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by slopinthebag18 hours ago |
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upvoteby igor4718 hours ago|
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But in a democracy, you at least have input! Google is also a coercive force with no real checks on its power, but it doesn't care about anything you have to say. That's the difference, that's it, right there. The answer to abuse of power is not to just unleash raw power, its to subordinate and restrict it. That's what government is for. When you find yourself arguing that power you participate in is bad and shouldn't restraint power you have 0 influence in, that's when it's time to wonder if they've gotten to you.
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upvoteby kortilla18 hours ago|
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But you don’t have to use Google. That’s the critical difference and why people should be so much more skeptical of using the monopoly on violence to enforce things.

Millions of people live in the US and don’t use Google products or pay Google a dime.

Try not paying taxes because you don’t want to support the actions of the federal government and see how that works out.

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upvoteby igor4717 hours ago|
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Life without a smartphone increasingly challenging. You have to use either Google or Apple. I use a de googled Android lineage phone but this is always getting harder, as numerous threads on this site will attest. Plus literally every employer I've ever had has used Google services, plus lots of other sites I might have to use implement recaptcha or otherwise invisibly to me share my data or data about me with Google. Also, even if I do figure out a way to stay off Google's radar, they're a powerful force which shapes my world. They hire lobbyists to influence policy which affects me, build data centers which raise my cost of electricity, or sell killer robots to evil people.

I think where people go wrong is treating Google the way they treat their weird neighbor Bob. Bob's damage is limited. Google is an immense, powerful, alien entity, far beyond the control of any person, and with its own inscrutable goals which are the not goals of literally any person alive or dead.

I genuinely don't understand the desire to leave this entity unmoored to wreck what havoc it may.

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upvoteby cobbzilla17 hours ago|
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Federal government spending for Google stuff is probably in the $100Ms. If you pay taxes you’re paying Google.
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upvoteby slopinthebag18 hours ago|
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The amount of input we have is virtually zero. I have never had a candidate I felt represented me, I have never had a candidate who I voted for win an election, and I have never had a a party who the candidate voted for win an election. Thus my minuscule "input" had absolutely zero impact, both in elections and on my life as a whole.

The reason democracy is better than other forms of governance is that it provides incentives for those in power which are better aligned with the upholding of human rights and protection against abuse. Myself casting a vote every few years is de facto meaningless.

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upvoteby dehsge16 hours ago|
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If you are in the US. Proportionate representation stopped completely with the Reapportionment Act of 1929.

Subsequently the tail end of the gilded age and enacted in June 18, only 5months before the crash of oct 1929.

Constitutionally the size of the US government was expected to scale proportionally with population and 3/5ths of slaves.

This is why your vote ‘feels’ meaningless. We have been under a state of corporate capture for coming up to 100years. Last time there was push back from congress we got the Powell memo. That memo reinforces and defends corporate power in American politics.

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upvoteby slopinthebag11 hours ago|
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No, I live in a country under the Westminster system.
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upvoteby pocksuppet12 hours ago|
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Logical conclusion: The US is not a democracy.
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upvoteby rini1718 hours ago|
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Since monopolies make stuff scarce and expensive, you basically want free market for violence, it should be be cheap and abundant?

And all the DDoS and crytocurrency extortions and scams should extend to meatspace too, and you would be okay with it because it's supposedly still better than what govts do?

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upvoteby vrganj18 hours ago|
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In a democratic society, government is the representative of the people.

It is also the only entity powerful enough to stand up to other monopolies, businesses, which are dictatorships without any democratic control.

There will always be a power structure. I'd prefer one I can vote out.

The fundamental flaw in any type of libertarian / anarchist thinking is denying the reality that power will always be concentrated somehow. The libertarian fantasy would result in neofeudalism, if theres no state to stop it.

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upvoteby arto18 hours ago|
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Corporations are state-created and state-protected entities. Remove limited liability and other special state privileges from businesses and you'll have a lot less to complain about.
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upvoteby vrganj17 hours ago|
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The concentration of wealth and thus power is inherent to capitalism. No state needed.
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upvoteby slopinthebag18 hours ago|
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> In a democratic society, government is the representative of the people.

Representative of who exactly? Generally governments around the world win with <50% of the vote. Those who vote make up a small fraction of the population. Of those who voted for the winning party, only a small fraction of them actually feel fully represented by their party - often people vote strategically, or they vote for the "lesser evil" rather than voting for a representative who wholly represents their views.

The rest have a government who are not representative of them in power over them. Hardly representative of the people.

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upvoteby vrganj18 hours ago|
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That might be a problem of the specific state you live in. Some systems are better at representing the people than others.
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