5 ms·

A lot of our systems work because everyone at least half heartedly sort of goes by the rules. Yes, everyone sort of pretends to obey the rule and hence it works

A lot of our systems work because everyone at least half heartedly sort of goes by the rules. Yes, everyone sort of pretends to obey the rule and hence it works. In reality these systems are extremely fragile and a small committed minority can totally break years of precedent and systems. I think we are at that phase right now from the right side and soonish we will see the same from right left as well.

smeej 1y ago
Makes me think of the latter part of this quotation: "But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case it is unfit to exist." - Lysander Spooner (emphasis mine) Resilient systems have to align incentives such that they work whether or not everybody has enough good will or agreeability to play along. 250 years isn't a bad run. Maybe the next Constitution can iterate and fix the incentive alignment.
ethbr1 1y ago
There are few ways to secure rules against every contingency that don't come at a cost in efficiency. Either you can have watchers all the way down and nothing gets done, or there are limits.
markus_zhang 1y ago
That small minority probably showed up like a hundred years ago, or earlier.
intended 1y ago
Time! Time is the lever which a small group has used to make these changes. It’s been ~40 years of Talk Radio in America and ~30 years of TV, which has sold entertainment as news and fine tuned the ability to have a captive voting bloc. Producing accurate content is laborious, narratives are cheap. Facts are essentially luxury goods, and the left+center is selling them as public goods. This can never work, it takes too much to pay for and maintain the institutions which make this possible. The right is on the other hand, being organized and “flooding the zone”, in an unending effort to reduce faith in institutions. On top of it, information from the center and left doesn’t get consumed on the right. This took decades to set up. Today Trump’s approval ratings are down overall, but Republican support for Trump remains at its March number - 88%. Edit: If I could introduce another metaphor; it’s hard to sell your goods, where half the market is locked behind a monopoly that cuts corners, and sells junk food but can label it as health food. Oh, and they spend their profits, accusing health food of being spurious.
wnc3141 1y ago
It's like imagine playing soccer with your buddies and one decides to pick up the ball and kick anyone in their path - but the goals still count. The game sort of breaks.

smeej 1y ago

Makes me think of the latter part of this quotation: "But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case it is unfit to exist." - Lysander Spooner (emphasis mine) Resilient systems have to align incentives such that they work whether or not everybody has enough good will or agreeability to play along. 250 years isn't a bad run. Maybe the next Constitution can iterate and fix the incentive alignment.

ethbr1 1y ago

There are few ways to secure rules against every contingency that don't come at a cost in efficiency. Either you can have watchers all the way down and nothing gets done, or there are limits.

markus_zhang 1y ago

That small minority probably showed up like a hundred years ago, or earlier.

intended 1y ago

Time! Time is the lever which a small group has used to make these changes. It’s been ~40 years of Talk Radio in America and ~30 years of TV, which has sold entertainment as news and fine tuned the ability to have a captive voting bloc. Producing accurate content is laborious, narratives are cheap. Facts are essentially luxury goods, and the left+center is selling them as public goods. This can never work, it takes too much to pay for and maintain the institutions which make this possible. The right is on the other hand, being organized and “flooding the zone”, in an unending effort to reduce faith in institutions. On top of it, information from the center and left doesn’t get consumed on the right. This took decades to set up. Today Trump’s approval ratings are down overall, but Republican support for Trump remains at its March number - 88%. Edit: If I could introduce another metaphor; it’s hard to sell your goods, where half the market is locked behind a monopoly that cuts corners, and sells junk food but can label it as health food. Oh, and they spend their profits, accusing health food of being spurious.

wnc3141 1y ago

It's like imagine playing soccer with your buddies and one decides to pick up the ball and kick anyone in their path - but the goals still count. The game sort of breaks.