665
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
665 points (98.8% liked)
World News
32323 readers
821 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
... wtf is going on over there... What kind of douchebags did you guys elect? I mean, I'm American, I know I can't throw stones here, but y'alls were better than that. You like, wisely stood against our 9/11 invasion and we probably should've listened.
But, wtf?
btw, if anyone was too lazy to dig, this publication is a nigerian newspaper that actually seems legit. Founded in 2020, so pretty new still. Looking at their front page they mostly just do local reporting. Has had run-ins with local power.
The last election was a shitshow.
As usual, the younger generation didn't bother voting, and the older one voted en masse for conservative candidates because they are those our media push for, while at the same time slandering progressive ones.
In the election runoff, we had the choice between an openly fascist candidate from a party literally founded by former Nazis, and a "light fascist" one that people were seeing as the lesser evil. Though it's pretty obvious now that his fascism isn't so light (he openly admires Petain, a french leader who collaborated with Nazi Germany), and I hope people will remember that for the next election and understand that voting for a democratic candidate in the first turn if very important.
Weird how this sounds alot like what's happening in the US. Almost like fascism is encroaching all acrost the world as it crumbles.
Yeah, it's happening all over western liberal democracies. Inflation is going crazy and wealth inequalities are growing at an alarming rate. Because of that, people in power are afraid of a popular uprising, and they would rather see fascists rise to power and protect capitalism, than an economical shift to the left and lose some of their wealth.
It happened many times before. The more commonly known examples being:
History tends to repeat itself.
Scratch a liberal...
To add to this, it would simply be remiss for any actual rival of the west to not attempt to stir their democracies against them.
It's a fundamental weakness that only representative governments have, and authoritarians would simply be stupid not to target it. It's very inexpensive to operate in the modern information space.
I mean, we got all these checks and balances in the first place because our systems are fundamentally very vulnerable. If you'd like a story on a less-secure system, look into the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
I mean, in the craziest of crazy scenarios, we could wind up with civil wars. Wouldn't there be some folks out there that'd just love to see that? You think they can't make bots, produce content, hire cheap labor?
Oh yes, voter manipulation is very concerning. Even the simple fact that foreign powers can legally finance a candidate for another country's presidential election is absolutely crazy to me.
But I think there is something even worse than that:
When participation is so low that barely 50% of electors cast a vote, with one category of people (the elderly) being massively over-represented.
When there is no possible recourse if the majority of electors isn't satisfied with their options, and blank ballots aren't even accounted for.
When the main platforms where campaigning happens are all owned by and handful of billionaires, who can choose to present in a good light the candidates that will be the most favorable to them, and do the opposite for others.
When political campaigns are funded privately (and as I said, sometimes even by authoritarian foreign powers), those who favor billionaires being again at a massive advantage.
The game is so strongly rigged, I'm surprised that the general population still widely considers us democracies. Starting by reforming our electoral systems would do a lot of good and would be a lot simpler than trying to stop social media bots in my opinion, even though we should also tackle that issue.
Main problem is election reform would permanently destroy one of our political parties in its current state, and they are fully aware of this. They will burn our country down with us inside before they let it go, so it is wise to proceed with caution.
I don't think the rest of the world wants to see not Russia's nuclear arsenal dispersed, but ours.
Fighting a foreign power, however, rings straight to a huge strength of my country at least, the good ole US--our love of righteousness, competition and victory. This leaves a gap in their strategy, where they intended to inflame tribalism, but that can be turned definitively against them at the drop of a hat.