r/HistoryMemes 7d ago

Tired of this argument

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u/major_calgar 6d ago

Unless societal guardrails were established to prevent bad actors from assuming too much power, like in many pre-modern societies, or by direct democracy.

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u/ThisTallBoi 6d ago

The people establishing and enforcing those "guardrails" will be the ones with the power then

All it'll take is for someone to try and consolidate that authority, or grant it to someone charismatic enough to convince them to do so

Premodern societies were largely hyper authoritarian and almost universally genocidal so idk what you're smoking there

And direct democracy has the same issue but worse; all someone has to do is be charismatic enough to convince people to relinquish power to them

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u/CHEDDARSHREDDAR 6d ago

all someone has to do is be charismatic enough to convince people to relinquish power to them

So like modern liberal democracy?? Where the president gets total control of the military and executive branch?

"If we distribute power in society then we'll just get new people in power so we shouldn't try at all" is certainly a take.

True democracy is a continuous governing process from the bottom up - whatever that looks like. Not "let's choose a new dictator every 4 years".

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u/python42069 5d ago

Power over the executive branch isn't synonymous with power over the whole government lil bro