World News

32317 readers

826 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

318

Ireland women's basketball team refuse to shake hands with Israel (www.bbc.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

56 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Both Israel and the US have representative democracies. Views of the government are the views of the people.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Jfc what an out of touch and wilfully ignorant comment.. 🤦‍♀️

https://web.archive.org/web/20230803021951/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/22/american-democracy-was-never-designed-to-be-democratic

Never mind that Netanyahu has spent the past decade or so actively and successfully eroding whatever pretence of democracy existed in Israel before..

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That would be true if we didn’t have an electoral college. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Yikes why would defend someone who sung the praises of noted War Criminal Henry Kissinger?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The alternative was worse. Most Presidential elections aren’t about picking the candidate you want - they boil down to who you dislike less.

Besides, I wasn’t “defending” anyone; I was simply pointing out a fact.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The hours everybody spends in supermarkets, picking out the things they don't want to buy, so they're only left with what they want... But the alternative is worse...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Let's rephrase:

Despite being appointed president for four years, Donald Trump has never been elected by the popular will of the people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ok, but that has never been the way the president has been selected? The popular vote for president isn't how the American Election system works and never has. Do you get upset if in football the team with the most yards doesn't win? Or the most base hits? Or the most gold in League of Legends?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

We're not talking about whether the US does things like it's always done. We're talking about whether it's a democracy and whether the views of the government are the views of the people. It does pretty poorly on the first one and fails completely on the second.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago

They both approximate perfect representation close enough. If the difference between one government or the other comes down to variations that are basically explained by the weather being good or bad on voting day, you can't really claim that the government isn't representative.

Just because it didn't represent YOUR opinion, it doesn't make it less representative. A truly representative government will make decisions that align with 10% of the population 10% of the time. So if 10% of the population want to bomb Canada a perfectly representative government will make it happen every 40 years or so.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But with just some VERY MINOR tweaks to the system, the "views of the people" would be very different. In the US, the system is OPENLY engineered to preserve existing power structures, in ways that have accumulated over the decades (Jerrymandering, Electoral College and First Past The Post all add up...)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

And everybody over there is beginning to work together and rise up against it...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So you have fully supported the actions of both the Biden and Trump administrations?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That would make me american...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Gotcha, extrapolate out to the country you wish.