Re:Things from leaked audio of Mark Zuckerberg and his emplo...
by toyg on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @07:52PM
(#23410564)
The paradox of democracy is that it makes it seem reasonable to say “60 million people agree with me, so my opinion cannot be that bad”, even if that opinion means ruining the other 60 million lives.
It reminds me of a joke by the late singer-comedian-punk activist, “Freak” Antoni: “Let’s eat shit: millions of flies just cannot be wrong!”
This said, I honestly have no answer to the current predicament. We have populist parties collecting substantial victories simply by claiming they are not allowed to say what they are saying, and then use those victories to actually restrict the speech they don’t like. It’s a bit like rappers complaining that radios won’t play them and they are discriminated against, while breaking all sorts of airtime records and flaunting their bling.
Even you - you have a government you agree with, doing stuff you agree with, but somehow... you’re an oppressed victim. How much of this is due to the vagaries of your electoral system (you are effectively in a minority, but still you rule over the majority), how much is rehashing the good old practices of ancient Christianity (persecuted for 2000 years, while ruling the world for most of those same 2000 years), how much is modern weaponization of the democratic conundrum, Weimar-style? And how much is just an excess of visibility of relatively small and intolerant fringes on all sides?
I don’t know, and I honestly cannot see a way to make you happy and progress society at the same time.
It reminds me of a joke by the late singer-comedian-punk activist, “Freak” Antoni: “Let’s eat shit: millions of flies just cannot be wrong!”
This said, I honestly have no answer to the current predicament. We have populist parties collecting substantial victories simply by claiming they are not allowed to say what they are saying, and then use those victories to actually restrict the speech they don’t like. It’s a bit like rappers complaining that radios won’t play them and they are discriminated against, while breaking all sorts of airtime records and flaunting their bling.
Even you - you have a government you agree with, doing stuff you agree with, but somehow... you’re an oppressed victim. How much of this is due to the vagaries of your electoral system (you are effectively in a minority, but still you rule over the majority), how much is rehashing the good old practices of ancient Christianity (persecuted for 2000 years, while ruling the world for most of those same 2000 years), how much is modern weaponization of the democratic conundrum, Weimar-style? And how much is just an excess of visibility of relatively small and intolerant fringes on all sides?
I don’t know, and I honestly cannot see a way to make you happy and progress society at the same time.