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Eugine_Nier comments on Reasons for being rational - Less Wrong
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I disagree. The phrase "democracy is retarded" is so far from what most people, at least in the West, believe that saying it will simply make you look like a harmless eccentric.
As Paul Graham pointed out here:
You're unlikely to convince many people by saying "democracy is retarded" so there's no reason to attack you. As for ideas that will actually get sacred cows, I recommend looking at this comment by Quirinus_Quirrell.
Agreed. Having the slogan on a T-shirt wouldn't warrant a fear of strong backlash or status loss. The trouble would only begin if I started to actually advocate such a position with valid arguments.
Seeing how for most people any political system that is not democratic is automatically evil, one would expect quite a reaction. "You know, I don't think every person should have the right to influence government policy by his or her opinion" will be quite unpopular, since virtually all people delude themselves into believing that they actually know stuff and can make rational decisions, when what they are really doing is finding rationalizations for their gut-reactions.
The problem with governments is that they're composed of people, and people tend to be stupid, corrupt, or both.
I think was you meant to say was: The problem with democracies is that they're often run by the majority opinon of people, and people tend to be stupid, corrupt, or both.
We could build a government that wasn't composed of just people, or even of people who fit some criteria of non-stupid and non-corrupt, and it would still be a government.
Stupidity and corruption are also problems with dictatorship and its variants as well.
And "democracy + dictatorship and it's variants" is obviously the set of all possible workable forms of government?
Until SIAI finishes their main project I think we're stuck with using people.
This is extremely hard as Goodhart's law tends to make this whatever proxy you use less reliable very quickly.