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> I think everyone does see that there is good government and bad government.

I only know the time and place I've lived in (United States, born in 1977), but I feel like the trope of "all government is bad" has been the rallying cry of conservatives since the Reagan era.

I'm convinced enough people have grown up hearing that trope that your assumption is incorrect. I think a ton of people believe there can only be bad government because they've never had to think about it-- they've been told that from birth.

I'm not a student of history. Maybe this isn't a new thing and this "all government bad" trope has been a consistent feature of US politics. It doesn't feel like it, though.

by gcanyon5 hours ago|

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They say government is bad, and then set about making that statement true :-/

by slopinthebag3 hours ago|

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Governments being bad have been a consistent feature of all governments throughout history.

by yoyohello133 hours ago|

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Bullshit. There is a spectrum of good and bad. If you truly believed all government is bad, then please feel free to move to a banana republic.

by slopinthebag3 hours ago|

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Name a good government.

by EvanAnderson10 minutes ago|

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I think it's fair to say plenty of people have been satisfied, and even pleased, with the policies and actions of their government. There isn't one objective measure.

by jacker381 hours ago|

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Australia has a good government. It's extremely middle of the road due to Mandatory voting attendance and preferential voting. It's very much wisdom of the crowd. It's a good system and the results across the board from wealth inequality, GDP per capita, human development pretty much speak for themselves. it basically forces a really centrist approach because everyone preferences all of the candidates you never want to use outrage politics or it will backfire. It also has an independent body that defines where the electorate borders are so gerrymandering is not really a thing.

by slopinthebag1 hours ago|

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The Australian government enforced assimilation policies that systematically removed Aboriginal children from their families. The Australian Human Rights Commission concluded that this state-sanctioned policy constituted an act of genocide. During early colonization, government troops and police forces were directly involved in the planned and calculated mass slaughter of Indigenous communities. Archival records frequently referred to these indiscriminate killings using the codeword "dispersal". In Afghanistan, Australian special forces were involved in the unlawful killing of Afghan prisoners and civilians. In 2025, laws were passed allowing bans on protests for up to three months, and activists face arrest and imprisonment for demonstrations relating to climate change and the Gaza conflict.

If any group other than the state did any of these things they would be rightfully disbanded, instead people praise mandatory voting???

by jacker391 hours ago|

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Mandatory voting is worthy of praise, some of the stuff you mentioned proves my point. Aboriginals are now part of that mandatory voting and as such the government bends over backwards to try and meet their needs while balancing them with the needs of others.

You are moving the goalposts, you asked to name a good government and I gave you one. On a spectrum from good to bad Australia is good.

If you ask to see a good horse and I show you one that can run at 30kmph, you can't in good faith complain that it requires oxygen and sometimes poops. It's not a bad horse because it can't fly.

by intended4 hours ago|

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If that is the case, then its no skin off of anyone’s back to state it.

As long as I have paid attention to American politics, it’s always had a major undercurrent of “all government bad”, with a subtext of “this thing I know about is an exception”.