I'm old enough to remember how things used to be and it sure wasn't perfect, but JFC is it bad now.

really? cos I feel old, but as far back as I remember usa's vaunted democratic institutions have been a sideshow while the wealthy favour global militarist domination over the needs of ordinary american people.

when did you decide that things went bad?

Let's see:

SC decision that presidents are above the law.

Violent assault on the Capitol.

Journalism imploding.

OK.

I'm looking for a year.

I think the SC decision was last year, whereas the capitol riot was 4 yrs ago.

sorry, I don't know a date for 'journalism imploding', but I'm guessing you mean 2016?

so you think the WMD lies were before things turned bad?

I’ve personally harped on the failure of globalization since the 1990s, before it was cool.

Nothing has been this bad.

But perhaps I’m wrong. Could you point out how today is the same as before?

broad brushstrokes: democracy as a sideshow while the rulers prioritise warriorism over the material needs of the population was clear last century.

what's worse? I mean, I'll readily admit that the sideshow has got more ridiculous, but the main game is the same.

How much worse would you say has the side show gotten?

Would you say the sideshow itself is being undermined at this point?

I dunno about worse, but wildly more ridiculous. Not sure how to measure, but the scattergun disinfo is certainly another level beyond targeted lies.

maybe we need to undermine it? if the institutions of 'democracy' that tower over us are not working we might need to build some from the ground up that do.

Damn, missed this one.

ITs not so much that they aren’t working, more that 2 forces work if let alone for enough time.

1) Creation of a private propaganda arm for a party (Fox/ Dailymail etc.) 1.1) Sub point media is screwed due to the need to earn income from ads, resulting in them beaming ever increasing levels of pain and anger into everyone’s house,

2) Winning is all that matters politicking. Repubs gave up on bipartisanship, and would trash their own projects if it meant showing the dems as reliable and credible.

With these two forces, you can have a story created - creationism for example, and then a party member can go to congress / senate, point to the news article, and treat it as if its a real issue.

This was you create a cheaper, more efficient political system that has no need to spend on research, facts, or analysis.

This is the free money glitch that underpins the success of the Repub party.

The point of free speech was to enable the exchange of ideas in the pursuit of truth. But if you take over the market place, create one brand of truth, and are responsible for certifying its true - well thats a broken market.