I come from a third world country with tremendous inequality. I was born in the most privileged classes.
In my country, poor people who don’t pay a lot of money die like DOGS in hospitals. Private hospitals don’t hesitate to overcharge sick people as much as they can. If you are not happy, if you protest, they just let you die. We have mostly free elections. But they are useless. Because most of the time, useless and ignorant politicians get elected. Very few people read investigative journalism. In fact, our newspapers are mostly dead. I’m one of the very few people trying to financially support quality journalism in my country.
I used to think our problems were specific. We are dumb. We are fools.
Our problems are actually surprisingly common. I lived in many nations around the world. I noticed that in some countries, some cities, politicians can achieve absolutely amazing things in public health, labor rights, housing. They can really take great decisions. And I noticed that in some rich countries, like the United States, incredibly dumb and corrupt politicians can get massive popular support. And ordinary people always pay the price:
My conclusion was simple. At the end of the day, everything stems from the people. In corrupt places, like my country, people don’t pay attention to politics. They don’t educate themselves about policies. They don’t read quality newspapers. Few people get involved in the local community. As a result, they can be easily lied to by oligarchs.
In democracies that work great, like Denmark, you have ordinary people that educate themselves and actively get involved in their local community. They support strong independent newspapers. They join community organizations pushing for change. They pay close attention to their MPs and their votes.
If my comment helps people pay closer attention to politics, then I would have achieved my goal.
I keep telling people things like this. We always vote like these problems are because of one specific political party or political philosophy, but these problems are happening around the world, all at the same time, in countries with wildly diverse politics and histories and economics. It has little to do with the specific politics, at least not within the range of choices available to us. It is not the government we choose or have chosen that is the problem, it is the people, who are being beaten down by brutal economics, by an overwhelming wealth gap, by social media and traditional media relentlessly battering points of view into our faces. We are causing these problems, we are creating them, and we are enabling them. We are becoming the problem, because we are being made into the problem. Governments do have some responsibility to address this, but so do we. And we can’t trust the government to act on it, so we must. We must become political. We must not be afraid to speak up and speak out. We must be willing to put in the work, to do the leg work, to do the research, and sometimes just to show up. Even just to do the bare minimum is sometimes enough, when so often we choose to do nothing, not even the bare minimum. Learn what’s happening, form your opinion, and say your piece. It is your right, but also your duty.
I’m not going to tell anyone how to vote, but I am going to tell you that you are ultimately responsible for the media you consume, and that you contribute. Angry rhetoric typically leads down a deadly path. Reject it. Embrace honesty and kindness whenever possible, if you are trapped in this flood of disinformation and you don’t know what point of view is true anymore, don’t reject them all, and certainly don’t just pick one, instead try your best to thoughtfully consider them all, weigh their importance yourself, and try to take the emotion out of the analysis. Especially negative emotions like fear and anger. They’re what are being used to manipulate you.
This is a superb post!
Thank you so much. This means a lot to me.
I come from a third world country with tremendous inequality. I was born in the most privileged classes.
In my country, poor people who don’t pay a lot of money die like DOGS in hospitals. Private hospitals don’t hesitate to overcharge sick people as much as they can. If you are not happy, if you protest, they just let you die. We have mostly free elections. But they are useless. Because most of the time, useless and ignorant politicians get elected. Very few people read investigative journalism. In fact, our newspapers are mostly dead. I’m one of the very few people trying to financially support quality journalism in my country.
I used to think our problems were specific. We are dumb. We are fools.
Our problems are actually surprisingly common. I lived in many nations around the world. I noticed that in some countries, some cities, politicians can achieve absolutely amazing things in public health, labor rights, housing. They can really take great decisions. And I noticed that in some rich countries, like the United States, incredibly dumb and corrupt politicians can get massive popular support. And ordinary people always pay the price:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/10/inhaler-cost-death-optum-rx-walgreens/
My conclusion was simple. At the end of the day, everything stems from the people. In corrupt places, like my country, people don’t pay attention to politics. They don’t educate themselves about policies. They don’t read quality newspapers. Few people get involved in the local community. As a result, they can be easily lied to by oligarchs.
In democracies that work great, like Denmark, you have ordinary people that educate themselves and actively get involved in their local community. They support strong independent newspapers. They join community organizations pushing for change. They pay close attention to their MPs and their votes.
If my comment helps people pay closer attention to politics, then I would have achieved my goal.
I keep telling people things like this. We always vote like these problems are because of one specific political party or political philosophy, but these problems are happening around the world, all at the same time, in countries with wildly diverse politics and histories and economics. It has little to do with the specific politics, at least not within the range of choices available to us. It is not the government we choose or have chosen that is the problem, it is the people, who are being beaten down by brutal economics, by an overwhelming wealth gap, by social media and traditional media relentlessly battering points of view into our faces. We are causing these problems, we are creating them, and we are enabling them. We are becoming the problem, because we are being made into the problem. Governments do have some responsibility to address this, but so do we. And we can’t trust the government to act on it, so we must. We must become political. We must not be afraid to speak up and speak out. We must be willing to put in the work, to do the leg work, to do the research, and sometimes just to show up. Even just to do the bare minimum is sometimes enough, when so often we choose to do nothing, not even the bare minimum. Learn what’s happening, form your opinion, and say your piece. It is your right, but also your duty.
I’m not going to tell anyone how to vote, but I am going to tell you that you are ultimately responsible for the media you consume, and that you contribute. Angry rhetoric typically leads down a deadly path. Reject it. Embrace honesty and kindness whenever possible, if you are trapped in this flood of disinformation and you don’t know what point of view is true anymore, don’t reject them all, and certainly don’t just pick one, instead try your best to thoughtfully consider them all, weigh their importance yourself, and try to take the emotion out of the analysis. Especially negative emotions like fear and anger. They’re what are being used to manipulate you.