How democratic is a democracy when...

[Deleted]

the people voting don't have the full picture, are being lied to, have to live with political omissions and are generally subject to one sided election campaigns?

How fair is a democracy when you have a deeply split country where the split between two camps is roughly 50/50, and the last % are swayed through false promises, easy solutions and bravado?

What is a democracy worth if people are that easy to manipulate and political parties and their agendas are that hard to see through?

What is the point of a democracy when your candidates can promise you one thing, and then upon being elected have a 180° turnaround without any repercussions?

Why is it that politics is more of a self serving institution, instead of being what it's supposed to be - the extended arm of the nation.

Where the fuck is benevolence, secularism, humanism? They seem to be running away.

fml I shouldn't be smoking this late, but holy shit the world has become such a depressing place. I see shitlords as head of states whichever way I turn.

Look at the French election OP. April 23rd will determine the fate of Europe and wether France will embrace xenophobia , free market rule, or ecology and humanism

There is a candidate that's proposing to have randomly chosen citizen as part of the MPs and the ability to fire a politician by referendum if he doesn't keeps his promises (current president has 4% approval ratings)

[Deleted]

Democracy is in decline. Afganistan is at the heart of it.

When the soviets got thrown out of Afganistan, it wasn't just a military defeat, it destroyed the soviet unions faith in itself and destroyed the dream that communism was the universal model for the future world.

When the west got thrown out of Afganistan the same thing is starting to happen. We accept mass mass surveillance, torture, corruption and rigged democracy. The faith in the idea of universal democracy has been shattered and with its power is declining.

Any opposition to the status quo has been passively annihilated and there is no alternative vision to our current, ever increasing corrupt and unequal society.

[Deleted]

So we have to live by the tyranny of the stupid majority, is that what you are trying to say?

One can always opt out

[stomination]

Yes. Unless you can convince congress to have an IQ test to be able to vote, or something. Which won't happen.

Hell you would have both parties lose millions upon millions of voters.

[Deleted]

Hell you would have both parties lose millions upon millions of voters.

Not to mention that US Congress itself would look like Mojave Wasteland

[stomination]

the people voting don't have the full picture, are being lied to, have to live with political omissions and are generally subject to one sided election campaigns?

How fair is a democracy when you have a deeply split country where the split between two camps is roughly 50/50, and the last % are swayed through false promises, easy solutions and bravado?

What is a democracy worth if people are that easy to manipulate and political parties and their agendas are that hard to see through?

What is the point of a democracy when your candidates can promise you one thing, and then upon being elected have a 180° turnaround without any repercussions?

Why is it that politics is more of a self serving institution, instead of being what it's supposed to be - the extended arm of the nation.

Where the fuck is benevolence, secularism, humanism? They seem to be running away.

fml I shouldn't be smoking this late, but holy shit the world has become such a depressing place. I see shitlords as head of states whichever way I turn.

The 50/50 of both camps have been swayed by bravado among many other reasons they only vote for one party....especially when neither party gets anything done or stays in power long. Its kinda pointless when every 8 years things will change.

[Mormolyce]

Hah, and the Alternative is Communism right?

Doesn't Communism put ALL the power in the hands of said mentally retarded people?

[Mizix]

The good thing is that the old conservatives will be an extinct breed within the next decade (...)

Think you are in for a surprise...

[Delana]

It's not democracys fault that people are dumb.

Come to Scandinavia. Pick any country and you're better off than being in the states. We all enjoy far more liberty, freedom and equality than most of the world, and easily more than the US.

>More liberty and freedom.
>No second amendment


Don't think so. You're allowed that illusion so long as it amuses your masters.

[Deleted]

>More liberty and freedom.
>No second amendment


Don't think so. You're allowed that illusion so long as it amuses your masters.

wow so cool and edgy

2nd amendment = liberty lol

You have the right to get shot and have a new school shooting each week that's all you have

[tankbug]

So we have to live by the tyranny of the stupid majority, is that what you are trying to say?

In a democracy, yes. Perhaps you're looking for something like geniocracy.
But we have to ask ourselves, do we want everyone to have the right to decide what's best? Or do we want "mothers and fathers" to decide what's best for us, and leave us powerless? When millions of lives are at stake, I kind of favor the latter.

[Danner]

the people voting don't have the full picture, are being lied to, have to live with political omissions and are generally subject to one sided election campaigns?

How fair is a democracy when you have a deeply split country where the split between two camps is roughly 50/50, and the last % are swayed through false promises, easy solutions and bravado?

What is a democracy worth if people are that easy to manipulate and political parties and their agendas are that hard to see through?

What is the point of a democracy when your candidates can promise you one thing, and then upon being elected have a 180° turnaround without any repercussions?

