Agreed that everybody SHOULD be educated. It’s definitely POSSIBLE to become informed, but holy fuck man, it shouldn’t take this much effort.
Blaming the citizens is insane. If you think that a large enough percentage of the voting population is capable of even FINDING digestible unbiased information… I don’t know what to tell you. I’m more informed than the general public and I didn’t even have a reliable source. I want something that doesn’t just explain the contents of every piece of legislation, but also the impact, knock-on effects, and true underlying motivation. Getting a full picture that I trust involves cobbling together multiple sources and attempting to filter out biases and conspiracy theories.
Who has that kind of time? Most of us out here are trying to keep our head above water and not spiral into unrecoverable debt. There are centuries of people in power molding their constituents into complacency through systemic oppression to ensure this is the case. The average person has a government sponsored education and is religious. They’ve been indoctrinated with a pledge of allegiance and a set of values that everyone around them seems to follow. Few folks have the disposable income or the desire to travel outside their bubble of comfort and develop empathy for someone unlike them. People who are informed know that the root cause is capitalism, which has been peaking in the last few decades with lobbyists and citizens united. The average person wants to ignore politics, if they do vote, they vote like the people in their community. For them, a vote isn’t something that’s done to better the country, it’s something that prevents them from being ostracized.
Congress has every bill ever introduced and its current status, every roll call, all of the contents of it all, etc listed online for all to see.
Wikipedia has summaries of every major political event in the last 3 centuries in great detail and citations to their sources documented.
Finding information is as easy as taking a simple look. Literally everybody can be educated about medical care, citizens united, immigration statistics, election fraud statistics, etc. They’re not trying.
Oh, yeah, let me just read entire fucking hundreds or thousands of pages long pieces of legislation in my free time so that I may be an informed voter… smh
You just need to look at a few important ones. Hypothetically, a rural american might be incredibly distressed by Republican economic and healthcare policy. An urban third party voter might be flabbergasted that the things they fight for all these years were actually core DNC platforms constantly called to vote and filibustered by the GOP. Etc.
You’re ignoring the issue. You said Congress has every bill including the contents online as if that somehow lowers the barrier for engagement. Do you think people are willing or even able to read and understand pieces of legislation hundreds or thousands of pages long written in indecipherable legalese? Let alone “a few important ones?”
It’s a problem that was fixable 40 years ago. I think it’s too late. We’re too stupid and too drama thirsty to care about boring things such as public policy.
Anyway, I hear Jane Kardashian has a new bracelet! Did you see it?
Because they “didn’t vote for that”. They voted for lesser evil, which includes bombing Yemen for a decade. The spoiler effect is obvious to fellow voters, but incomprehensively arcane to lawyers.
For the record, in 2014 Yemen began a civil war and the Obama administration backed the GCC intervention into Yemen, fighting against the Houthi revolutionaries, in 2015 alongside the UN Security Council issuing an Arms Embargo on the Houthis. The US support was logistical and intelligence. This has unfortunately continued to this day, although the previous Biden Administration did publicly announce a withdrawal of that support, but continues sale of armaments to Saudi Arabia who leads the GCC due to condemnation of their strikes on civilians. (The Houthis also strike civilians, mind you).
TBH I think maybe a more forceful approach, a direct intervention to establish a governance complete with minimal casualties and to provide welfare, to the situation at the end of Obama’s term or the start of the Trump term might have been better than just pussyfooting around and letting Saudi’s commit the warcrimes instead. Either that or doing nothing at all and allowing them to kill each other all on their lonesome so as to keep our own hands clean.
Another thing I’m not taking into account with this retelling is the whole proxy-war angle wherein Houthis and Saudis gaining support from various outside influences impacts their own allegiances in economic policy and that by not participating it would leave a gap for another world power to establish a different governance in the region that explicitly supports said world power. The whole region is an important economic position for oil and gas as well as shipping between Europe and Asia.
Also, the Houthis are being armed by Iran who is financially supported by China in exchange for oil, and I hate China so that’s another negative in my book.
Sounds par for the course in the USA.
People are literally surprised when somebody reads out actual policy which was signed into law and who voted for it.
Because our entire election cycle isn’t spent on policy, but character attacks.
To be fair, there’s plenty of material to attack, so I guess they get distracted.
Yeah I blame the citizens over the candidates at this point. Everybody should be educated on what they’re voting for, not whom.
