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>> you cannot value everyone's opinion equally and have to just make it happen You live in a country with the wrong type of political system for that. Valuing

>> you cannot value everyone's opinion equally and have to just make it happen You live in a country with the wrong type of political system for that. Valuing everyone's opinion equally is called democracy.

IncreasePosts 2y ago
No, democracy says 51% of people can enforce their will on 49% of people.
tomrod 2y ago
The US is not a democracy. Not even at the state level. For many aspects and holons it is a representative republic.
- tromp 2y ago
  The U.S. is a democracy, albeit a deficient one rather than a working one [1]. At least is the least deficient one amongst those. [1] https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking
  - em-bee 2y ago
    apparently by 2023 it got upgraded to working: https://www.democracymatrix.com/online-analysis/matrix#/chart1/United%20States%20of%20America/2020/core/chart2/United%20States%20of%20America/2023/core https://www.democracymatrix.com/online-analysis/matrix#/char... after further looking it turns out that it was also categorized as working before 2020 and after 2020. the difference being 0.01 points. in 2020 it took a dive in rules settlement and implementation for which there is an obvious culprit: covid. https://www.democracymatrix.com/online-analysis/country#/United%20States%20of%20America/total_index_core,decision_equality_core,intermediate_equality_core,communication_equality_core,rights_equality_core,rule_settlement_equality_core,decision_inst_index_core,intermediate_inst_index_core,rule_settlement_inst_index_core,rights_inst_index_core,communication_inst_index_core,equality_dim_index_core,rule_settlement_control_core,rule_settlement_freedom_core https://www.democracymatrix.com/online-analysis/country#/Uni...
  - yencabulator 2y ago
    No, that would be Uruguay. And for context, the ranking says USA is the 36th most democratic country, which is pretty darn low if you ask me.
    - tromp 2y ago
      Darn; overlooked that one hiding in the middle of all these Working Democracies.
- vundercind 2y ago
  Describing the US as a democracy is totally normal among actual experts in the study of governments (political scientists).
  - tomrod 2y ago
    [citation requested] I've seen representative democracy, and representative republic, but rarely purely one or the other.
  - whythre 2y ago
    Sounds like terminology slip, then. People use the term democracy to describe the US, often in contrast to authoritarian dictatorships; but that is more of a crude definition, a colloquialism rather than an accurate description of US governance.
SSJPython 2y ago
> You live in a country with the wrong type of political system for that. Valuing everyone's opinion equally is called democracy. Infrastructure should not be subject to peoples' opinions. Like utilities and defense, infrastructure is crucial for security and commerce. People simply don't know better.
- deepsun 2y ago
  Remember in the movie Don't Look Up they democratically decided that the Comet is not real, and everything will be fine.
  - tonynator 2y ago
    [flagged]
- em-bee 2y ago
  but there is a solution to this problem: education. and i don't mean propaganda, but teaching people not to be selfish, to care for others and consider others needs, to contribute to the betterment of society. to have compassion, remove prejudice, etc. if these values were taught in schools, then the next generation would make better choices and they would know better and vote for better infrastructure.
  - Maarten88 2y ago
    It's hard to educate the next generation when everyone of all ages is exposed to relentless propaganda (also known as marketing, in all forms including the fully legalized corruption of US politics) at the same time. Oil and car companies' futures depend on continued public support for free parking, more lanes and housing far away from destinations. It's in their interest to manipulate people into opinions that are beneficial to their bottom line, and they will continue to do so.
  - infecto 2y ago
    That will never happen. Thats the kind of utopian dream that will not happen regardless of level of education.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
infecto 2y ago
Disagree. I could have done a better job describing it though. In the current paradigm, the N houses/people negatively impacted by a given transit project will be given the same weighting as the N*Y people positively impacted by the project. You cannot have progressive transit projects that work when you allow those N individuals to stop the project. Nothing to do with democracy, different states and local governments handle it differently.

IncreasePosts 2y ago

No, democracy says 51% of people can enforce their will on 49% of people.

tomrod 2y ago

The US is not a democracy. Not even at the state level. For many aspects and holons it is a representative republic.

tromp 2y ago
The U.S. is a democracy, albeit a deficient one rather than a working one [1]. At least is the least deficient one amongst those. [1] https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking
- em-bee 2y ago
  apparently by 2023 it got upgraded to working: https://www.democracymatrix.com/online-analysis/matrix#/chart1/United%20States%20of%20America/2020/core/chart2/United%20States%20of%20America/2023/core https://www.democracymatrix.com/online-analysis/matrix#/char... after further looking it turns out that it was also categorized as working before 2020 and after 2020. the difference being 0.01 points. in 2020 it took a dive in rules settlement and implementation for which there is an obvious culprit: covid. https://www.democracymatrix.com/online-analysis/country#/United%20States%20of%20America/total_index_core,decision_equality_core,intermediate_equality_core,communication_equality_core,rights_equality_core,rule_settlement_equality_core,decision_inst_index_core,intermediate_inst_index_core,rule_settlement_inst_index_core,rights_inst_index_core,communication_inst_index_core,equality_dim_index_core,rule_settlement_control_core,rule_settlement_freedom_core https://www.democracymatrix.com/online-analysis/country#/Uni...
- yencabulator 2y ago
  No, that would be Uruguay. And for context, the ranking says USA is the 36th most democratic country, which is pretty darn low if you ask me.
  - tromp 2y ago
    Darn; overlooked that one hiding in the middle of all these Working Democracies.
vundercind 2y ago
Describing the US as a democracy is totally normal among actual experts in the study of governments (political scientists).
- tomrod 2y ago
  [citation requested] I've seen representative democracy, and representative republic, but rarely purely one or the other.
- whythre 2y ago
  Sounds like terminology slip, then. People use the term democracy to describe the US, often in contrast to authoritarian dictatorships; but that is more of a crude definition, a colloquialism rather than an accurate description of US governance.

SSJPython 2y ago

> You live in a country with the wrong type of political system for that. Valuing everyone's opinion equally is called democracy. Infrastructure should not be subject to peoples' opinions. Like utilities and defense, infrastructure is crucial for security and commerce. People simply don't know better.

deepsun 2y ago
Remember in the movie Don't Look Up they democratically decided that the Comet is not real, and everything will be fine.
- tonynator 2y ago
  [flagged]
em-bee 2y ago
but there is a solution to this problem: education. and i don't mean propaganda, but teaching people not to be selfish, to care for others and consider others needs, to contribute to the betterment of society. to have compassion, remove prejudice, etc. if these values were taught in schools, then the next generation would make better choices and they would know better and vote for better infrastructure.
- Maarten88 2y ago
  It's hard to educate the next generation when everyone of all ages is exposed to relentless propaganda (also known as marketing, in all forms including the fully legalized corruption of US politics) at the same time. Oil and car companies' futures depend on continued public support for free parking, more lanes and housing far away from destinations. It's in their interest to manipulate people into opinions that are beneficial to their bottom line, and they will continue to do so.
- infecto 2y ago
  That will never happen. Thats the kind of utopian dream that will not happen regardless of level of education.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

infecto 2y ago

Disagree. I could have done a better job describing it though. In the current paradigm, the N houses/people negatively impacted by a given transit project will be given the same weighting as the N*Y people positively impacted by the project. You cannot have progressive transit projects that work when you allow those N individuals to stop the project. Nothing to do with democracy, different states and local governments handle it differently.