• kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 hours ago

    The US is one of the most watered down democracies, even for a liberal democracy (which is severely watered down). Its a system where the needs of the many are filtered through the needs of the few. We dont need to “fix” liberal democracy, we need workers democracy (syndicalism).

  • danc4498@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Oh, but were not a democracy, were a constitutional republic hardy har har har har

    • my republican friends.
    • Rusty Shackleford@programming.dev
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      3 hours ago

      we’re a constitutional federal republic, with democratically elected representatives, but a plutocracy, in practice

      • me, a political science pedant of highest/worst order
    • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Oh, we are? Is that why everyone other than hetero white males is getting mentions removed or protections gutted and/or removed? What part of the constitution that provides rights to all Americans is in play when this is happening? Go ahead, I’ll wait…

      That would be my response.

      • danc4498@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        My response is to click that “unfriend” button and never see them on social media again.

        • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          That works as well. I was going to delete my Facebook but decided posting things supporting minorities and other groups while being an annoyance to the right was more important.

  • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    And a few days after that, PragerU releases a video titled “Why democracies will fail eventually”, which tells its viewers that democracy creates “moral decadence”, and now a “strong leader” is needed to fix the issue, who might have told some noble lies like a parent tells their kid the stork brings the children when they’re not ready for reality. And the video ends with a “Roman salute” over “God Bless America”.

    • DancingBear@midwest.social
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      7 hours ago

      People tell their kids the stork brings babies because the parent is the one not ready to have the conversation.

      The parent is avoiding their own humiliation. Telling kids how babies are made is not embarassing for kids. Kids have no reason to feel shame or judgement about these kinds of things….

      Just pointing this out to show that the metaphor here is deeply flawed.

        • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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          3 hours ago

          3-4 year olds don’t need to know about birds and the bees

          Why not? It’s interesting and biology is part of the natural world around us.

          Some kids probably won’t care but others will be super interested. Start the conversation and see where it leads.

        • Generic_Idiot@lemm.ee
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          6 hours ago

          Sex, procreation is not a horrible perverted thing. It’s biology, science, and should be explained as soon as they’re curious enough to ask.

        • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Lots of 3 to 4 year olds are perfectly aware that they have a future sibling brewing in mom’s tummy.

        • DancingBear@midwest.social
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          7 hours ago

          Knowledge of bodily functions seems to concern you. That is your problem, not the kids.

          It literally matters zero percent if kids know how bodies function.

          The fear and judgement is all in your head lol.

          • histic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            7 hours ago

            It’s not even the matter of how the body works it can lead to them watching porn and shit early on which isn’t good cause kids are curious and google exists literally speaking from personal experience I was told way to early on by older friends and it lead to shit I don’t need to get into

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              44 minutes ago

              Dude, they’ll watch porn either way probably. It’s more likely if you make it taboo that they’ll get into some weird shit. If it’s normalized then it’s not some mysterious thing they need to discover on their own. Your thought process is what leads to kids watching porn too young. They’re going to learn about it, like you did from older friends. If your parents made it normal to discuss maybe you’d be healthier.

            • Rainbowsaurus@lemm.ee
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              4 hours ago

              That’s the problem. You were told by friends who left you with questions you answered in unsafe ways, not by adults who could answer your questions in an age appropriate way.

              Giving kids age-appropriate sex-ed is a good way to protect them against predators. Many victims don’t even know something wrong has been done to them because people like you are too afraid to give them the barest guidance.

            • MichaelScotch@lemmy.world
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              6 hours ago

              You need some therapy. Telling kids the truth about how our bodies work early on doesn’t harm them, but maybe your parents not talking to you about it and your older friends having to do it, perhaps in a crude way, is what led to that shit you don’t need to get into.

  • teri@discuss.tchncs.de
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    12 hours ago

    “Could lose”? We are long past this point. When you can chose between two parties and they try to manipulate the election as hard as they can, then that’s a zombie democracy at best. And now? The president stands above the law. He can fire people illegally. He can disable law enforcement. Democracy in the US is gone. Hopefully only temporarily. Now it’s up to people to act, take their rogue government down and repair what can be repaired.

  • breen@lemmy.ca
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    20 hours ago

    Baby, you haven’t been a democracy for a while

      • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Optical illusion. Plutocrats sharing power among themselves is not democracy, friend.

            • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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              2 hours ago

              “sharing power” implies that non-plutocrats are not involved in the decision, i.e. implying elections are fake

          • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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            8 hours ago

            It’s not about the elections it’s about who gets the support and opportunity and resources to win elections.

