I especially agree with the whole “research before voting” thing. Problem is you have to dig a little bit to get actual data. I used to go to newsweek all the time for information, but was told that it was biased and did not give the full picture. So I went to foxnews and was met with the same thing. I tried cnn, new york times, local newspaper, so on and so forth but people kept asking “How can you read that (insert random wing) bullshit? You’re not getting the full picture”
I remember I tried to look up recent things Obama has done and I got some sites saying he reformed US energy, others saying he signed a hundred so bills (no mention of names) and others saying virtually nothing except that he increased the national debt by more amounts. A lot of people take whatever information they see as pure facts when they don’t bother looking for the potential propaganda it builds. I’m still among the guilty masses because I honestly do not know everything that Obama has done. I tried to read the healthcare bill with a dictionary on one side as well but I still don’t understand how it is going to work with/without ripple effects.
Not to hijack this thread but exactly where do people get their news/information? I hate to sound like a lazy ass but I do not want to subject myself to a research paper just to stay informed about current events without the bias.
Obama announced that he’s going to step over the Congress because they shot down a bill he wants…and he’s going to step over the Supreme Court because he doesn’t like their decision on Campaign Finance laws…
You don’t hate democracy as what you ultimately want is in a sense democracy. What you hate is how it works in the united states.
I personally think you’re right, so many things happen that lead you to question whether you have a representative government or not. The fact that people often don’t know what they’re voting for is a huge factor the person they want may win the election but the cause they actually want may take the back seat. In the USA I think money is too much of a factor in elections too, in the UK there’s a limit to how much they can spend advertising their campaign and laws set out to prevent networks taking a particular bias.
To me, it seems like everything is a show in Washington. Banks are condemned for their actions yet given bailouts upon bailouts for their mistakes and mismanagement (Example: Multi-million dollar bonuses to executives). Lobbyists rally and douse politicians in money in order to gain their support for the lobbyists boss corporations and companies. It’s sickening that in order to get your way that you can throw enough money where you want it and have legislation passed in your favor. The problem isn’t whether or not democracy works in our nation, it’s that not enough citizens look passed what’s in front of them to see what’s really going on. We get some guilded message from obama saying “YES WE CAN” thinking this man is the revolution we need! But it’s a revolution amongst people that we need. Instead of listening to politicians and the media, why can’t we go out and read a book, read the bills being proposed in Congress and investigate what laws are being passed. Because of American ignorance, we’re letting our freedoms be taken away one by one. Beyond that, no one can see the big picture anymore because they’re too stupid to look anywhere and place all their trust in CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc…
Honestly America is getting what it deserves for being so stupid. At the end of the day, it’ll take a lot of suffering to get back what we’re losing.
I was really hoping you’d make fun of me a little bit instead of asking me something I had already clarified. At least then I’d get to talk a bunch of shit. I mean good God man. That was the VERY first sentence of my post. All you had to do was go “Oh wait, I don’t like threads like that” and click the fucking x.
Saying that “You have a better idea?” doesn’t negate the merits of the post itself and it’s criticisms. Whether the OP has a solution or not to the problem is irrelevent to the argument presented.
When I complain about what I hate about what’s going on there’s always some idiot who says “Well did you vote?” I say no and they say “Well then why are complaining when you didn’t even bother to vote?”
Wanna know why I don’t vote?
BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANYONE WORTH VOTING FOR! Seriously. In this last election I didn’t like either side and that’s all you get to choose from. Bad candidate A and bad candidate B. I didn’t have confidence that either of them would do a good job so I didn’t bother. Also, I live in Alabama. It wouldn’t matter if it was publicly announced that the republican candidate wanted to lock rednecks in psychiatric institutions (which would be awesome BTW… but I digress) they’d still vote for him. So no matter what I do I don’t have a voice and despite what people say my vote never counted to begin with.
wtf does it matter if you vote or not? its either the hoe waving the demo flag, or the hoe waving the republic flag. like you said, you didnt come with solutions. i think most people already know the problem, if the same group of people always stay in power wouldnt it be more appropiate to call it a dictatorship? theres a new face every 4 to 8 years, but its still them same motherfuckers.
Here’s my ‘diagram of idiocy’ pertaining to the electoral college system, it’s a multi-tiered system and I could make a thread about electoral colleges all by themselves.
