this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
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This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and it's a huge problem, but I don't really see a lot of discussion about it. We have the technological means now for every single person on the planet to communicate directly with every single other person, in near-real time. The only real barrier to it is logistical (and is mostly impeded by resource hoarding). That's amazing. And the recent election in Nepal via Discord has me thinking again about how the internet could form the basis for a real, democratic, world government. There are a ton of problems that would need to be addressed, off the top of my head:

  • not everyone has internet access
  • not everyone that has access has unfettered access
  • It's hard to preserve anonymity and have fair elections
  • it's hard to verify elections haven't been tampered with
  • what happens when violent crimes are committed?
  • how do taxes work in this system?
  • how do armed forces work in this system?

I don't think any of these problems are necessarily unsolvable, but I don't know how. So, how would we get from where we are to where we want to be? How do we even define what the end state should look like?

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[–] commiunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

From an objective materialist standpoint, democracies are a tool of the ruling capitalist class to legitimize its own rule and keep their position of class domination while providing an illusion to the working class that they have some sort of power in the matter (they don't, all candidates are pre-selected so all you can choose is essentially the "flavor", who ultimately gets selected usually is determined via campaign money spending and media, once they're in power they gotta preserve the state machinery and capital in place etc).

Nationalism is also a very powerful tool of capital to unite people under single unified volk, deliberately obfuscating the class that might divide said volk and it's constantly used by opportunists and conservative elements.

Given these two statements, I don't think a world government like that can even exist, or if it did it'd implode via separatism from opportunists who want to be the next "great man". US for the longest time was and still is closest to this kind of position though, but they sure as shit are never going to let foreigners vote.

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Democracy just means people get to choose who leads them. You may be talking about specific societies where there's the illusion of democracy, but that's not a problem with democracy, it's a problem with capitalism.

[–] commiunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago

True, but the post isn't really talking about democracies in general but liberal democracies (the specific societies kind you mention), stretched to a worldwide scale. Probably should have clarified that.

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Friend. Oh boy quite the dusy you wrote there.....democracy isnt an illusion. Maybe where you are it is persumibly usa but what do i know

Seeing you are on what is typicly described as "left political spectrum" then you should know that every true "for the people" idea is base set on democracy. Socialism, anarchism, syndiclism aso.

The problem democracy has isnt democracy, which is litterly just people choosing who governce them, it is that democracy and capitalism inherently arent compatible with each other. For democracy to be 100% to its ideals everyone should be equal in all things. But that isnt possible in capitalism because threw wealth you can buy yourself influence, and a stage. So it is easier for wealthy to get a crowd. But that doesnt mean only wealthy people get elected. The many left partys in europe for example are quite the good example to disprove this.

Another problem is also the lack of education in many people which results in ignorance which results in fear and that into hate.

And in case you are in the US: big suprise the US' Freedom always came with astrixes and the "democracy" was rigged from the start. If that shocked you...you should reeally look outside and read in depth about your nations history and compare its "democratic" system to others in history, florence, venice, ditmarschen, hanseatic citys, modern democracys. Yes even the merchant democrasies and ancient democracys were more democratic than the US ever lol

To quote Kennedy "Democracy may not be the best system, but we have never needed to build walls to keep our people from leaving"

[–] commiunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago

I'm neither from US, neither do I consider myself as being a leftist.

When I critique democracy here, I don't critique the concept of it in general (for the records I'm 100% fine with it) but liberal democracies that dominate the world and is the status quo. It's what OP most likely means when they mention democracy in terms of world governments given the present state of things.

But that isnt possible in capitalism because threw wealth you can buy yourself influence, and a stage. So it is easier for wealthy to get a crowd. But that doesnt mean only wealthy people get elected. The many left partys in europe for example are quite the good example to disprove this.

Yeah, it doesn't - thats why media presence is as crucial as having a high campaign budget.