Manmoth comments on Vote Like It

[–] Manmoth@lemmy.ml -4 points 1 year ago* (5 children)

I'm saying voting for class president isn't the same as voting for the leader of a sovereign hegemon. Maybe Belgium, for example, has a "democracy" but ultimately Europe is a footstool for the United States. It can act 'independently' only as long as it pays tribute to the regional power. This is same for countries in Asia, the Middle East, Eurasia etc What use is your democracy if it functions within a false paradigm? The political equivalent of "playing house".

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[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

We have a "leader of a sovereignty" with a GDP above Spain and Australia, though?

It sounds to me like you think not having a perfect democracy gets in the way of having a good one.

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[–] Manmoth@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Both Spain and Australia are within the United States sphere of influence and that's just two countries. There are really only a handful of countries with actual sovereignty. The US, China, Russia, India, Israel and to a far lesser degree Iran and maybe Brazil. Even if all other countries were perfectly functioning democracies they would fall under the influence of one of these hegemons. This means there are things you can't vote for and more often than not your democracy is only tolerated and often defended by a larger power that is a democracy in name only. You are a mock congress in a civics class. Power always wins out. That's not a political opinion it's a fact. Votes have little to no power. Hordes of enraged peasants DO have power which is why they are placated with activities like voting. Artificial agency.

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[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You've created a framework that fails to consider anything outside of international relations to define democracy, which I don't follow, as democracy is an internal exercise. Yes, we're subject to larger spheres of influence as everyone else, but we participate for our convenience and in the spirit of cooperation. We are not subdued, but far from it. We've cancelled multi-million-dollar foreign contracts with world powers that were being pushed onto us, and have a hegemony in our corner of the world. You're not even considering the myriad of things happening within our borders that very much represent democracy at a level I have never seen in my life, as we drag ourselves out of the hole of corruption.

And I will comment on your overall attitude of pushing everyone off the table just because they're not the largest players on the world stage. This is the reason why I don't disclose where I'm from immediately. Because not only does Lemmy's thought process revolve around their own bestest country, but you also rely on stereotypes or misconceptions about others, and use that to marginalize everyone who doesn't operate at that arbitrary standard. People often state their views as if they know our country better than ourselves, and I have to be honest, that kind of drives me up the wall a bit.

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[–] Manmoth@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (1 child)

I never asked you where you're from out of respect for your privacy and for the ideological nature of the conversation. It follows however that I wouldn't consider the myriad of things in your border because I don't know where you live. However I wholly reject your dismissal of the overarching importance of geopolitics which has not only created structure throughout history but particularly at this stage in the 21st century. We are witnessing a polar shift and if you are not one of the countries I mentioned then you are a chess piece on the board. Liberalism is on the ropes. The US, China and Russia are reverting to neo-imperialist strategies to carve the world into fiefdoms. Maybe your government voted to have subsidies for auto workers. Great. You can enjoy your democracy but only if you can either A) defend yourself or B) have another country defend you. If you have a "democracy" you are almost certainly in the latter category because 50% of your public funds arent being dumped into the military and you're ostensibly not being ruled by an unelected bureaucracy devoted to geopolitical interests in lieu of the domestic.

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[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago*

I can't wrap my head around the idea that you not knowing a country's internal affairs is reason to dismiss its democratic process as if it's child's play. And yes, I will dismiss the overarching importance of geopolitics every day of the week because they haven't played a part, and continue to not play a part, in how we govern ourselves. We're not part of any wars or trade conflicts either. In fact, our national motto is to stay out of it. We've shown quite decisively what type of democracy we want to lead, and I say confidently that right now is the strongest we've ever been. I appreciate you trying to be sober about this, but you're working with partial information and a severe bias about how other places operate. We have no reason to believe that we'll be anything other than a buoy bobbing in place with the currents of the world as we've been doing for the past 100+ years. Let's be honest, TACO couldn't do shit every time he tried including our second to last presidency that was part of a more corrupt party. I dare say that even our current president is single-handedly putting up a better fight than Canada.

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