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Comment by ptah | Hacker News Reader

this reminds me of an interview i saw on the news with an elderly british voter who was adamant that she will vote Tory as they are bound to win. it's almost like she saw her vote as a bet and she wanted to get it right.

this interview moved me significantly towards being sceptical of current democracies

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Most people don't care about politics that much, they vote more or less for a continuation of what's currently going on with an occasional minor course correction one way or another.

I imagine that was the case with that lady, didn't care about politics, wanted things to be more or less the same, votes Conservative and when put on the spot doesn't really have a good explanation as to why.

The most useful thing about democracy is the ability to kick people out, not necessarily choose the best person for the job.

We could do a bunch of rounds of elections where we all vote against someone (or some party) Big spending attention whores would be eliminated in the first round.

That sounds like a cultural artifact of a Spoils System sort of corruption from US history - being blindly followed while forgetting that there even was a purpose because it was a cultural norm.

I am aware of literal feudalism version in the UK but I am unsure if they historically had a similar thing - it wouldn't be surprising personally.

I had to look that up. It sounds like what is happening now in UK where civil service is being purged of anyone anti-brexit.

https://news.sky.com/story/number-10-blocked-mary-beard-role...

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