Divide and exploit
Nov. 19th, 2017 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcI have some hope that gerrymandering can be substantially reduced if the midterms give the Democrats more control of state legislatures and the courts are offered objective measures of bias. I am less hopeful about the shameful state of voting technology: there is little reason to trust American election results. The technical means has long been available but the political will is lacking. Economic inequality follows from electoral inequality.
Even if our elections were fair, monied and even foreign interests wield unhealthy influence over the news streams that voters consume. Of course, propaganda is hardly new: I am reminded of how Willem Bentinck assisted the Glorious Revolution in what came down to helping foreign powers to counter liberal values. Still, many people live in echo chambers that lies may comfortably dominate. Even if people's voting intentions were to have their proper effect on electoral outcomes then that would not prevent their choice from being based on poor information. Democracy appears to be under considerable threat.
Joseph Stiglitz has been uncomfortably pointing out the clear rise in corporations' monopoly rent-seeking. Needless exploitation drags the economy down as a lack of accountability harms both equality and productivity. The Roosevelt Institute's
I fear that last month's Pew Research Center report on how
Even if our elections were fair, monied and even foreign interests wield unhealthy influence over the news streams that voters consume. Of course, propaganda is hardly new: I am reminded of how Willem Bentinck assisted the Glorious Revolution in what came down to helping foreign powers to counter liberal values. Still, many people live in echo chambers that lies may comfortably dominate. Even if people's voting intentions were to have their proper effect on electoral outcomes then that would not prevent their choice from being based on poor information. Democracy appears to be under considerable threat.
Joseph Stiglitz has been uncomfortably pointing out the clear rise in corporations' monopoly rent-seeking. Needless exploitation drags the economy down as a lack of accountability harms both equality and productivity. The Roosevelt Institute's
Untamed: How to Check Corporate, Financial, and Monopoly Power(2016) asserts that,
… American workers increasingly perceive that the rules of the economy do not work for them.I wonder if
their justified angercan find its way toward political solutions despite how news and social media help to shield their users from having their beliefs challenged.
I fear that last month's Pew Research Center report on how
The Partisan Divide on Political Values Grows Even Wideraugurs poorly. The continued increase in the average partisan gap may indicate an electorate so divided that they cannot unite behind any real solution enough to force their representatives to think beyond their donors' interests in effecting meaningful change.
