Comment by simonask | Hacker News Reader

Comment by simonask | Hacker News Reader

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I hate this take.

It's myopic. Centered on, and informed by, a political culture that is quite unique to the US, and to a limited extent the UK. Lots of politics the world over does not work like that, and is in fact rooted in collaboration rather than "combat".

I'm in Denmark, and we just held local elections the other day. The overwhelming majority of city councils have broad constitutions across not just party lines, but across the entire left/right spectrum. It doesn't mean that there isn't competition, but it does mean that everyone is aware that they will have to work together with their competition when the election is over. This is the norm in most European countries with functioning democracies.

The US political culture is an outlier, and it is not useful to draw any conclusions about humans, politics, or democracy from it.

> This is the norm in most European countries with functioning democracies.

That sounds like the opposite problem, though. It's functioning, but if there's no real choice, it's barely a democracy.

The dynamic they're describing isn't foreign to older Americans.

It's how things worked in America until roughly 15 years ago.

As dangerous as it seems to Americans steeped in turbulent politics, a democracy can indeed steer itself to a single effective choice. An American just has two choices (Coke or Pepsi, donkey or elephant) usually anyway -- this demonstrates a very similar refinement of choice.

>Lots of politics the world over does not work like that, and is in fact rooted in collaboration rather than "combat".

Yes, the collaboration on transferring the wealth from the working class to the asset owning class.

>This is the norm in most European countries with functioning democracies.

It isn't. Plenty of corruption and backstabbing going on behind the scenes in order to torpedo the greater good if it means one party's lobbyists interests win. Denmark, and maybe most of the nordics, is a exception to this, not the norm for Europe. In Austria and at EU level, corruption, waste, theft and lack of accountability is the norm.

And I hope we can keep it that way, in spite of increasing polarisation everywhere. The world is not a good place if people can't see eye to eye and have some basic level of understanding.

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