Duh? We know already know this. Their main concern is staying in office for as long as possible and see how badly they can fuck up the country. much they can grow their own bank accounts.
The destruction of the country is just a byproduct of their greed. :(
We are cosmic beings of chaos at the infinite center of creation. Anyone who thinks we should care about a few grumpy clicks ought to be sold to a cat food company.
It's been trending for some time. Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent" describes a host of national policies that were intensely disliked when they began and only became normalized after years of mass media manipulation.
The Drug Wars, opposition to the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movements, most of our wars after WW2, our large scale claw backs of social spending and ballooning security state budgets, our habit of subsidizing sports stadiums and toxic waste sites, etc - all need regular continued media investment for fear of a popular turn.
SCOTUS widened the spigots for political spending in pursuit of these goals. But it's not like the WSJ or AM Radio or the cable news companies weren't already flush with propaganda before the CU decision. It's not like CU was necessary for the volume of social media manipulation, either.
Researchers critiquing the paper found that middle-income Americans and rich Americans actually agree on an overwhelming majority of topics. Out of the 1,779 bills in the Gilens/Page data set, majorities of the rich and middle class agree on 1,594; there are 616 bills both groups oppose and 978 bills both groups favor. That means the groups agree on 89.6 percent of bills.
That leaves only 185 bills on which the rich and the middle class disagree, and even there the disagreements are small. On average, the groups' opinion gaps on the 185 bills is 10.9 percentage points; so, say, 45 percent of the middle class might support a bill while 55.9 percent of the rich support it.
Bashir and Branham/Soroka/Wlezien find that on these 185 bills, the rich got their preferred outcome 53 percent of the time and the middle class got what they wanted 47 percent of the time.
I think the fact that there are ~40% of bills that both rich and middle class Americans oppose is pretty solid proof that congress doesn’t give a shit about what American citizens want them to pass… or am i misinterpreting this?
Also, why the focus on rich and middle class? Is the vast majority of america not "lower"/working class? Edit: it seems like the entire conclusion of the study is based on the influence that money has in politics.
One thing that does have an influence? Money. While the opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America have a “statistically non-significant impact,” economic elites, business interests, and people who can afford lobbyists still carry major influence.
Of course if you focus only on people with money then you will come up with a conflicting result... so yeah. I also feel like I am missing something here.
They were also neglected by the people who made the study the link in the post is talking about, so the study is still bunk and we should perhaps do another one
And a lot of this comes from not fucking voting. I seriously wonder how things would be if voting was mandatory and everyone was given appropriate time off to do it.
People on this website are understandably losing their minds because we've let this type of politics fester so much that the stakes are genuinely high this election cycle. But the stakes are only so high because we keep attempting the same thing over and over again. At this point, I'm not even advocating for a third party. I just want Democrats to do better instead of being less crappy than the other guys.
In Germany we only vote on Sundays and it's super easy, barely an inconvenience. We're still lucky when more than two thirds vote. People are in general are lazy and stupid.
That would be Australia. We are less extreme than the US but still succumb to fear tactics. We did manage to get marriage equality despite a conservative government so there's that.
Sorry but mandatory vote solves nothing. You'll still have a lot of people alienate about politics and now they had to vote and they'll make their choices like a popularity contest.
Shit, y’all could’ve saved a ton of time and effort if you’d have just asked me; I’ve been saying this for years. And it’s only worse when you’re the one speck of blue in a red sea.
i love getting scolded about voting when even if I personally managed to pull off a miracle and convert one thousand people to vote for biden, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.
As if voting for president makes any difference, when it’s the electoral college who makes the final decision. And they’ve proven in the past that they’ll do what they want.
Friendly reminder that Donald Trump LOST the popular vote in 2016 and was illegitimately put into power by the rogue electoral college. His presidency should never have happened.
I remember watching this nearly 6 years after release and how relevant it still was. It still is relevant. End Citizens United if you want to even begin to take our country back.
People around you are buying houses??? You mean like real people, and not chinese puppet companies who buy entire cities in an attempt to artificially inflate rent prices?
Houses in my neighborhood are selling as soon as they hit the market, and yes, my neighbors are real people and are actually the homeowners. The family that just moved in next door are immigrants, the wife is a manager at a logistics center and her husband works nights at the local Amazon warehouse.
Wait.....you live in an area where people own their own homes, and talk to their neighbors???
My neighbor moved in 15 years ago. I had no idea until 6 years ago. Still haven't talked to him, or know his name. I just know sometimes he wears green shirts.
I hope he has family and loved ones. If he got hit by a bus, I'd hate for his obituary to read
"He was a quiet neighbor, who sometimes wore green shirts. One time he had a dog, but I think he was just dog watching for a friend. Beautiful dog though. Golden retriever, healthy full coat of fur."
