Oddbean

On the first point: point taken. I agree, a shared concept of collective good is necessary for a stable society. And stable societies become unstable as they get larger, because it is harder and harder to have the same shared concept of what that is. Case in point: America. On the second point: I'm not insisting I'm suggesting; I'm sharing my view. You can base your ethics however you see fit.

I think America has a surprisingly concordant view of the common good, when you look at opinion polls 60-70% of Americans generally agree on most things. There's an institutional failure occuring in the two-party system with minority constituency capture. An even bigger problem is one of the parties has collapsed into a personality cult.

Ok I'm going to go back to building a nostr client, but it is funny to hear that one of the parties is a personality cult. How many Trump supporters supported the vaccine he rushed through? If they were in a cult, they wouldn't have mixed opinions about him.

Dunno. When I hear members of my family and former friends referring to him as the most honest, down-to-earth politician of theirnlifetime, I just hear "I'm in a cult". Thats what my brain translates that to.

Well, maybe your family members are. The conservatives I know think Trump has a mental illness (narcissism) that isn't too serious and people shouldn't hate on him for it. They think he lies a ton but mostly inconsequential lies that just make him feel better about himself. And that because he is already pretty well off, he is less likely to be in it to skim off of the system (like Biden clearly is). They think he really wants to make America better, and he wants the credit for it of course. And they agree more with his vision than the alternate. And because he isn't fake like most politicians are, he just says what he thinks without much filter, they appreciate that and feel this kind of person is more trustworthy, isn't hiding some alternate agenda. They are probably somewhat wrong on that last point though - he never locked Hillary up - but they are somewhat right too as he openly admitted 'you just say that to get elected.' But your family members, well I can't say anything about them can I?

A large number of pundits claim a Trump presidency would be the end of everything. They did this in 2020 that I remember the best, but probably are doing it again (I don't pay so much attention to internal American politics anymore). When they say things like this I just hear "I have Trump derangement syndrome" That is what my brain translates that to.

Trump stands in opposition to extremely dangerous figures. So they have painted him as a dangerous figure. And you have sucked it up because it aligns with what you already wanted. But really what use is further conversation between us? Are we coming to greater understandings? No. This just feels like Twitter. If I wanted Twitter I would go to x.com. But I'm on nostr. So I'm going to make my exit from this thread now.

for me are all politcan dangerous. all systems did not work so far, without corruption. Maybe with the block chain technology can be in the future a system with only direct voting of the public.