2 ms·

> dummies in congress Are the folks in congress actually stupid? Or do they practice a different profession than you? Namely: the structure and interpretation

> dummies in congress Are the folks in congress actually stupid? Or do they practice a different profession than you? Namely: the structure and interpretation of laws and policies. How much do you know about, say... the field of nursing?

Demiurge 11y ago
Some of them actually, honestly, don't believe in climate change, or nursing.
CamperBob2 11y ago
It's more or less beyond question that some of them are either genuinely stupid, or genuinely evil. Which do you prefer? I'm not sure, myself.
Qwertious 11y ago
The problem is that they deal with making laws on a variety of subjects, which necessitates understanding said subjects. They don't understand the subjects. Say what you like about programmers, but most of them don't actually have any job-related responsibilities in the field of nursing, breaking the analogy.
- afarrell 11y ago
  It isn't meant to be an analogy but a contrast. They are indeed required to understand the subjects, but they have no realistic way to. There are simply too many subjects. If we want to sit around saying "legislators are dumb and don't understand us", fine. It won't solve anything, but it will make us feel really nice about how smart and special we are. I like feeling smart and special too. But if we actually want to fix anything, we have to think about the system wholistically and understand what motivations and pressures a legislator is under. There are simple too many subjects for a legislator to understand all of them well. Committees help somewhat, but are flawed. Lobbyists are the current way that legislators gain information about industries but that comes at the cost of drastically warping priorities. If anyone wants to comment with some actual insight and detail into those problems, that would be nice.
na85 11y ago
>Are the folks in congress actually stupid? Not all. But some of them are, for lack of a better term, really fucking stupid.

Demiurge 11y ago

Some of them actually, honestly, don't believe in climate change, or nursing.

CamperBob2 11y ago

It's more or less beyond question that some of them are either genuinely stupid, or genuinely evil. Which do you prefer? I'm not sure, myself.

Qwertious 11y ago

The problem is that they deal with making laws on a variety of subjects, which necessitates understanding said subjects. They don't understand the subjects. Say what you like about programmers, but most of them don't actually have any job-related responsibilities in the field of nursing, breaking the analogy.

afarrell 11y ago
It isn't meant to be an analogy but a contrast. They are indeed required to understand the subjects, but they have no realistic way to. There are simply too many subjects. If we want to sit around saying "legislators are dumb and don't understand us", fine. It won't solve anything, but it will make us feel really nice about how smart and special we are. I like feeling smart and special too. But if we actually want to fix anything, we have to think about the system wholistically and understand what motivations and pressures a legislator is under. There are simple too many subjects for a legislator to understand all of them well. Committees help somewhat, but are flawed. Lobbyists are the current way that legislators gain information about industries but that comes at the cost of drastically warping priorities. If anyone wants to comment with some actual insight and detail into those problems, that would be nice.

na85 11y ago

>Are the folks in congress actually stupid? Not all. But some of them are, for lack of a better term, really fucking stupid.