Joe Dunman: What happens to societies when all legitimate, peaceful means of political accountability are rendered impotent?

What happens to societies when all legitimate, peaceful means of political accountability are rendered impotent?

Politics by other means

Ask a Palestinian

we get a pizza party to distract us?

Boy I hope so. Pizza is expensive these days.

They keep us doped with religion, sex, and TV.

Which one of those things is pizza?

In Brasil, pizza is the other two.

I keep telling myself that most of the people who have ever lived on this planet spent their entire lives under some form of authoritarian or totalitarian government with no political accountability.

I don’t think this is actually true? It’s always been possible to hold leaders to account in small-scale societies, which account for most of human history; even the largest ancient city is dwarfed by our present ones.

yeah i mean it's complicated, definitely by the time you have a grain-state with a standing army, it's pretty hard to tell the king to fuck off, but there's a lot of grey area between "forager chilling in the woods" and "slave building the king's mausoleum"

and even by the time states emerged, they were a minority and unstable

And that’s only in the last 10,000 years!

honestly i could make the case that it was only in the last 6,000; the emergence of agriculture didn't automatically create authoritarian states.

One source that tracks this topic: freedomhouse.org/report/freed... The backsliding from democracy is troubling.

The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rulefreedomhouse.org Global freedom faces a dire threat. Around the world, the enemies of liberal democracy—a form of self-government in which human rights are recognized and every individual is entitled to equal treatmen...

"oh boy I sure hope this powder keg I made and this match I just lit don't interact anyway I'll go leave the match unattended in the powder keg room i need to watch my soaps"

They think it don't be like it is but it do

The US state has never been accountable. You just didn't see any need to hold it to account before.

Congratulations on being the first person to figure out this thing, but maybe lashing out at people who came to a similar position as you, just at a later time, isn't the best move strategically.

Wow that's very passive aggressive of you. I'm sorry if it's upsetting to hear these problems aren't new but a lot of people have been trying to talk about them for a long time and getting ignored.

No I know. I think most of us do. I do understand the frustration, it's just... one-upping each other online isn't how we get free.

You are assuming that the only reason people are trying to talk about these things is to make you feel bad. But that isn't actually true. That is how we have always been dismissed.

No, I'm assuming you're saying them to make yourself feel superior. You're assuming I feel bad over what you said. I don't.

Per one of my favorite tweets, we enter what historians call ‘the cool zone’

Historically, mostly, they suffer under oppression. Years upon years of suffering and violence, unwritten and unremembered, a tidal wave of tragedy.

It's already happening. When the elite are no longer bound by law, the masses are no longer bound by social contract.

hope u like drum circles

You become a fascist or go far enough left you get your gun back weirdo pretty fuckin simple

In the revolution the sons of liberty would gather outside tax collectors’ homes and tell them to stop collecting taxes for king George or we will immolate your family in your house. The torches impressed upon them the seriousness of the situation.

Bread and circus. Keep people fed and entertained and they won't do anything but bitch about it on reddit

I believe history has numerous examples.

well luckily they legalized bump stocks so we have fully automatic rifles

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Revolution. Americans are well armed.

Which Americans?

All of them. This isn’t 2016. I’m sure Democrats have more now thanks to Trump lol What do you think?

The pre-revolutionaries were pretty keen on tarring and feathering judges, and then burning their houses down.

Only occasionally would the revolutionaries let them leave the house before the fire and tar and feathering usually killed.

Hopefully you all finally join the right side and solve the problem

Break out the guillotines. Fit them all fer cement shoes, and give them a one-way ticket to the Marianas Trench. If yer REALLY lucky, the Rapture is a real thing, and will take them all away. Otherwise, feed 'em all t'pigs.

A great question. Ask the Hungarians, ask the Russians, ask the Texans

Revolution.

The government starts killing us en masse.

Blood, guts, and death soon follow.

H.L. Mencken quotes come to life.

It starts with a V & rhymes with violins.

I believe JFK said something about this kind of situation. Though he referred to it as "peaceful revolution" at the time. Still, I think the point stands.

Exciting things! Really exciting things!

“War is politics with bloodshed” - Huey Newton

Kakistocracy noun Government by the most corrupt, least suitable, or incompetent citizens of a state.

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