points by thomassmith65 1 day ago | 0 comments
Liberal democracy works fine in that it makes people less miserable than the alternatives, but there are many other sources of misery from which it can't protect a society. It takes more than a good system of government for things to 'work'.
[–] ctmlr 1 day ago
[–] thomassmith65 1 day ago
The claim is that it makes a person happier to have a say in who governs their society, and the freedom to believe and express what they want, as long as it doesn't hurt their neighbor.
That is not a bold take.
A feature of democracy is that a majority can set the course of their society by voting.
A feature of liberalism is that a minority can attempt to become a majority by argument.
If there were a nefarious foreign power pulling the strings of my Western-style democracy (which, where I live, would be an unhinged belief), I'd use my vote and my voice to oppose it, not jettison the vote nor jettison my rights.
What it couldn't protect us from is becoming infiltrated by a foreign government, and that's a pretty basic function of any government, so I think y'all need to humble yourselves.