Why are all politicians so shit? Launch these no-good leeches into the sun.

Nobody wants this, including they themselves, which is why they specifically exempt themselves from it.

jeroenhd 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Don't forget the lobbying. Behind every authoritarian move are a group of companies lobbying for these changes. When you work for law and order, there are only so many customers you can sign, so signing new services is the most reliable way to accomplish growth.

Whoever wins the bid for the (visually hashed) child porn database Whatsapp uses is bound to receive billions of API calls the month the contract goes live. They won't make whatsapp pay for that directly, of course, but I'm sure they'll be "covering operating costs" with government grants to "protect" the public. They get to be rich claiming everyone is a paedophile yet to be caught while pronouncing themselves the foremost fighters against child abuse.

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latexr 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Clearly it’s not all of them. Some countries voted against, and even the ones voting in favour had a few people against.

The question is more why do the shit politicians rise to the top. Outside forces (rich people and companies) have too much power and can exert too much influence.

In this case I’m particularly curious about the Danes. They insisted on this more than any other previous attempt. They are forever soiled as fighting against the will of the people.

	▲	lambdaone 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It's baffling from our perspective, but perhaps not so much if you try to look at it the mindset of its proponents. It's been sold as "for the children". A very substantial proportion of the population are natural authoritarians, and this is red meat for them. Never mind that "the children" that they profess to be protecting are going to grow up living in an increasingly authoritarian surveillance state, this is what authoritarians want for our future, and they see it as not only morally good, but any opposition to it as indefensible.
	▲	tgv 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		> The question is more why do the shit politicians rise to the top. Dumb and greedy voters, traditional and social media, and electoral interference are known reasons. But it's also a matter of compromise: you vote for a party because you agree with a bunch of their points, but almost certainly not all. Topics like privacy are ignored by the general public, so politicians are hardly held accountable for them.
	▲	jeroenhd 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Some countries have more faith in their institutions than others. Countries with good and reliable institutions, comparatively at least, are easier to convince this won't be abused and is for the greater good. I'm not surprised the Danes have found a faction to support this bullshit.

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roenxi 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Well obviously they want it, they voted for it. They probably see the situation in terms of something like class war. There are a bunch of people they don't like in society and they want to identify and marginalise them.

As for why politicians turn out this way, they're just pretty ordinary people (often quite impressive people actually, relative to the norm). Most people don't get an opportunity to show off how useless their political principles are because they have no power or influence. That's why there is always a background refrain of "please stop concentrating power to the politicians it ends badly".

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Havoc 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because nobody sane & level headed wants to participate in the circus that is politics

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setnone 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I wonder if being a certain type of politician could be considered a mental health condition

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balamatom 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>Why are all politicians so shit

So that you can blame them for your problems.

	▲	5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

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usrnm 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Mostly because they are people