The problem is that you respect and believe in words. The people currently in charge could give two fucks. Ultimately, words only have the power that we give them, so when those in charge ignore the Constitution, then the Contitution has no power.
I have severe ADHD. It’s funny in a way because when I was younger, I tried to understand the rules of my employers and follow them. And yet I still lost jobs. In part because of issues related to ADHD specifically, but in part because what companies SAY the rules are is not what the rules are. If you’ve worked in a corporate environment, you know that there’s go-to people for things. And while there’s official processes (or maybe even not), what ACTUALLY happens is that someone goes to the person who can do something and asks them to do it, and generally they do, and that’s like 75% of how business actually runs.
In the same way, there are rules and decorum and traditions in politics and revolve around the Constution and various bodies of legislature, et cetera. And so there’s nothing that ACTUALLY forces anyone to follow any of that except voluntary compliance or physical threat because policing bodies enforce things.
This is why the rich are free, largely, from most crimes. They aren’t enforced. And this is how our democracy crumbled. The Constitution hasn’t been repealed. It doesn’t have to be. It is simply ignored. Worse, those who claim to follow it shit on it and ignore it and throw it out.
or physical threat because policing bodies enforce things.
And unfortunately those kinds of organisations are full of people who tend to lean very heavily towards authoritarianism, so once the winds shift enough you’ll suddenly find that the people who are supposed to be enforcing the law, well, don’t.
Europe isn’t immune either, by any means. The monopoly on violence will, unsurprisingly, be full of violent authoritarians, and the same will happen anywhere that authoritarians feel like they now have the upper hand
Feel rare to hear that expressed, but one of the side effects of our fall into fascism is that, like you say - we make for a good case study, and if it woke Europeans up a bit and that fall doesn’t happen over there, so much the better.
It definitely is a reminder that we cannot take democracy for granted. It is a constant struggle. And letting the oligarchs “play” with their Fox News lies and right-wing radio… that experiment shows that fascism and authoritarianism must be stamped out and not allowed to thrive as an “equal voice”.
We already have Slovakia, Hungary and Italy here, with Italy being ruled by literal neofascists – FdI is a direct descendant of Mussolini’s original Fascist Party. Finland is on its way to joining them, in Germany AfD is gaining popularity, RN is very popular in France and so on
The problem is that you respect and believe in words. The people currently in charge could give two fucks. Ultimately, words only have the power that we give them, so when those in charge ignore the Constitution, then the Contitution has no power.
I have severe ADHD. It’s funny in a way because when I was younger, I tried to understand the rules of my employers and follow them. And yet I still lost jobs. In part because of issues related to ADHD specifically, but in part because what companies SAY the rules are is not what the rules are. If you’ve worked in a corporate environment, you know that there’s go-to people for things. And while there’s official processes (or maybe even not), what ACTUALLY happens is that someone goes to the person who can do something and asks them to do it, and generally they do, and that’s like 75% of how business actually runs.
In the same way, there are rules and decorum and traditions in politics and revolve around the Constution and various bodies of legislature, et cetera. And so there’s nothing that ACTUALLY forces anyone to follow any of that except voluntary compliance or physical threat because policing bodies enforce things.
This is why the rich are free, largely, from most crimes. They aren’t enforced. And this is how our democracy crumbled. The Constitution hasn’t been repealed. It doesn’t have to be. It is simply ignored. Worse, those who claim to follow it shit on it and ignore it and throw it out.
And unfortunately those kinds of organisations are full of people who tend to lean very heavily towards authoritarianism, so once the winds shift enough you’ll suddenly find that the people who are supposed to be enforcing the law, well, don’t.
As we have seen in recent months. heh :/
Yeah the US is pretty much a case study.
Europe isn’t immune either, by any means. The monopoly on violence will, unsurprisingly, be full of violent authoritarians, and the same will happen anywhere that authoritarians feel like they now have the upper hand
Feel rare to hear that expressed, but one of the side effects of our fall into fascism is that, like you say - we make for a good case study, and if it woke Europeans up a bit and that fall doesn’t happen over there, so much the better.
It definitely is a reminder that we cannot take democracy for granted. It is a constant struggle. And letting the oligarchs “play” with their Fox News lies and right-wing radio… that experiment shows that fascism and authoritarianism must be stamped out and not allowed to thrive as an “equal voice”.
We already have Slovakia, Hungary and Italy here, with Italy being ruled by literal neofascists – FdI is a direct descendant of Mussolini’s original Fascist Party. Finland is on its way to joining them, in Germany AfD is gaining popularity, RN is very popular in France and so on