> How do we fix regulatory capture so these privacy issues are a non sequitur?

by making the general populous care more about it, and force the electorate's hands.

I have increasingly come to the conclusion that the society’s average IQ matters an order of magnitude more than your own in your well-being. An obvious example would be to compare the life of a person with mental illness to that of a roughly similarly smart animal.

So then...it's hopeless.

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."

I dont think we can ever rely on people holding corporations or the government accountable

Not ever... when we vote corporations out of controlling the government, or "we the corporations". Red/Blue is for strawmanning, both parties are $green.

Genuinely curious: Has change of this magnitude ever been achieved entirely by voting? It feels to me like it can only be achieved by revolution (ie, replacing the government entirely with a new government that does what the people actually want). I very well could be wrong.

> that does what the people actually want

A problem is, that there's no such thing. There's a common denominator (punishing killers, rapists, thiefs), but this is what punish all governments anyway.

When you go past this point, people's interests are atomized.

They can be forced to do what we want, through means like protest and strike, at least in the short term

indirectly thru elected representatives, legislation, I think so but I'm no political historian. Problem we've got now that you touch on is the judiciary gave this to corps through a 50 year push. Can we get citizens united overturned...