Hacker News Reader

And then nobody will vote for them ever again, and it'll be a utopia after the rebuild. Playing the long game.

Genuine question: I think making things worse to motivate later making them better is a relatively common idea. Are there any historical examples of it actually working well?

To me, it seems more likely to concentrate power among people who don't want to make things better and make it easier for them to resist ever changing.

> And then nobody will vote for them ever again, and it'll be a utopia after the rebuild. Playing the long game.

(Sarcasm noted.) There was a bitter joke about Islamist takeovers by elections after the Arab Spring: "One man [literally], one vote, one time."

Trump floated that trial balloon a few months back, though currently the administration is proceeding with the much more American plan of widespread voter suppression, intimidation, and bribery, if in the most ham-fisted and unconstitutional way possible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com