Why is it that politics is more of a self serving institution, instead of being what it's supposed to be - the extended arm of the nation.

Where the fuck is benevolence, secularism, humanism? They seem to be running away.

fml I shouldn't be smoking this late, but holy shit the world has become such a depressing place. I see shitlords as head of states whichever way I turn.

Snap out of it man. The world ain't as terrible as you paint it. Sure there are crappy things in humanity, an din politics the shit floats to the top - and you may focus on it and despair. But even the weirdest rednecks have values, and most people are genuinely good guys; we just never agree to everything. And that's a good thing, because as long as change is constant, it can always get better. Or temporarily worse . Anyway - focus on the good stuff rather than the bad - the latter tends to give nothing but stomach ulcers. And if your perception of humanity is annoying you, the only way you can change it is by changing your point of view.

Pretend you are omnipotent. You can eliminate without a trace anyone or anything or any concept of your choice from the world with the snap of your finger - what would you really remove? Think very very hard. Then ask yourself - and at the end of the week, would anything remain?

[ProfessorTjc]

Democracy only seems bad because of the ill informed majority.

[Deleted]

There is no better system than democracy.

It's the only system which allows the people to replace the government without having to kill them.

[Nerovar]

I love democracy. I love the Republic.

[StayTuned]

God-Emperor Windows 2020 will save us from the evil that is democracy.

Alexia - Who should I vote for?

[Deleted]

Democracy is only as strong as your will to fight for it being so.

Complacency is a strong drug

[HumbleDuck]

So we have to live by the tyranny of the stupid majority, is that what you are trying to say?

That's true. No way around it.
Why do you think intelligent people tend to have less friends?

[Wildtree]

Hah, and the Alternative is Communism right?

Only a person with rather severe educational deficit would think that there's only one alternative to a Democracy.
Fact is, there's a whole array of different types.

Anyway...
What the OP describes, and sounds so negative, is indeed and in fact democracy how it should be.
Democracy does NOT mean how everything goes at and by ones own will and opinion. There's also no such bullshit as "democracy is the tyranny of one side over the other". GTFO and find a life if you (as in general term) have to blabber that nonsense without 2 seconds of thought about it.
Democracy very well includes how you/we accept and respect that there is another opinion present, and we will follow suit therefore.

Understanding a democratic society, in a more fitting example, think of a group of 4 friends.
They decided to have a night out. That right there is the first democratic decision.
When it comes to where they go, they choose the plan for which the majority casts its vote. Say 3 people want to go to the movies, and 1 wants to go to a bar, the movies win. The fourth person will NOT walk away. They will still partake, and enjoy the company of their friends.
Similar does it work on state level. You vote for something, and sometimes you're part of the side whose ideas are approved of, sometimes you aren't. But you will always accept it wholeheartedly when you aren't. Because, you know, eventually you'll "win" on another aspect, on another vote.

Now, for what the OP described sounds in parts extremely like the USA in some regards. There's a deep divide which goes almost completely through the society fifty/fifty. Well, it isn't just like that either. There are just two extremely large camps that overshadow everything else.
To understand that however would require to look a little deeper. One could raise the question of whether the US has ever really been a unified society. After all, the extreme diversity and incompatibility was on display more than clear. The Civil War lies in the past. Yet, for a larger society, that past is not that far gone.
Maybe, or even obviously, there are still deep ideological trenches in the US society that have yet to be overcome.
And those divides reflect onto the country's political landscape. Is that good? In a way certainly not.
But then, it also shows that this is democracy after all. Dealing with divides, dealing with opposite opinions in non-violent ways.

[Melusine]

It's not democracy's fault that a large portion of the population is mentally retarded.

The biggest difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy, you vote first and take orders afterward. In a dictatorship, you don't have to waste your time voting.

The power grab requires a few things to work at its full extent for a voting democracy, and we are supplying it.

1. Indoctrination of our children in public schools. And punishment for children who manage to see through the bullshit to reinforce and cement the hold on our children, can't forget that.
2. A complicit propagandist media. One must have constant bombardment of emotion tripping triggers thrown at them all hours of the day.
3. The only real promises that matter for the power grab is always "what's in it for me". One reason Obama was voted in twice was because, well, let's ignore the fact that the country was guilted into not being racist for a moment, he promised to give the greatest amount of the coffers to the people who voted for him.
4. Import incompatible cultures into the country to help keep it destabilized. They all tend to vote one way, and probably explain why one side wants it so badly, and the other is trying to stop it so badly.
5. Enough armed personnel to deal with the people at large to keep them in line. A helluva thing for a democracy to require to work, right?