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Comment by spencerflem | Hacker News Reader

I genuinely don’t get how anyone could feel anything other than nihilism with regards to American democracy

As someone slightly older I remember when it worked quite well.

When the courts stole the election in 2000? The forty years where the only two options were slightly different flavors of Reagan?

Carter to Bill Clinton seemed ok.

But that was always the case for first nations and black Americans.

There has literally never been a good time in America for either group.

Don’t think we disagree

Yes, it's shocking how common the belief is now that democracy means a person's preferred candidate always wins. Anyone else winning is the death of democracy. The mental gymnastics some people will go through to promote this view can border on mania.

I have zero preferred candidates and likely never will

I think it's at least partially because we can't agree on what terms like "democracy" and "fascism" mean anymore, and that doesn't seem like it's going to get any better. Things like diplomacy, bipartisanship, and cooperation can't compete with conflict and aggression in the algorithms. What do we expect will be guiding future generations of voters' opinions and decisions on this kind of stuff?

"just because you are offended doesn't mean you are right".

It's the modern day way. Perhaps the online filter bubbles over the past... Long while... Have finally shown their long term real world impacts.

I'll add European gerontocracy to that list. Nihilism becomes the obvious and only solution.

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