The sense of impotence in the comments is palpable.
What can we - the people - do to make our discontent heard?
What can we - the people - do to make our discontent heard?
Living in Australia has been eye opening. I naïvely assumed that mandatory, ranked-choice voting would draw a direct line from popular sentiment to legislative outcome, but that's anything but the case.
Nobody "voted" for this specifically, but every source I have seen says such initiatives are widely supported by the populace. Such as for instance the <16 under social media ban which enjoys very wide support.
https://au.yougov.com/politics/articles/51000-support-for-un...
The average australian does not see the internet like you and I do. They see it as just another threat, and one that should be reigned in. Don't get me wrong, I hate this and everything about it, but nobody (rightfully) cares what I think, because i'm a childless nobody who is in the minority on such things.
Feels like Albanese is walking on eggshells at the moment trying to get Trump not to cancel AUKUS, not ramp up tarrifs etc.
Opinion mostly based on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9qhDGv300&t=688s (and, of course, the US now being essentially a rogue state, and it'll take significant structural change to fix that).
Practically: nothing.
Democracy has largely failed and in many countries you can, at best, pick between right wing assholes that work against your best interests and leftwing idiots that work against your best interests.
Some of the smaller ones have some tech savvy, but they're a long way off making any kind of a dent, and also seem to be going backwards in popularity.