this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
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Memes

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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Democracy has as a necessary precondition that people are intelligent enough to differentiate good candidates from bad candidates.

The real question therefore is whether the people are intelligent enough. That decides their fate.

[–] narwhal@mander.xyz 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I think your capacity to think is irrelevant or even played against you when the elites pour obscene amounts of money to change your perception of reality. Even the greatest minds can't escape this.

[–] turdcollector69@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

I feel like the belief that intelligence somehow grants immunity to propaganda has utterly devastated media literacy and subsequently our political landscape.

When people started taking memes and blogs as legitimate sources of information we were cooked.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 4 months ago

Democracy has as a necessary precondition that people are intelligent enough to differentiate good candidates from bad candidates.

This is just fundamentally impossible, 99.9% of people only relation to candidates is what they see in social media or other ads. People really have no idea who they're choosing and its entirely a vibes based decision, i.e. candidate A speaks elocuently, candidate B is charming, etc...

[–] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I would replace intelligent with well educated, at least

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I have come to dislike the word "education" as it refers to plato's cave analogy in such a way that somebody else leads you out of it.

"Education" is therefore not something that you do yourself, but that somebody else does on you. It is therefore objectifying and puts the humans in a passive position.

Meanwhile, "insight" or "inspiration" is something that you do yourself as it is you who brings up the interest to learn something. Therefore it is a much better word.

[–] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I kind of didn't like that word as I was writing it. Similar to how "tutoring" literally means to "straighten" or basically to inculcate to normativity.

Meanwhile, “insight” or “inspiration” is something that you do yourself [...]

Good edit, this is a better word choice.