• 3 Posts
  • 57 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 4th, 2023

help-circle





  • People always frown and say I’m being cynical or pessimistic whenever I tell them I’m a misanthrope. They assume I’m bitter and I irrationally hate my fellow human. Couldn’t be further from the truth. I actually like most people I meet. I just have a very low opinion of us as a species. If you look at the track record, I’m many of the most important aspects, it’s really abysmal. We have undoubtedly accomplished many great things, but we’ve also committed uncountable horrors—and both patterns will continue—but I’m not impressed in the final analysis. In fact, I’m pretty disgusted.

    Anyone interested should briefly study individual psychology vs. group psychology. Specifically, why individuals are often better problem solvers than groups. There are reasons groups tend to make worse decisions overall than individuals. In a nutshell, it’s because the loudest voices prevail in groups, not the most intelligent, educated, insightful, etc. On a grand scale, that translates to those who want power the most are the ones who wind up in the positions that wield it. And this isn’t due to any social system or set of laws or constitution; it’s due to simple human psychology.


  • Tedesche@lemmy.worldtoMildly Infuriating@lemmy.world[META] Never change, lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    18
    ·
    10 months ago

    and it’s the government model that is to blame?

    Yes, because it leaves itself so prone to authoritarian takeover. As I’ve said before, this is a feature of communism, not a bug. A single, one-party “transitional” government is intended. You might as well just put up a sign that says “Dictator Wanted.” This is why there isn’t a single instance of communism on a nation-state scale that hasn’t quickly devolved into an authoritarian state. It’s not hard to understand this. Your government model has to account for the reality that people are going to disagree on things and faction out. Your model has to be able to manage that process. Communism insists everyone adhere to the same ideology, and those that don’t just get “re-educated.” It’s a horrible ideology, a horrible government model; naïve utopian fantasy at best, cynical authoritarian scheme at worst.













  • Oh, please, that’s got to be the biggest false equivalence I’ve heard in a while now. Every single communist nation has rapidly become a dictatorship, because that’s literally what’s supposed to happen in the transition phase. That’s totally different from real democracies being eroded by far-right extremists—and plenty of the world’s democracies are still fighting those extremists and their democracies are still alive. Stop hand-waiving away these stark differences with bullshit generalizations like that.