this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It lost that status a long time ago. We keep the veneer of it intact, though.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Most of the "Democracy" status countries are bull shit anyway. They are heavily weighed on "Economic Freedom" which is a fancy way of saying the freedom for which Imperialist nations corporations are able to exploit third world countries resources.

Nationalize your oil system and have the profits of it go directly back to your people for the improvement of social programs? Damn, that sounds like Communism!

Sell oil drilling rights to Shell to "bring jobs" to your country that pay poverty wages, destroy local ecosystems, and extract all your resources with no benefits to the local population? Well, that's "Economic Freedom" baby!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Is this just your vibes or do you have a source? Because I just checked the website of the organization this article is referencing and it says no such thing.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 days ago

Could? ....should.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 days ago (5 children)

America deserves to be recognized as a Third World Country. I say this as an American, it's deplorable how the citizens are treated.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The cold war is over, they are called developing countries now. Your point still stands, the US has lots of developing to do, especially on the social/society front.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

It doesn't meet the definition of "developing nation" either.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

To be clear- this is just your personal "vibe" and not an actual fact, because the term "third world country" literally means a country that is not aligned with the US or USSR. If you meant "developing nation" that term also has a definition the US does not meet.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

South Sudan is a third world country. America isnt third world, it's heading into authoritarianism.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I think the term is "A third world country with a Gucci belt"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

We've been a third world country for a several decades already. Just because we use to change out guys in the office every 4-8 years, doesnt mean it was ever all that good here.

[–] iamunfuckwitable 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Probably won’t get it back

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

We haven't had a vote on the shape or priorities of our economy since 1980. This is an economic dictatorship, and has been longer than most of us here have been alive.

We just get a vote on how/if to address the social wedge symptoms that economy either causes or exacerbates.

And only IF addressing them won't meaningfully harm quarterly earnings expectations for our sociopath class. Example: you know what would drastically reduce the number of abortions without any kind of ban? A living wage that can support a family. But that would cut into corporate metastasis and is therefore a non-starter by either party in anything more than rhetoric.

You can have scapegoating(R) or affirmation ribbons(D), so long as you vote for for profit prisons, legal murder for profit, millions of Americans dying of exposure on the streets, crumbling commons, public education in utter ruin.... Freedom!

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 days ago

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"

Winston S Churchill, 11 November 1947

[–] [email protected] 59 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We should have never had the status given we still use slaves.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Land of the free founded on slaves. America really is just a big pile of hypocrisy under the hood of vain surface level patriotism.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Having a for-profit prison system was a bad choice.

Who could have seen it coming ?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago

And a pay to win political candidate system, and a heavily monetized educational system. Who is surprised about the decline of the man who steps on his dick and machineguns his own foot?

[–] [email protected] 133 points 3 days ago (2 children)

And a few days after that, PragerU releases a video titled "Why democracies will fail eventually", which tells its viewers that democracy creates "moral decadence", and now a "strong leader" is needed to fix the issue, who might have told some noble lies like a parent tells their kid the stork brings the children when they're not ready for reality. And the video ends with a "Roman salute" over "God Bless America".

[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 days ago (14 children)

People tell their kids the stork brings babies because the parent is the one not ready to have the conversation.

The parent is avoiding their own humiliation. Telling kids how babies are made is not embarassing for kids. Kids have no reason to feel shame or judgement about these kinds of things….

Just pointing this out to show that the metaphor here is deeply flawed.

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[–] [email protected] 110 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Oh, but were not a democracy, were a constitutional republic hardy har har har har

  • my republican friends.
[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)

constitutional republic

So we're going to follow the constitution?

ohh

It's like talking to MAGA about Christianity So you're going to follow the bible?

ohh

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I wish I could award this comment. It follows my occasional and unfulfilling conversations with Republicans extremely closely. If the conversation doesn't end with wanting to pull my hair out and put my head through the nearest available drywall, did I really talk to Republican?

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (7 children)

we're a constitutional federal republic, with democratically elected representatives, but a plutocracy, in practice

  • me, a political science pedant of highest/worst order
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[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 days ago (8 children)

The US is one of the most watered down democracies, even for a liberal democracy (which is severely watered down). Its a system where the needs of the many are filtered through the needs of the few. We dont need to "fix" liberal democracy, we need workers democracy (syndicalism).

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago

Anyone surprised by this? Anyone? Because I’m not.

[–] Randomgal 2 points 1 day ago

Could? Lmao. Don't you need laws and elected officials to count as a democracy to begin with?

[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 days ago (2 children)

"Could lose"? We are long past this point. When you can chose between two parties and they try to manipulate the election as hard as they can, then that's a zombie democracy at best. And now? The president stands above the law. He can fire people illegally. He can disable law enforcement. Democracy in the US is gone. Hopefully only temporarily. Now it's up to people to act, take their rogue government down and repair what can be repaired.

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[–] [email protected] 86 points 3 days ago

"You’ve only been a democracy for only 50 years. Not unless you don't count black people... you are nearly as mature democracy as Botswana." - Lukas Matsson (Swedish guy) on Succession

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