Ancestors

Written by Jack William Bell on 2025-02-05 at 19:00

Once again @pluralistic has managed to distill into once sentence something I've had trouble finding the words to explain. I'll be stealing this one!

"The classic leftist distinction goes: leftists want to abolish a system where 150 white men run the world; liberals want to replace half of those 150 with women, queers and people of color." https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

See also: Why I refuse to be labeled as a 'Liberal'. (I'm not a 'Leftist' either, exactly. But I'll leave that for another toot.)

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Written by Toni Aittoniemi on 2025-02-05 at 19:25

@jackwilliambell @pluralistic There's an irony there only Americans can appreciate.

They literally conflate their two political parties with the whole truth of politics.

They result in a mishmash where they can say anything about anything and appear sharp and witty, yet has no application beyond their particular economic power structure.

I'm glad Europe isn't yet as fucked up talking about politics as they are. But hey, Elon is trying to get us there too.

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Written by Jack William Bell on 2025-02-05 at 19:36

@gimulnautti @pluralistic

The first thing to understand about USA politics is: everything is shifted one slot to the right.

Forex, Democrats aren't wishy-washy 'Liberals' really. They are more like a European Center Right party. What Europeans call 'Liberals', we call 'Socialists' and what Europeans call 'Socialists', we call 'Communists'.

The founding fathers of the USA tried to create a system hostile to political parties. In the end they created a system favorable to only two parties.

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Written by bria on 2025-02-05 at 20:50

@jackwilliambell

The voting system is really important to prevent the two parties system and radicalization.

The most used system (direct or indirect with one or two round) encourage the apparition of two parties which will have antagonizing positions.

Condorcet method or equivalent voting system are much more useful to promote multiples parties with consensus opinions.

@gimulnautti @pluralistic

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Toot

Written by Jack William Bell on 2025-02-05 at 20:52

@bria @gimulnautti @pluralistic

I think the easiest voting system to explain to people is 'Ranked Choice voting'; and even that is likely to seem like a boondoggle to people who can't do math.

I.E. the innumerate 40% of USA citizens…

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Descendants

Written by Mark on 2025-02-06 at 02:54

@jackwilliambell @bria @gimulnautti @pluralistic I am a member of a minor political party in Australia (we have national rank choice voting) and I think alternative voting systems are definitely cool (compulsory voting also forces politicians to pitch to the middle). But nothing we have is a panacea for political woes (eg. plenty of polarisation and money changing hands down-under).

(That said. if the rise of independent 'teal' politicians continues, that could be transformative for us)

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