🎧 Why Propaganda is Vital In Upholding The Illusion of a Democracy \ stacker news ~meta

🎧 Why Propaganda is Vital In Upholding The Illusion of a Democracy cynthiachung.substack.com/p/why-propaganda-is-vital-in-upholding-98a#details

137 sats \ 6 comments \ @mf 25 Aug 2023 meta

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110 sats \ 1 reply \ @drdoom 26 Aug 2023

"Democracy is something that has been completely taken for granted here in the West."

Mob rule has been taken for granted?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mallardshead 26 Aug 2023

See above reply ⤴

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @mallardshead 26 Aug 2023

We have a constitution and self-perpetuating rule of law. Those have been upheld and consistently distributed freedom since 1791, even with multiple different administrations, a civil war, and mass cultural changes. The problem with the US isn't its decentralized form of government, which much of bitcoin's design pattern borrows from, IT'S THE MONEY, because distortion there leads to distortion in information.

All this growing anti-democracy bullshit is a danger itself, because it's based on crisis narratives, social media outrage, and hopes to replace it with a system that's never been put into praxis longterm. Sort of like how shitcoins think they can leapfrog the long, difficult, and organic process of going from a store of value to transactional currency, and magically be the transactional currency with a FLAT confidence curve right away.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @drdoom 26 Aug 2023

I agree partly, because money gets at the root of the matter but if we consider for a moment a mental solution to an otherwise perceived technical problem (ie- that Bitcoin solves) we might say that money represents a belief and therefore the deeper core of the matter is human behavior; the belief in money.

If the masses rejected believing in money, but kept all the good parts of decentralized trade and (non) governance - would we be better off? Would there be some shadowy entity able to ponzi their way to the top and control of the masses - or would they be forced to act in the open and deal in real goods given that people stopped believing in easily monopolized fantasy units ?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @mallardshead 26 Aug 2023

I'm uncertain global trade can exist in the decentralized non-governed way you suggest. The entire concept of globalization is underwritten by the American security order. Who's protecting the shipping lanes? Who's maintaining logistics? What's the cost of insurance then? Who's watching what invasive species or weapons are coming and going? The Ponzi will be the groups that fill the power vacuum, such as: DAO's that recreate governance by a different name, or Pirates, or Ai, or various cults of personality.

This decentralized non-governed world can exist digitally. And perhaps it will scale equally with the increasing amount of goods and services that get digitized.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mf OP 27 Aug 2023

This will be a multi-generation change. As you suggest, and I agree, most of the human (made) problems we have are fiat derived. As soon as that skewed power trends and approaches zero, I'm confident that most of that power vaccuum will not exist, because there won't be any power to grab in the first place. It's not that democracy per se is bad. If we lived in utopia, and everyome was truly "honest" (quoting because most think they are), it would be wonderful, and evryone would vote towards the benefit of himself and everyone else by conseguence. But unfortunately we have only a few brain-washing the majority to run towards some goals that will not benefit them, but the few. And we have to keep in mind we don't know how the future looks, so we're limited to see and judge future scenarios through present day lens.