In Reply to: Modern democracy is just polite dictatorship.... posted by ClockBlocker on July 15, 2025 at 12:23:45
1. The video focuses on the most basic form of democracy that does not have minority protections or limitations that are incorporated into modern democracies.
2. It takes a very limited version of democracy as its base, i.e., a system with two dominant parties. When you have enough number of parties, you have better gradation and situational alliances that makes the democracy far more responsive to the way the larger population breaks down on specific issues, making coalition building more effective than polarization.
3. I will take the criticism that democracy rewards politicians who are better at campaigning over those that are better at getting results. Years ago I phrased this critique as "democracy, as presently constituted, does not incentivize problem solving". This is indeed a weakness of Democracy 1.0 (presidential system) and 2.0 (parlimentarian system)
4. Philosopher kings? Absolutely, positively, f*ck-em. Curtis Yarvin can go to hell.
5. Dig deeper into the issues that are raised after the first quarter of the video and you'll find capitalism as the root of the problems that Democracy faces in modern societies. Which doesn't surprise me. Capitalism is the proverbial water that critics often don't even notice all around them.
To be transparent: I kinda bailed out halfway through (primarily due to #5, which tells me that the critique is likely to observe some true facts but not be able to give it a satisfactory analysis without that key ingredient).