I’m feeling a mixture of hope and terror. I don’t know if there’s a name for this emotion.

No, you’re mistaken. There are clearly 5 of them.

Good ol’ Biting Pear of Salamanca.

Firefox marketing department checking in.

That term is tricky in the United States, because conservatives use it to mean anybody to the left of center while self-described “liberals” have a lot of smoke for the left but only make excuses for the right.

“As you can see, I have chosen unhappy pictures for the United States and happy ones for China, therefore China is better.” Flawless victory lmao

Both have issues with surveillance and free speech.

I remember Cory Doctorow saying something about how it sounds pretty impressive that you were working for the God Company and then you resigned in protest because it was wrong to create a god.

That’s what it could mean, but you’d be foolish to assume that.

It’s https://www.amazon.com/slc/hub?useAiMode=1

Imagine calling a Christian prayer a “curse”. And then having the mayor back you up. People would riot.

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“Authoritarianism works, as long as the authorities are competent.”

Why’re you being a cunt and pretending that’s what you said?

That IS what I said. Why don’t you slow down and edit your responses before you hit “Reply”?

Your opinion is you wanna lick boots and don’t really know why, okay, just be honest.

Nowhere did I say that authoritarianism is good or even that I desired it. I just said it worked. I noticed you didn’t answer my question, and I think I know why.

Democracy, like all systems of government, is a tradeoff. Nobody’s found a perfect system yet, and one probably doesn’t exist. This is because it’s hard to get people to agree. You may have noticed this.

So, people argue, and it’s harder to get things done, and it’s slow…but on the upside, you have more freedom and it’s more egalitarian. When life is good, it’s pretty easy to maintain democracy. You might get frustrated at the slowness of government, but it isn’t a big deal, because, again…life is good.

What about when life is bad, though? That’s when the slowness of democracy becomes really frustrating, and authoritarianism begins to look more and more attractive. Authoritarianism offers speed. It offers decisiveness. It offers easy answers. The democracies have all been bought off by big corporations, anyway, so why not go with authoritarianism? At least you know that they’re on your side. For now…

So, that’s why the right wing has become so popular in the last 10 years. I’m hopeful that democracy can rally, but things are really touch-and-go right now. It does bother me that I won’t live long enough to see how this turns out, but maybe you will. Sometimes things reach a breaking point and big changes happen very quickly, too, so who knows? Maybe I can at least help, in some small way, to keep things on a sane and stable path. I try to remain optimistic.

I know that I’m talking to somebody who’s maxxing out on the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and you probably didn’t even bother to read this far, but maybe you found somebody who could read this and explain it to you. Again, I try to remain optimistic.

You’re the leader of a country. Is it easier for you to get what you want if the country is A) a democracy or B) a dictatorship.

Don’t answer right away. Take all the time you need.

A source…on my opinion?

For the same reason that somebody can accidentally cut themselves with a knife.

That’s a relief! It’s a good thing that antibiotic resistance isn’t a problem.

Authoritarianism works, as long as the authorities are competent. US & Europe are getting the worst of both worlds: authoritarianism without the competence.

Amygdala? I hardly know 'er!