• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    14 days ago

    Or do you actually want democracy?

    I want good policy.

    If my democracy is producing bad candidates and bad policies, what purpose does it serve?

    your alternative to democracy, given your claim about its purpose in “keeping capitalists in power”.

    Capitalism is serviced by the illusion of choice in a functional monopoly. The solution is to break up the monopoly.

    But that’s a Herculean task.

    • J Lou@mastodon.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      14 days ago

      You can’t get good policy without democracy because democracy is part of all good policy. Non-democracy violates inalienable rights, which makes it inherently bad policy

      @politicalmemes

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        14 days ago

        You can’t get good policy without democracy

        Put two policies on a coin and flip it. Half the time you’ll get good policy. No democracy required.

        Democracy grants input from a broad base of social perspective. But if that persective is polluted by propaganda and haunted by historical bigotry, you’ll get out what you put in.

        An apartheid democracy is less preferable than revolutionary anarchy, even if you didn’t all get to line up at a voting booth and decide to overthrow the corrupt establishment

        Non-democracy violates inalienable rights

        If you can consistently violate a set of rights, they aren’t inalienable. Pretending social obligations and taboos are written into the stars is what gets us some of the more destructive social impulses (abortion clinic bombings, white power marches, etc).

        • J Lou@mastodon.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          14 days ago

          The coin flip is inherently part of policy, and it is bad policy to decide on policies with a coin flip

          Inalienable rights are moral rights that can’t be given up or transferred. It doesn’t mean that the legal system can’t fail to enforce the right such as by legally treating it as alienable like capitalism does in the employment contract. If the legal system doesn’t grant it, that’s a bad legal system.

          Moral concepts have an objective sense that is unknowable.

          @politicalmemes

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            13 days ago

            it is bad policy to decide on policies with a coin flip

            A/B testing is a classic tool for evaluating a range of options for best results