• Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    Non-compulsory voting is one of the biggest problems in the US system.

    Everyone always bangs on about their rights in a democracy but what about the responsibility of deciding who runs the place?

    It leads to “We have to make our base angry enough to get off their arses and vote”, rather than “What policies will appeal to the most people”.

    • cucumber_sandwich@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      First past the post voting is a much larger problem. Many votes in the US system actually don’t matter and making voting compulsory does nothing to change that.

      • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        I completely agree.

        That is why I said “One of” not “the only”.

        Another big one is the use of the electoral college and that it has not been rebalanced to reflect population changes in decades.

        Another is gerrymandering.

        The overarching problem is that, since ww2, the USA has turned their founding documents and institutions into holy relics that cannot be changed.

    • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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      11 months ago

      Without a “none of the above” option, compulsory voting is just compelled speech in support of the regime.

      Venezuela has fairer elections than we do.

      • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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        11 months ago

        They have universal Healthcare and got rid of the “mass shooter” problem tho.

        Edit: the deleted comment above said that Australia had mandatory voting and was as fucked as the us.

      • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        To expand on what the other comment stated.

        After a mass shooting the Aus Conservative party passed laws that basically ended mass shootings decades ago. Despite the fact there are now more firearms in Aus than before the laws were passed.

        Universal healthcare, far from perfect but it actually exists and has been in place for 50 years.

        A level of worker protection that the USA can only dream of. You cannot be fired without good reasons and because i said so is not one of them. Mandatory sick leave (10 days) and holiday pay (20 days) for all full time workers.

        A minimum wage that automatically rises every year to keep up with inflation. (it went up 8.5% this year alone)

        Can’t find work? As long as you are actually looking you will receive benefits, for years.

        Abortion is not a political issue. It is a medical decision for the woman involved and that is it.

  • Lugh@futurology.todayOPM
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    11 months ago

    Civox, the company behind this service, is ensuring the AI discloses that it is AI to callers. They’ve also said they won’t take VC money to ensure their board’s ethics values aren’t diluted. It won’t be long before less high-minded people are doing what they are doing.

    The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) will ban people from using tech like this to lie or deceive people, but few people anywhere else in the world have such protections yet. Disinformation has become the norm on social media already, it is almost inevitable people will use this technology for it. I suspect the kind of people who are already most vulnerable to disinformation, will be the easiest to be fooled by thinking AI’s calling them are real humans, if the AI says it’s human.

    • thesmokingman@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      If the board is beginning from the premise that it is ethical to waste the time and resources of everyday citizens who did not explicitly opt into getting spammed, their ethics are already compromised. VC funding already captured the regulatory body that should have prevented this massive waste of resources. No one high-minded would use tech like this.

  • Doug Holland@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Never donate to political candidates or causes. Your name and address will be sold and re-sold, so fifty bucks today brings spam and junk mail for the rest of your life.

    • rgb3x3@beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      World’s dumbest take.

      “The Democratic party is annoying me with phone calls, so I’m going to let the fascists take over the country.”

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        There’s two ways you could have interpreted that comment.

        The first, is that this would have annoyed me, and been a factor, but not the factor, in deciding my vote.

        The second, is that I would vote for the other guys out of spite.

        You went with the big brain option.

      • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Agreed. Make it texts or something? Like I understand needing to shake people out of their routine a little to get them to do this thing once every 2 yrs, but somehow I already anticipate getting mad about it.