"Democracy is Teetering"

If we're however asked to vote, we are asked to put some trust in the candidates, and it is possible to undermine trust in the candidates as a whole. Democracy had a lot of trust after WWII in the first place because the real existing alternatives were so obviously bad and also out there for destroying the democracies. Before WWII let alone WWI, democracy had a hard time to be credible in many places. So after WWII democracies were full of people who would for some "local" reason not trust one candidate or another, but would not question democracy as a system. 

One thing that has happened is that WWII is long ago now and few people now living have seen it. Even a new generation hasn't seen communist dictatorship either, at least not anywhere near their own country. But the world after 1990 isn't exactly a nice and peaceful place, and democracy has to take some of the blame (the bad experience of the Yeltsin years for sure plays a big role in many Russians being against the Western system of democracy). So there are more people around now who don't take for granted that democracy is the best system (or be it the least bad though still somewhat bad). 

And then "information" is spread very differently these days. There are many more sources of "information", and then also the algorithms will "help" people to create their own "information bubble" by showing them all kinds of things that confirm what they believe already, without much interaction with sources that promote other points of view. True, there has always been misinformation and manipulation, but still, at least within democracies different points of view would mostly clash on the same stages, for all to see. Now "information communities" build up with incompatible views, on each side believing that elsewhere there is only manipulation and stupidity - and of course if there is manipulation and stupidity everywhere, there is no point in having a democracy as whatever you vote for will not make a difference.

What to do about this I don't know. Personally, I still value to see many points of view - seeing arguments from one side and then seeing the best arguments from the other side against it, and I like to try understanding how everyone comes to their points of view and what the positive legitimation of it is. I do not like to look at side A of an argument only in the way that is offered to me from the side B, just to confirm how corrupt and mistaken side A is and how their followers are just gullible sheep. This makes decision and taking sides more difficult, but at least I can still appreciate people who try hard to understand matters and solve them rather than only spreading negativity, even if they get something wrong. This I think is crucial for democracy. We must not only be able to question and criticise, also to appreciate how difficult the problems are and what trouble comes with whatever attempt to deal with them. And hopefully have some trust in at least somebody to honestly try.

Hi,

I really don't know, and I think that we're going to know even less. So there was a primary here in WA and only about a third of all the voters bothered showing up or scratching a piece of paper. The disconnect is too much, though the local paper thought that it was because people were "forced" to designate their affiliation to a Democratic or Republican group, and it is believed that a lot of people that did not wish to explain and had more independent feelings, decided to not bother with that determination. Thus the "small" turn out! (less than 33%), But this is something that many unsavory states do to make it look like they are being more with it and looking more attentive than otherwise. Instead, they shoo people away .... just what Dr. T ordered!

It's the scariest of things, though ... and a writer once said that the place that has the most freedoms, is the one that uses them the least! And here it is ... and in some states, it has a 35% of certain folks, but they only get elected like 10% of the time if that ... it's like they don't have a voice at all ... hard to believe these days in America!

I think what bothers me more is the cynicism around it all ... when folks here don't realize that in more than half, maybe even two thirds, you can't even vote for your local representative. 

The whole matrix is really scary but I am inclined to believe that the proliferation of the riches in the country to pay less taxes and get richer is one of the biggest problems ... and many of them are going around saying ... let them eat cake and then buy everything so they look like the biggest and richest around ... and in the end, they are no different than ... the show that gave us a really poor example of a boss that only had one redeeming factor ... he could say "you're fired" louder than all of us! AND ... the craziest thing? We thought it was cool!

 

I don't think it is just Americans who feel uneasy.