Originally Posted By: Owain
Originally Posted By: Derid


The problem is that the issue we face is not "lack of perfection", the problem is that the major party offerings are completely abhorrent, and actively harmful. Yet we accept it.


This is the problem people face when they fall into absolutist thinking like this. Hillary was by far not my first choice as a candidate, but really, she wasn't abhorrent. The country wouldn't have collapsed had she been elected, and the country won't collapse because Trump was elected.

Politics is the art of compromise, but both sides have declared the other side to be 'evil', which is a pathological approach. Collectively, voters have rejected that approach, which is among the factors that led to the election of Donald Trump.

Perhaps it's the engineer in me, but political strategies that lead to failure and defeat are of no interest. If you cannot compromise on your politics, get used to failure and defeat.


There is a difference between compromise, and abandonment of principles. Call it the engineer in me, but I don't see how affirming either of two losing strategies can work. Given two paths to failure, the rational option would seem to be figuring out a new path.

You are most likely correct that, in of themselves, neither Hillary nor Trump will harken immediate societal collapse. Rather, what we will get is continued weakening of the social fabric. What will bring collapse, in due time, is a continued willingness to support continuing strings of objectively worse politicians. If we continue trotting out the worst our species has to offer, expect our social conditions to continue worsening. We will have no one to blame but ourselves, for being willing to not just accept, but embrace it, in the name of party politics.

People have come to call the other side "evil" because they no longer share much, if any, specific values. There is no longer mutual faith in any institution, process, or philosophy. Even where some is claimed by one political tribe or another, their hypocrisy is almost always clearly evident.

There are only tribes that people are willing to follow, seemingly out of fandom more than anything. Your team analogies earlier were apt, on multiple levels.


For who could be free when every other man's humour might domineer over him? - John Locke (2nd Treatise, sect 57)