            A footrace can be executed completely fairly and transparently but if you need to buy special expensive shoes to participate and you receive them at someone else’s discretion and you need to join one of two private clubs to get an invitation and the leaders and members of those clubs also apply discretion then a lot of unfair choices and decisions are being made before the starter pistol goes off.

      • PurpleSkull@lemm.ee
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        19 hours ago

        We peacefully transitioned into a technocracy with a wanna-be dictator idiot at the helm.

        As an exercise for anyone reading this who doesn’t already know: How did Hitler got into a position of power? Look that up, don’t use AI, actually check up on that yourself.

        • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
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          10 hours ago

          Just a dictionary thing, Technocracy != tech bro president:

          Government by technical specialists.

          A system of governance where people who are skilled or proficient govern in their respective areas of expertise. A type of meritocracy based on people’s ability and knowledge in a given area.

          When you call someone a technocrat, it means they’re more interested in research and quality than political debate

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            The US has purportedly been a technocracy for a few decades now. The second election of Trump will likely mark the end of the technocracy and the official start of something worse…kakistocracy, full bowl oligarchy, kleptocracy, pick whatever adjective you want.

            The administrative state – the exact thing Elon and his doge goons are targeting – is the home of the technocrats.

        • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Technically the Nazis lost that election, but the Conservatives who won turned around and handed power to Hitler, all to prevent the Left from gaining power.

          • Asafum@feddit.nl
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            19 hours ago

            Alien school: For todays class we will begin Earth history, please open your text book titled “Earth: All to Prevent the Left From Gaining Power.” This book covers the vast majority of Earth history.

        • blade_barrier@lemmy.ml
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          9 hours ago

          Wait a minute, so democracy brings people like Trump, Hitler and Hamas to power? Does it mean that democracy is shit?

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            How about single party socialism? Has that ever turned back into stateless communism, comrade? Or did it turn into “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, Putin’s Russia, Pol Pot, and the DPRK that Trump wants to turn the US into?

            • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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              4 hours ago

              The Khmer Rouge was never socialist, they were some weird feudal ideology, hence why the CIA supported them and the US recognized them as the legitimate government of Cambodia for like 30 years after Vietnam liberated them and put an actual socialist government in power.

              Russia hasn’t been socialist since 1992; Putin’s Russia is what happens when you overthrow a democratic state run by the workers for the workers with a vibrant, multiparty capitalist “democracy”.

              “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” is more democratic than the US; the average Chinese person feels they have far greater influence on the government than the average American. They tend to be confused why Americans hate and fear the police and why we aren’t able to vote for politicians who will fix the problem.

              There’s also Cuba, who had a referendum on a new constitution a few years ago. After years of debate at the community level, they came up with a final draft that 92% of Cubans voted yes on. Could you imagine if we had that level of influence over our own government?

              See the thing you’re missing is that the communist parties of these countries themselves democratic; they’re typically structured such that every member above the rank-and-file is elected, with instant recall and “give us a better candidate” options.

      • Eheran@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        I would assume most monarchies transitioned just as peaceful. What does that prove?

      • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        The only party willing to accept defeat and not cry foul until their cult riots lost. It will never happen the other way around are you’d have be to a deeply vastly empty head to not know that.

      • My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Degree of democracy has more to do with the size of the ruling coalition relative to the size of the pool of the interchangeables. When power is shared within a large ruling coalition, there tends to be a louder and more influential voice by the interchangeables, leading to more democracy and better living conditions for everyone, including those in the losing coalition. Autocracies on the ruling spectrum tend to have tiny ruling coalitions.

        Source: my memory of reading The Dictator’s Handbook by Bueno de Mesquita and Smith. Highly recommended reading.

        If the ruling coalition of the US is much smaller than it appears to be, then yeah, it’s at risk of losing its foothold as a democracy.

  • liverbe@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    “You’ve only been a democracy for only 50 years. Not unless you don’t count black people… you are nearly as mature democracy as Botswana.” - Lukas Matsson (Swedish guy) on Succession

  • arakhis_@feddit.org
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    18 hours ago

    sorry for derailing a little:

    why is there multiple links to choose from as a source? What exactly created that choosable format - are they automated, is this some system like groundnews or something?

    EDIT: Seems to be only on some interfaces. I see it on the photon interface for feddit.org but I dont see that on the base fedditorg