We invented something called “democracy” to fix this, and then we allowed enough wealth to accumulate that the wealthy just bought it and nerfed it.

We went through a cycle like this once before in U.S. history, and the amount of violence it took to correct the overreach of organized money was not 0.

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kazinator 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That was a design feature of democracy all along, not a bug.

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remarkEon 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Democracy stops working when no one can agree on what the problem even is. Your comment is one that implicitly condones these kinds of attacks because it’s part of some kind of “cycle” repeating itself, and ah of course we’ll see more violence before the issue is “corrected”. We may even need it!

A little disturbing to be quite honest, though I suppose this is what happens when a generation takes “eat the rich” not as a LARPy political slogan but as a real call to action.

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croon 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Describing something does not equal condoning something. Whether GP is correct in assessment or no, they are describing a pattern they see, as an observer. I don't see a value judgment in their language unless I'm missing something.

Whether they are correct or not I'm not going to weigh in on, but I will make the claim that figuring out why something happens is the best way of preventing it from happening again.

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heylook 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This has been the historical cycle for as long as we have records of human history. Power begets power and greed. Eventually either everyone else reaches a breaking point and "eat the rich", or an external group takes advantage and eats everyone. Then we try again.

	▲	ethbr1 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Agreed. Anyone who thinks democracy isn't punctuated by economically-redistributive violence hasn't been studying history. Based in the simple fact that humans will not cede power/wealth willingly once they gain it. Ergo, violence (either state or individual) to effect a new balance. Which isn't to legitimize violence, but is to say that stripping away a population's ability to effect change by being violent, if enough of them choose, is more dystopian than some violence. Fix the issue: don't complain about the symptoms.