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There are some really smart people in the USA, but sadly this doesn't apply to their leaders. The only thing they're good at is running massive propaganda campa

There are some really smart people in the USA, but sadly this doesn't apply to their leaders. The only thing they're good at is running massive propaganda campaigns (to the point where some people think they're proud to work two jobs and barely have something to eat).

brazzy 14y ago
The funny thing is that most people who actually meet their political representative in person will tell you that this really is an honest, hard-working guy with the best interests of everyone in mind, totally different from all those crooked idiot politicians...
- psionski 14y ago
  You don't get to be a politician without some charisma and the ability to tell believable lies. I'm not saying these aren't useful skills, but putting too much power in such people is generally a bad idea.
  - brazzy 14y ago
    Actually my interpretation is that actual good intentions and hard work are indistinguishable from corruption and incompetence when seen in aggregation from afar in an environment of conflicting interests. That, and reporting bias.
    - psionski 14y ago
      Nope. Actual hard work and good intentions remain visible at any level - the Nordic countries are famous for their sane politics, even though we're looking at them from a distance. Facts are just facts and the distance only helps. Reporting bias can be effectively eliminated by collecting your data from multiple sources, i.e. visiting different web pages. Of course, you could then introduce your own bias by choosing which sites to visit, but you can at least try to be consciously aware of this and avoid it as much as possible.
      - brazzy 14y ago
        > Reporting bias can be effectively eliminated by collecting your data from multiple sources, i.e. visiting different web pages. Not when there is a systematic "newsworthiness bias" that all of the suffer from. People just doing their job never gets reported. People doing their job exceptionally well gets rarerly reported, but horror stories of incompetence and corruption are certain to make the headlines.

brazzy 14y ago

The funny thing is that most people who actually meet their political representative in person will tell you that this really is an honest, hard-working guy with the best interests of everyone in mind, totally different from all those crooked idiot politicians...

psionski 14y ago
You don't get to be a politician without some charisma and the ability to tell believable lies. I'm not saying these aren't useful skills, but putting too much power in such people is generally a bad idea.
- brazzy 14y ago
  Actually my interpretation is that actual good intentions and hard work are indistinguishable from corruption and incompetence when seen in aggregation from afar in an environment of conflicting interests. That, and reporting bias.
  - psionski 14y ago
    Nope. Actual hard work and good intentions remain visible at any level - the Nordic countries are famous for their sane politics, even though we're looking at them from a distance. Facts are just facts and the distance only helps. Reporting bias can be effectively eliminated by collecting your data from multiple sources, i.e. visiting different web pages. Of course, you could then introduce your own bias by choosing which sites to visit, but you can at least try to be consciously aware of this and avoid it as much as possible.
    - brazzy 14y ago
      > Reporting bias can be effectively eliminated by collecting your data from multiple sources, i.e. visiting different web pages. Not when there is a systematic "newsworthiness bias" that all of the suffer from. People just doing their job never gets reported. People doing their job exceptionally well gets rarerly reported, but horror stories of incompetence and corruption are certain to make the headlines.