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And the more angry rants we get from SV-folks, the better we know that we're on the right track.
I'm from the EU, and I'm not afraid that AI regulation is going to make my job disappear. There are other EU laws / rulings that I'm much more worried about (e.g. chat control, or for a mundane example, mandatory time tracking).
Meanwhile, if people from the US are "laughing at the EU consistently shooting themselves in the foot", I kindly suggest taking a close look at your own country before judging others.
And where is the EU citizens' election regarding said chat control? Where is the election regarding commission president? Would you think von der Leyen were actually elected president, had the population been given the chance to vote?
Who knows. Do you think Mike Johnson would have been elected speaker of the US House of Representatives if the population had been given a chance to vote? "The people vote on everything" is not how any modern democracy works - no, not even Switzerland's (where it's parliament who votes for the government and not regular people).
There are regular elections to the European parliament. The reason why the EU can push things like chat control (which I agree is terrible) is because frankly, many people don't care about privacy or IT in general. Just take a look at the UK, it's not part of the union anymore, but it still hasn't stopped proposing horrible IT regulation. This has nothing to do with the EU and everything with the fact that scare tactics like "terrorism" and "child abuse" work for a lot of people.
I can't think of any presidential government where the president is not also voted for by the people (at least none, that "the west" considers a democracy).
Would you think US citizens would accept not being able to vote on the matter of who becomes president?
Then why is it ok for EU citizens not to vote on that issue?
Technically, not even the US president is elected directly by the people (but by the electoral council). This is why someone can become president without receiving the popular vote.
The Swiss executive is bound by the referendums, and the German president is of course not the equivalent to the US president in terms of power or political role. But you knew that already, so let's agree that we disagree on what a democracy should look like, shall we?
No, you're missing mine:
1. In no country in the world do the people vote on everything. In many countries, the head of government is not elected directly.
2. Direct democracy is rare and most democracies are representative.
3. The EU's institutions are thus not uniquely undemocratic - they all eventually derive their power from the people.
4. What you're accusing the EU of doing (i.e. bad legislation) is happening elsewhere too (e.g. in the UK).
5. That's because people actually want or are indifferent to such things.
(Of course, humans are humans, and HN users are just as much prone to group think as everyone else. I just think it's funny that HN users keep claiming that they're somehow above that.)