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Comment on Study: Congress literally doesn’t care what you think. The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.

poorlytunedAstring@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

I understand that this is a doomer sub but man. When you manage to get away from all this social media bullshit for a while then try to poke your head in you realize how relentlessly negative it is at all times, because nobody wants to actually do anything about anything, including go the fuck outside and forget about it for a bit, and everyone with any ambitions of sanity leaves.

Could we start discussing credible strategies to reverse this situation, or at least improve that number somehow? Absolutely the fuck not, never, ever ever. The shit is very literally crazy, I don’t know what I was trying to expect.

But this post is so much like the other posts on the rest of the site it took me a minute to notice where I was. Might as well stop acting like this is just one community, it’s everything.

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ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Could we start discussing credible strategies to reverse this situation, or at least improve that number somehow?

I say this constantly, and everyone nods along happily when I say it, but almost nobody does it. What is it? It’s getting involved in your local politics.

The federal government, the US congress and senate and all the executive branch… they’re all supported and propped up by powerful institutions within the states that got powerful because nobody paid it any attention and still don’t. People get elected to represent us who run without opposition and then we wonder why nothing seems to change.

If you get involved with knowing who in your neighborhood, your school district, your city, your county and your state represent you, and then challenging that representation in any way you can, from actually running all the way to just getting on those horrible neighborhood forums and holding yard-sales to get to know your neighbors.

GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS. Jesus, this country is terrible about this one huge thing that could change everything, which is reforming communities. We scream and cry how bad the world is and make ZERO effort to make it better by forming support systems within neighborhoods. I mean fuck, most suburban neighborhoods have nothing else to do, might as well have some bake sales and yard sales and jogging groups and other things to help get to know each other, right? Or has all our cynicism completely overshadowed any possible chance of ever forming friendly communities in the US?

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- Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS.
  
  I move every year because my rent keeps going up and I can’t afford to stay. In some places ive been they offer a discount the first year then it goes up to the “normal rate”.
  
  Sorry my MAGA neighbor that broke my headlight, I can’t stay to educate you.
  
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kibiz0r@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Get involved with Represent.Us, the site that was linked to.

They have a pretty good strategy, and they have been making progress.

Governance is discouraging because it’s complex. And when things are complex, it’s difficult to see progress and it’s easy to predict that there will be problems.

It’s also difficult (and unrewarding) to have serious conversations about this stuff on social media.

The posts get too long, with no satisfying simplistic conclusion, and even if you make an incredible magnum opus of a post that acknowledges enough complexity to be realistic while also being short and snappy enough to catch people’s attention… it drops off of the trending posts algorithm after a day.

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Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If sad facts just bring you down instead of making you act to fix them, then you are part of the problem.

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- Moneo@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Ok, so now what? You’re going to shit on people for being depressed about the state of the world and feeling powerless because of how powerless they are?
  
  If you want people to engage in solutions I’d recommend not belittling them for succumbing to apathy in the face of overwhelming opposition.
  
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Thteven@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As long as there is money to be made in politics the common man will be trodden upon. Good luck getting the people making all the money to change the laws.

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Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Expand the house. Drop the ratio to something much closer to the original one, (1 representative for 30,000 people). It’s theorized that a ratio around 1:100,000 is low enough to provide more accountability. It would mean a house around 3600 representatives but they’d be very responsible to their local communities. And we could institute a system where only senior members are in D.C. with others joining them only for very sensitive meetings that couldn’t be held using the secure intranet the military has.

This expansion would obliterate party control and lobbying. There’s just too many representatives at that point and too many seats to fund. The price tag of campaigning would drop precipitously, making elections intensely local again.

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fuck_u_spez_in_particular@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I mean that is basically how social media and news etc. work. Negative emotions are the strongest, and possibly produce the most reactions. And that’s what all of this lives from. Probably one of the reasons why the human world is slowly gonig to shit (well there I did feed it^^). I think though it’s really difficult to combat this shitty political situation we’re in basically worldwide, it’s almost self-driving into a well not so human-friendly (nor life at all) world.

But I obviously agree. Just actually do stuff that doesn’t feed this downward spiral. I.e. do stuff with friends, pursue hobbys, do sports etc. Be a good example for others (e. g. show that a more climate friendly life doesn’t need to degrade happiness, or could even be helpful). That IME leads to much more happiness, healthier life (physically and psychological), less misanthropism etc.

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