Centrist Democrats again prove their worthlessness

[exploited]

They really can't help their behaviour though. And I don't believe in heavy punishments for people who genuinely can't help themselves.

At their core, Dylan and Saz are adrift in a sea of empty materialism, nihilism and self-hatred. They strive towards goals not because it gives them any sort of lasting gratification, but to impress their peers and superiors, irrespective of the fact that they will always be looked down on by the class of people they desperately attempt to emulate. This is why they constantly reference their wealth or education, why they imagine they have unique levels of intelligence, which they believe are reflected in their social stature.

At the end of the day, I think they are both smart enough to realize that nobody gives a flying f**k about their accomplishments or bank accounts, which are objectively middling. They will never be great, and they will die unremembered by society, just like the rest of us. But if they are forced to admit that, they are also forced to admit that nobody cares about them, on their own, regardless of what they have done. It is abundantly clear that both of them have no community to speak of. I can guarantee that even their "friendships" are shallow, based on pedigree and performance, rather than a genuine sense of mutual respect.

That's sad, but it is also unavoidable. Their lives will be broken up by sporadic mental breakdowns, and largely defined by existential dread, as we've already seen, but they will always strive, and they will always be comfortable. That is admirable in a sense. Admirable enough to not want to execute them anyways.

[Saz]

[ToddStarnes]

Ex woke up cranky today

[Philly]

[The Comrade]

[ToddStarnes]

[ToddStarnes]

[The Comrade]

[exploited]

[exploited]

To bring it back around to the discussion we are having about political organization and the role of various factions in maintaining a functioning democratic society, some of the points you've made in your previous points are interesting, but your overall grasp of the subject matter is poor.

Let's review what you have said that is more or less correct, Saz:

1. The professional class has greater opportunity to initiate change in the political sphere, by virtue of their wealth and social status.
2. The professional class can have a role to play in organizing the lower classes into a coherent and effective political machine, by virtue of their skills.
3. The landlords dole out social and economic privilege as a means of preventing the bourgs from aligning with the lower classes.
4. In turn, the bourgs dole out social and economic safety nets as a means of preventing the proles from revolting.

Beyond that, your understanding of the relationship between the three groups is abysmal. You understand the role that each class plays, but you don't understand the whole, and you can't articulate the role that democratic participation has in maintaining a balance between them. I will correct your erroneous thinking as best as I can.

Democracy is not about civility, or standards, or giving people a voice, or making sure everyone has an equal say. The only function that democracy plays is to create what is called buy-in. Obviously nobody cares what some pizza guy thinks. My personal opinions simply don't matter in any grand sense. What matters is what I do about it. That is the fundamental concern of democracy, and why it is the greatest system of government.

The fact is that the bulk of people are not special or important, beyond simply existing long enough to reproduce. It is an incredibly rare individual who has qualities so outstanding that they are a force of their own. No class has a natural monopoly on these people, because we frankly have no idea what produces them. Some great people come from shit, some from wealthy families, some even appear retarded until you turn them on the right thing. These people have drastically more power than everyone else, and they move our society in great ways. While they invent entire new fields of knowledge, or do things that literally nobody else has ever done, I make pizzas and you correct legal documents. Is this upbringing? Is is genetics? Is it both?

In a world where these discrepancies in fundamental ability exist, you need buy-in to prevent those with lesser abilities killing those with more. It really is that simple. The way I like to put it is this: imagine dumb kids picking on a genius in the school yard. They hate him because he is exceptional. He is not like them. The only way you can prevent them from kicking the shit out of that kid is to divert their attentions elsewhere. To give them some small choice, of having a chance to rise above. You create buy-in for a system, and they might just leave that kid alone long enough for him to achieve his potential.

Class works in a different way. Class works to maintain itself. It does not aim to establish a meritocracy, either among classes or within itself, because each class relies in some way on the other. You can't have the suburbs without the ghettoes, and you can't have yachts without either. Thus why the interaction of class, and buy-in through democracy, has created the greatest societies in history. We create balances between classes through buy-in, with the result that the classes are able to progress in some small way, rather than spending their time murdering each other.

It is a balance, a tenuous balance, but it works. The landlords make the bulk of decisions and receive the bulk of wealth, the proles do the menial tasks, and the bourgs distribute wealth upwards and downwards as needed to grease the wheels. If any one of these groups fails to maintain its own boundaries or influence, democracy itself is at risk.

The fact is that the landlords have created conditions in which a large amount of proles are openly advocating for the landlords, instead of their own interests. Not only does this impact the ability of the proles to sustain themselves, it also impacts the bourgs. The professional class has also been squeezed, and that squeezing has been going on for decades now. You're still gonna be comfortable, so long as the system holds, but as the middle man, you are open at both sides.

In the event of open warfare, you are the first up against the wall - either for failing to live up to your landlords expectations, or for being a collaborator. In more practical terms, it isn't the billionaires going to jail, it is the professionals. And it isn't Donald Trump or Jeff Bezos being screamed out of a restaurant, it is a person from the professional class.

This is why this so-called assault on civility provokes you. You're getting squeezed and it appears that the proles and the landlords are moving towards a path that will instantly eliminate your value. But what you have to realize is, perhaps for the first time in your lives, this isn't really about you. The proles polarize because if they don't come to some sort of resolution, one way or another, they will be materially worse-off, even though they've already gone through decades of decline. Their material opportunities are at risk, plain and simple. So their reaction is to put the pressure on the only people they can - the people executing the policies that are actively eliminating their opportunities. The professionals, the politicians, the bureaucrats, the people whose job it is to create buy-in.

This is why I've called you and Dylan cowards. Rather then help proles now, by supporting the side that you admit is more peaceful but more annoying, you will instead ride it out and hope that good sense prevails, at some indistinct point in the future. It isn't your fear of violence that is cowardly, it is your unwillingness to take a necessary risk. Talking about throwing your weight behind the landlords and the prole helpers who you admit are capable of immense violence and terror, just because your meal got ruined, is insane. It basically does away with the entire democratic balance, and puts you at just as much risk as everybody else. You guys are acting as if violence is something that doesn't happen all the time in the prole world, and then siding with the people who are deliberately inflicting that violence. While condemning the proles who are just yelling, lol. It is cowardly as well as stupid. You might as well move to China.