The president represents an entire NATION’S interests. The interests of the different states can be different at different times but all Americans have largely the same vested interests. Therefore, why do we have an entire state vote for a president at the same time? Secondly, since a state usually has a majority amount leaning towards one party or the other (See: TX, CA, NY, All the midwest, all the deep south) entire percentages of that state are ‘never accounted for’. They just hope the averages will work out on this intensely arbitrary and intensely stupid system.
Well why not just have a popular vote? At least everyone will get the feeling that their vote counted, and more people will get out to the polls (as I said before, not necessarily a great thing, but whatever) which is what the government is trying to support.
Oh I’m really glad you shared, you majored in Poly Sci and minored in English I can tell.
the president repsesents his own damn interests. thats why bush was the best ever. he fucked all yall so hard that people still commiting suicide now cause they aint got shit no more. at least the motherfuckers been real enough to pimp his own shit up and give a big middle finger to the rest of yall (for 8 years mind you :)). i bet most americans actually still believe 911 was on osamas behalf, funny motherfuckers.
Yes, there’s the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and candidates can run simply as independents. However in America there’s no real way to vote for those candidates and not waste your vote. There’s a few minor party players in congress but there’s no way in hell that they can actively support their interests.
I do NOT want this to turn into a 9/11 thread. This is coming from someone who has made one. I don’t know what you’re trying to troll but you’re doing a terrible job.
Listen here! When Big Brother decides to spy on us through our very own neighbors and places like INFRAGUARD are doing the same thing not everyone can be helped but be ignorant. The US Government is about control, and they hide the organizations and the people who help keep that in place. I can willingly do the right thing and not vote and give Big Brother a sense of my own personal thought and where I am. I’m almost ready to get rid of my cell phone. Most people don’t even know they can track you through that. They think it’s just movies.
Let’s not forget the USA has the most people in the Buildaberg Club. That alone says something about the future of our country. The USA makes things like 9/11 happen so we feel the need to be strong Americans and pledge ourselves to a cause that’s already being served. This is not what our forefathers had in mind. If you want to be a true American, then don’t vote and do what YOU want. Nobody can change anything. The electoral system and the lack of a paper trail in voting screams tampering but nobody wants to admit that politics is so dirty that it happens.
Wow, I really wasn’t expecting a compliment (if you weren’t being sarcastic).
While I have ideas of what we could do I’m under no illusion that I’m an expert. I’m sure any idea that I may have could have thousands of holes poked in it because I’m not as well-acquainted with our government as perhaps I should be. The only immediate idea I have is to turn the presidential vote into a popular one. Maybe that would at least stimulate more interest and have more people care about what they’re voting for.
The problem with democracy is that most people are dumb. Seriously, to fix Earth you’d need to prune its population, completely eradicate extremism (I’m aware of the irony), and have a totalitarian regime with a system that slowly transitions itself into a NON-PARTY-BASED democracy (seriously, political parties are the most abusive things ever invented), while educating the remaining people on skepticism and critical thinking.
Dr. B, for all his power, cannot fix Earth. All he can do is [media=youtube]dIuPh9NEQX8#t=00m14s[/media].
Uh, that’s the problem. The truth is really difficult to find. That’s why I said people choose to willfully live in ignorance. It’s an entirely rational decision because in order to be informed on so many things you’d pretty much have to have empirical evidence if you want the real truth, and even then your own biases might succumb you. What people do now is they choose their poison. They basically believe what they want to believe even without any basis behind it. I’d respect people a little more if they took the time to at least… do minimal research instead of listening to what O’reilly or Olbermann has to say.
While he doesn’t articulate himself in the best manner. He is pretty much correct for the most part.
Also, conspiracy theory idiots are ruining this thread…
I agree with the things he says but anyone who says that different people are ‘the same’ without backing it up at all is just trying to piss people off. It’s trolling.
I think that each state should have only one Senator and about 1/3 the Representatives that are currently in the house. Too many cooks spoil the pot. Too many people making decisions nothing gets done. Also there should be qualification tests that people have to take to be in a position of power. If you are going to make decisions on the economy, maybe you should understand how how the stock market works.
To be quite honest I really don’t think the president is as powerful as people think. All he can do is make pretty speeches and try to convince congress and the senate to go in his direction or just say no with a veto.
Sure he has the power to drop bombs anywhere he wants, but has no magic wand to create jobs.