Agreed that everybody SHOULD be educated. It’s definitely POSSIBLE to become informed, but holy fuck man, it shouldn’t take this much effort.
Blaming the citizens is insane. If you think that a large enough percentage of the voting population is capable of even FINDING digestible unbiased information… I don’t know what to tell you. I’m more informed than the general public and I didn’t even have a reliable source. I want something that doesn’t just explain the contents of every piece of legislation, but also the impact, knock-on effects, and true underlying motivation. Getting a full picture that I trust involves cobbling together multiple sources and attempting to filter out biases and conspiracy theories.
Who has that kind of time? Most of us out here are trying to keep our head above water and not spiral into unrecoverable debt. There are centuries of people in power molding their constituents into complacency through systemic oppression to ensure this is the case. The average person has a government sponsored education and is religious. They’ve been indoctrinated with a pledge of allegiance and a set of values that everyone around them seems to follow. Few folks have the disposable income or the desire to travel outside their bubble of comfort and develop empathy for someone unlike them. People who are informed know that the root cause is capitalism, which has been peaking in the last few decades with lobbyists and citizens united. The average person wants to ignore politics, if they do vote, they vote like the people in their community. For them, a vote isn’t something that’s done to better the country, it’s something that prevents them from being ostracized.
Congress has every bill ever introduced and its current status, every roll call, all of the contents of it all, etc listed online for all to see.
Wikipedia has summaries of every major political event in the last 3 centuries in great detail and citations to their sources documented.
Finding information is as easy as taking a simple look. Literally everybody can be educated about medical care, citizens united, immigration statistics, election fraud statistics, etc. They’re not trying.
Oh, yeah, let me just read entire fucking hundreds or thousands of pages long pieces of legislation in my free time so that I may be an informed voter… smh
You just need to look at a few important ones. Hypothetically, a rural american might be incredibly distressed by Republican economic and healthcare policy. An urban third party voter might be flabbergasted that the things they fight for all these years were actually core DNC platforms constantly called to vote and filibustered by the GOP. Etc.
You’re ignoring the issue. You said Congress has every bill including the contents online as if that somehow lowers the barrier for engagement. Do you think people are willing or even able to read and understand pieces of legislation hundreds or thousands of pages long written in indecipherable legalese? Let alone “a few important ones?”
You’re a prime example of my statement, thank you for making my case for me.
It’s a problem that was fixable 40 years ago. I think it’s too late. We’re too stupid and too drama thirsty to care about boring things such as public policy.
Anyway, I hear Jane Kardashian has a new bracelet! Did you see it?
Plenty of blame to go around.
Because they “didn’t vote for that”. They voted for lesser evil, which includes bombing Yemen for a decade. The spoiler effect is obvious to fellow voters, but incomprehensively arcane to lawyers.
God I fucking wish we voted for the lesser evil.
For the record, in 2014 Yemen began a civil war and the Obama administration backed the GCC intervention into Yemen, fighting against the Houthi revolutionaries, in 2015 alongside the UN Security Council issuing an Arms Embargo on the Houthis. The US support was logistical and intelligence. This has unfortunately continued to this day, although the previous Biden Administration did publicly announce a withdrawal of that support, but continues sale of armaments to Saudi Arabia who leads the GCC due to condemnation of their strikes on civilians. (The Houthis also strike civilians, mind you).
TBH I think maybe a more forceful approach, a direct intervention to establish a governance complete with minimal casualties and to provide welfare, to the situation at the end of Obama’s term or the start of the Trump term might have been better than just pussyfooting around and letting Saudi’s commit the warcrimes instead. Either that or doing nothing at all and allowing them to kill each other all on their lonesome so as to keep our own hands clean.
Another thing I’m not taking into account with this retelling is the whole proxy-war angle wherein Houthis and Saudis gaining support from various outside influences impacts their own allegiances in economic policy and that by not participating it would leave a gap for another world power to establish a different governance in the region that explicitly supports said world power. The whole region is an important economic position for oil and gas as well as shipping between Europe and Asia.
Specifically the war stats when The Houthi Militia pulls out of a coalition government and attacks the capital.
The Houthi Militia are not the innocents in this war. They started it.
Also, the Houthis are being armed by Iran who is financially supported by China in exchange for oil, and I hate China so that’s another negative in my book.