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> I read a good article some time ago about how as long as we gravitate towards symbolic and emotional / headline-grabbing solutions, we will feel good and think that we've solved problems, but end up having made little progress.

Or, to say it another way, as long as we tolerate politics that are basically just performance art nothing changes.

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I don’t think that I would say it that way at all.

The parent comment simply makes the point that people vote with their own interests in mind, but say otherwise as long as it doesn’t cost them. We don’t just “tolerate” performance art politics - we actively encourage and vote for it because the alternatives are expensive and unpalatable.

It’s much more comfortable to “blame profits” or “blame campaign financing” or blame Jeff Bezos or blame capitalism than to acknowledge that in a city that maximizes global utility and wellness, you might not have the right to keep poor people from living near you.

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