It doesn’t take a genius. People across the entirety of human history have figured out this lesson without any formal or modern education. That said, it is true the idea needs to be out there that the people have the power and it is their responsibility to use it.

The government does what the people allow it to do, same as corporations. It is the duty of citizens to police their government as well as corporations and consequently hold the keys to the kingdom, to riches. As above, most people are ignorant which to a degree is understandable, we can’t all be aware of everything all the time but like individual things in our life, we need to become aware when it is vital. I’ve never been a fan of just blaming the rich and powerful, it removes all agency from the masses who allowed it to happen. Power comes when people know they have it and with power comes responsibility to wield it.

Don’t worry, the majority of the global population are roped into it through convenience, cost savings at purchase, and ignorance. The true power is and has always been in the majority’s hands. If they don’t want something then it cannot be. For instance if enough of the population refused to buy single use plastics then no seller could make money from those products, no producer could make money manufacturing them and ultimately there would be no single use plastics. It’s called a carrot mob, the majority swing the carrot (the money) the way they want and the rabbit (industry) follows. The majority of the world aren’t helpless weaklings incapable of action and at the whims of a few hundred or dozen individuals.

That checks out.

u/over_clox@lemmy.world asking dumb smart questions.

In the 1700’s when printing and books became more ubiquitous critics, doctors, and religious leaders panicked. They diagnosed heavy reading as a physical and mental illness, calling it “reading rage,” “reading fever,” “reading mania,” or “reading lust”.

Socrates was deeply concerned that relying on the new technology of the written word would make people mentally lazy and ruin their memory.

Juvanoia and general human behavior is very very old. All of our behaviors today we’ve had for millennia upon millennia. As the old saying goes, there’s nothing new under the sun. Also the world has been ending since the beginning. The first Pope Saint Peter was sure the rapture was very near and within his lifetime.

There is no established, scientific link between playing violent video games and committing violent crimes. This really isn’t a science question.

As for politics, there’s a precedent for this going back to the proliferation of books, then radio, tv, music, movies, really every single last form of media has had the “it’s poisoning our kids or the population” propaganda. You also see similar fearmongering about many other things, typically minority groups but it can be any change in society.

Fear and hatred gets easy votes, people’s rational minds struggle to question anything when they feel afraid or angry. It’s also why modern news is built around our very animalistic fear and anger responses, it is very profitable. Similarly it’s why rage bait is a fundamental aspect of most major platforms and algorithms.

Here is a good video by CGP Grey summing it up

Has something changed over the last two years or does one have to be specifically not cis, white or living in a capitalist country to receive these downvotes?

You can use a terminal browser a la lynks2 or w3m

Yeah if your machine can be added to a botnet then it will be. Resistance is futile, we are Borg style.

That’s a fair additive although it can be difficult to define the boundaries. Particularly tech can have a far reaching influence and arguably global influence these days. If the scope of the policy is narrow then I can imagine that being functional, if the scope is potentially global then that may become an issue.

Calling democracy mob rule is really old. I would at least prefer representatives to be scientists or otherwise the most informed on the subject and policies they are deciding on. I would also prefer all policies to be tested to see if they actually create their desired outcomes. I would prefer the desired outcome to always be increasing human and environmental wellbeing.

He’s not the first but I was thinking about that. I can’t remember the critic but early on in the American experiment someone described it as mob rule.

Similar but I would prefer a representative democracy but where the representatives need to be national experts on what they are deciding. So for instance if it’s medicine then the representatives need to be physicians and medical scientists, and previous heads of hospitals. If it’s dealing with the environment then the representatives need to be environmental scientists, civic engineers, and so on. Aka have the most informed people for that which you are trying to make decisions. Even better, have their policies reviewed by a body of their peers the same way scientific publishing works to get a measure on how good or bad their ideas are. Even better, test their ideas when they’ve been implemented to see if they’re actually working.

Yup just tell group X who dislikes thing Y or group Z that X and Z are bad and you’re in like Flynn.

That’s why democracy is also known as being ruled by the hordes of idiots. It’s amazing when people are well informed on what they are voting on, the problem is that’s never happened in mass and never will. People will vote based on their feelings or just straight up not at all.