The government is us. Not some aliens. We should be democratically deciding what is correct and what is a violation and what the consequences for violating trust are. We should not hand that decision over to a few elected representatives. This should be a collective democratic process.

* legalize abortion? yes or no

* go to war? yes or no

* arm teachers? yes or no

* corporate news outlet allowed to sell ad time to corporations they report on? yes or no

* nondemocratically run businesseses allowed to function as a news outlet? yes or no

More democracy, not less.

How do "we" decide something? It sounds like you are advocating for mob rule but calling it democracy. Help me understand how that is not what you are saying.

What is the "collective democratic process" you are advocating for?

Democracy is mob rule. Direct democracy. The fear of "too much democracy" is only a fear for people who are afraid that others might not want the same things they do. One person, one vote is mob rule. What that requires is a well informed, well educated population. Instead we have an ignorant, uninformed population that leaves all of the important decisions to a hand full of representatives that tend to run things the way their wealthy donors want.

> What that requires is a well informed, well educated population.

Isn't this very uncommon, in addition to the need to be at least somewhat compassionate (e.g. in regards to issues that might not affect individuals personally, but that affect minorities, or simply those who are different)? A certain social cooling might be needed in many societies, less extremism, less identity politics, less hate.

I don't think we live in such a world, yet.

It is the world we should create instead of waiting for others to improve things for us. The status quo is the problem.

Yes, but where are we if we are considering arming teachers?

We are already arming teachers as a result of representative democracy. Their corporate arms manufacturer donors need to keep selling guns.

But I don't think that's changing. This is key to young person vs old person thinking. Young people believe we can actually change to a well informed population. They end up getting old realizing that wasn't actually possible, become rich (because we're talking about the smart ones here) and then end up donating to representatives for getting things to run the way they believed it should be. See what I did there?

Its almost as if our society encourages wealthy people to become cynical, selfish, and apathetic.

>What you are arguing is that we should be a low trust society

Who's "we"? Not everyone lives in your country.

If you're talking about the US, that's definitely a low-trust society.