This seems extreme. I agree with more transparency of politicians, but I don’t see our current problems as stemming directly from the fact that our military has top secret information and an intelligence service.

The conditions under which democracy works are well understood.

You need a populace educated on how the society and government works at least in its broad strokes. That education should also instill a preference for democracy and describe the pitfalls of other systems.

An independent media system to keep the voter base reasonably informed.

Systems in place to prevent corruption.

Every single one of these have been eroded over 1-2 generations by crony capitalism to enable wealth accumulation.

I would not say that democracy in the US is a reasonable example of what democracy can look like. It is what happens when democracy is being deliberately sabotaged.

And to use a ladle

What this tells people is “fuck off, you are on your own. Government doesn’t work for people like you.”

But that isn’t how Democracy is supposed to function. It is actually supposed to develop and implement policy to improve the quality of life for the general public - especially the broad swaths of people who work for a living.

It’s also insane that the advice is to “get a roommate” at the same time leaders are crying that people in their 20s and 30s aren’t having enough kids. Guess what? If you make people live like they are too young and broke to have kids for the first 25 years of adulthood, they will… Not have kids. Shocking.

I think you are forgetting that we are living in an era where “the internet trolls” are proving to be prevalent or at least highly influential in the real world. The US has elected a complete brat twice, the AFD are threatening a fourth reich, and terms like “looksmaxing” have entered the general lexicon.

No one who watched gamergate occur on in the mid 2010s, and then tried to explain it to normal people who said ‘oh that’s just niche internet drama’, and then watched the rise of the alt-right, is ever going to see dangerous bullshit online and believe it will just stay there ever again.

If you understand that Griffith is not someone anyone should want to emulate, I don’t think this meme is about you anyway.

This meme is about the insecure dudes who are hurt and angry and decide to channel that into some cringe edge-lord ‘I want to hurt everyone else and feel nothing but that it is my destiny to be on top’ phase.

I’m a woman with a STEM PhD, and several of the guys I’ve dated have decided to prove they are smart enough to date me by looking up my publications from grad school (20 years ago now), reading them, and then trying to impress me by trying to poke holes in them or otherwise making me defend them on the spot.

That tactic is now an instant method to get me to end contact. It betrays a deep insecurity with my having expertise greater than theirs on any topic, even ones I have decades of work in. No Jimmy, you can’t become my peer by reading a few papers. I don’t think you are dumb, but I’m not spending time with you to massage your ego about your insecurity. Byyyye

Nononono… New America is next to Arizona.

That is, of course, going to be New Trumperton

I’m not worried about NG or army at the polls. Those guys have better training than most cops, from institutions with stricter rules around civilian engagement. And the people recruited are a mixed bag politically - many of them just want to go to college or get trained in a trade. They won’t want to be there, or to bust heads, or to fuck over the Constitution.

But that’s not who they’ll send. They’ll send ICE, who have over a year’s worth of experience terrorizing and abusing civilians, preferentially the most vulnerable ones least likely to fight back.