you build a system that is more prone to pressure and influence by lobbying corporations than from the majority of people, or by those who have expertise and the best societal interests in mind, this is where you get.
- ajsnigrutin 3y agoMost of the major problems would be solved by taking their security and drivers away and make them park a few blocks away from the government buildings. If you did nothing wrong to "the people", you have nothing to fear. The problem is, that when talking about advance technology plus appealing to emotions ("think of the children!"), average joe is pretty stupid too, and half of population is even stupider than that.
- s_dev 3y agoWouldn't the 'better system' produce smarter politicians? Are you not just arguing the semantics between the ends and the means to get there.
- josefx 3y agoI think the point the comment is trying to make is that these politicians are not stupid, they are corrupt. They are not doing it because there is a problem to be solved, they are doing it because there are bags of money to be had. A smarter politician in this context would just mean a smarter burglar.
- jacksnipe 3y agoI really don’t think this is true. A significant number of non-engineers I talk to about encryption genuinely think it’s some sort of scam.
- scrps 3y agoAre they conflating encryption with cryptocurrency? I've forced myself to stop saying crypto and started to use encryption or cryptography with most people for that reason.
- jacksnipe 3y agoThe most interesting one I ran into is a doctor I had, who thought “WhatsApp isn’t really encrypted, right?”
- scrps 3y agoI'll say this; at least your doctor is asking if something is encrypted, it's a small win but it is a win. Also just tell your doctor not to worry it is protected by NFTs. /s
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- scrps 3y agoI don't believe it is stupidity at all, they are corrupt full-stop Even if a politician isn't knowledgable they have staff (look up the staff sizes of some powerful US senators) who can get experts on the phone. The problem is that what the populace wants is not a parallel incentive with what the politicians and their paymasters want. Banning e2ee, the disneyfication of the internet, it's all old power games with a digital twist, can't let ordinary people have force amplifiers like technology because they might actually carve some power away from them.
- systemvoltage 3y agoI agree but the irony is strong here. Criticize dismissal of politicians and then proceed to do exactly just that.