thawed_caveman
@thawed_caveman@lemmy.world
- Comment on Why is a two-party system considered democratic? 5 days ago:
I have a passing familiarity with the politics of a couple countries, and they all fit this pattern: their constitutions say nothing of a two-party system, they don’t even say anything about parties at all. People just choose to create political parties, and then those parties coalesce into two major parties.
The reason that this happens is because people, from voters to every level of politician, look at the rules of the game and make tactical decisions; their tactical decisions cause a two-party system to emerge.
The USA is a really extreme case of this; in Europe there are more parties, and they even very occasionally come to power. Current french president Macron broke a decades-long streak of two-party governance in his country.
Further viewing material:
Minority Rule: First Past the Post Voting
The Alternative Vote Explained
My takeaway from this is that there are things that can be done to improve the voting system, as suggested in these videos; but i don’t even like representative democracy at all, i think there’s better solutions in direct democracy (referendums and such). Representative democracy was designed to put elites in charge, voting was initially reserved for land-owning nobility. Extending voting rights to more people doesn’t change what the system is designed to do.
- Comment on Could your body adjust if you separated your macros into meals? Like all carbs for breakfast, all fat for lunch and all protein for dinner? What would happen? 3 weeks ago:
I don’t know what would happen to your body, but i know these would be the worst meals you’ll ever have
- Comment on Americans are weird. 1 month ago:
I don’t know why i remembered i had this somewhere in my dusty folder full of thousands of old memes, but:
- Comment on Anon is 33 1 month ago:
This isn’t terribly far away from being me, except i randomly went to an art school for a couple years. Didn’t exactly pick up many marketable skills there lmfao
- Comment on Anon is 33 1 month ago:
The nicest way that i can put it is that this has been true for most of human history until industrialization, let’s say that the 50’s is when industrial food starts to make poor people fat.
The less nice way to put it is that this hasn’t been true for 70 years. You are completely clueless to health food and poverty in the 20th century, let alone the 21st. Nowadays, eating nothing but the cheapest food will in fact make you fat.
- Comment on What are your favorite games for killing nazis? 1 month ago:
You know Call of Duty started out as killing nazis on the Quake engine. I don’t remember really liking them but it’s there
- Comment on Selling as is. 2 months ago:
That’s dragon damage
- Comment on Help 3 months ago:
Comments saying “you don’t” are weak shit. The answer is you rotate each letter one by one.
It will look like shit because they will be ever so slightly misaligned, but such is the fate of the brave
- Comment on Anon gets plastered 3 months ago:
We do bulk and they’re also werewolves, so it’s a werewhore warehouse
There were some in Pompeii but they haven’t been located yet, to this day archeologists don’t know where the werewhore warehouses were
- Comment on Anon gets plastered 3 months ago:
I work at a whorehouse
- Comment on Anon gets plastered 3 months ago:
Sleeping for 10 hours in a closet would do enough damage to my body that i’d quit my job and get a disability pension
- Comment on The latest box set of the Breaking Bad series doesn't have closed captioning. 3 months ago:
“You got that money”
- Comment on and we thought our thing with beans was bad 3 months ago:
Yyeah but if their definistion of “fresh” includes the navy seals copypasta, then by god don’t let them sell milk
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 3 months ago:
there’s a class of “elite” people who can make decisions that negatively affect the literal lives of millions without worry
This has been true for as long as civilization has been a thing; in fact it’s less of a thing now than it ever has been, the elites have never had so little power.
Which is to say they still have entirely too much and i also hope he gets away with it
- Comment on You don't need to answer this 3 months ago:
I don’t think it’s funny, more like it feels good to see an atom of justice done for once. One murder changes nothing, it has no value as far as changing the system, but the symbolic value is through the roof.
Here’s the thing: even if we change the healthcare system tomorrow, they get to keep their billions. We can change the system, but there will be no justice because one of the principles of our legal system is that justice isn’t retroactive. So seeing one of the guilty parties killed is an example of retribution that is very rare and exhilarating.
Just not funny per se
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 3 months ago:
I want to live in civilization and i enjoy its benefits, so no, i can’t go around saying someone should be acquitted because the crime was based. We’ve collectively agreed to put the law above our feelings, that’s a good thing, i wish it was done more, so i’m doing my part and preparing to send him cigarettes in prison.
- Comment on Just put a spray tan over it 3 months ago:
I’ve googled it for you: she’s going to be green for 28 to 45 days.
- Comment on huehuehue 3 months ago:
They produce psilocybin because Satan told them to
- Comment on This map will hopefully clear up any further confusion. 3 months ago:
That’s a lot of places in the world, you could pick random cities and have a decent chance of this being true.
Venice is another level because of the mass tourism and vacation rentals
- Comment on This map will hopefully clear up any further confusion. 3 months ago:
Corsica, except Corsica is a French department
- Comment on Anon plays spin the bottle 3 months ago:
Props for not rhyming face with place lol
- Comment on When you die, what do you want to be done with you? 3 months ago:
Makes me wonder what the experience would be like for the mind being uploaded. Do you feel like you have a body? Can you change what that body is? And before you do anything fun with that new hot body, you should know that anywhere you can go is still in a simulation, so you can be tracked and observed at all times.
Speaking of that, can you adapt to the concept of “being somewhere” becoming meaningless?
- Comment on When you die, what do you want to be done with you? 3 months ago:
Ideally there would be no body to bury. Think about it, can you think of a boring way to die where your body is never found?
Of course i’m making sure my death will be adventurous by staying at my computer and never going outside. Totally won’t die of a heart attack like a loser.
- Comment on In the US, is this actually the moment past the point of no return? 3 months ago:
He failed to overthrow the American government and have his VP killed. And the reason he wanted his VP killed was because he wouldn’t help him overthrow the American government.
It’s undeniable that some very powerful people want US democracy dead, but from that to the actual death of US democracy is a long way
- Comment on In the US, is this actually the moment past the point of no return? 3 months ago:
So i agree thatthe second Trump administration is going to suck in most every way possible, like the first one but worse because they’re prepared this time.
BUT
I think people overrate a government’s ability to influence the conditions in a given country. I think a country is made what it is by history, geography, technology, sociology, ideology, economics, and the accumulation of small decisions over centuries.
If the Trump administration wants to end democracy in the US, or if a hypothetical based administration were to attempt a switch to ranked choice voting, both ideals would be impossible to implement because our ideals are limited by practical reality. Both would fail regardless of being good or bad changes, because radical change is really hard when the conditions aren’t met for it, especially when it’s opposed by the rest of the country. I think a lot of people in the US will resist changes that the Trump administration wants for a number of reasons, and not just ideological reasons, sometimes they just have an economic interest.
We talk a lot about how powerful people changed the world, but i think far more often they’re just the embodiment of a societal trend, and they couldn’t change the world if they weren’t. Change isn’t done by powerful people but deeper movements in humanity, with powerful people riding them like a wave.
As to where the deeper movements in humanity are leading us right now, i refuse to guess, trying to predict the future is the best way to look like an idiot
- Comment on Anon thinks the French are posers 3 months ago:
At least half of it could be
- Comment on New Xhitter policy just dropped 4 months ago:
Brother you’re on desktop, you could have cropped
- Comment on Here are some tips for making fried rice: 4 months ago:
Oh i thought you were writing lyrics
- Comment on Realistically... How fucked is the US? 4 months ago:
Yeah, but everyone else around him does have clear goals and plans that they do want to accomplish. And they’re prepared this time, whereas they were kinda caught by surprise in 2016.
- Comment on I don't trust like that. 4 months ago:
I mean it’s a known fact that WASPs rule the media.
