Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[PsYcNeT]

Wait what kind of two-bit committee votes on motions via email?

Mother####ers can't even make up a quick SurveyMonkey to ensure quorum?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Jurisdiction over healthcare, education and labour laws. What could go wrong?

Sorry for making light of it. I’ll be sure to run any jokes by you in the future to avoid getting the dreaded eye rolls.

[fotze2]

Does anyone here know someone who went "into politics" or got elected? All total losers. It's uncanny.

My aunt was a 'separate' school board trustee for a decade and she was widely known as the dumbest human on earth in our family.

I seriously think we need to jack up the pay or something even though that grosses me out.

And Byfield should be Bi-field.

[Scornfire]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Does anyone here know someone who went "into politics" or got elected? All total losers. It's uncanny.

My aunt was a 'separate' school board trustee for a decade and she was widely known as the dumbest human on earth in our family.

I seriously think we need to jack up the pay or something even though that grosses me out.

And Byfield should be Bi-field.

I'm sure most well meaning politicians quickly run into the same thing most animal care providers run into, compassion fatigue. The overlap of people capable of surviving in the political arena and people who *should* be in politics probably number in the dozens per million, bring on the AI overlords

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Sorry for making light of it. I’ll be sure to run any jokes by you in the future to avoid getting the dreaded eye rolls.

Don’t say that Pepsi, now everyone is gonna know your weakness

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Does anyone here know someone who went "into politics" or got elected? All total losers. It's uncanny.

My aunt was a 'separate' school board trustee for a decade and she was widely known as the dumbest human on earth in our family.

I seriously think we need to jack up the pay or something even though that grosses me out.

And Byfield should be Bi-field.

When I was growing up one of my buddies dad was a cabinet minister in the Peter Lougheed government. Of course we didn't see the work side of him but he was a great guy at our level. Car pooled us to our hockey games, lived in an ordinary house etc.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Does anyone here know someone who went "into politics" or got elected? All total losers. It's uncanny.

My aunt was a 'separate' school board trustee for a decade and she was widely known as the dumbest human on earth in our family.

I seriously think we need to jack up the pay or something even though that grosses me out.

And Byfield should be Bi-field.

Yes, me.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Does anyone here know someone who went "into politics" or got elected? All total losers. It's uncanny.

My aunt was a 'separate' school board trustee for a decade and she was widely known as the dumbest human on earth in our family.

I seriously think we need to jack up the pay or something even though that grosses me out.

And Byfield should be Bi-field.

I know a couple of folks that went into politics. They were actually going in on the premise of doing good for the community and making change happen. They are genuinely good people but potentially a bit naive on what they could actually accomplish and I don't think they were able to accomplish much. After a while it just became a regular job to them which came with a lot of public scrutiny and pressure and it really wasn't worth the pay cheques they were receiving.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Does anyone here know someone who went "into politics" or got elected? All total losers. It's uncanny.

My aunt was a 'separate' school board trustee for a decade and she was widely known as the dumbest human on earth in our family.

I seriously think we need to jack up the pay or something even though that grosses me out.

And Byfield should be Bi-field.

Yeah, I've thought about this a bunch. It's a huge problem and I don't see a solution.

It attracts people who love hearing themselves talk, enjoy being up on stage, enjoy power, like attention and are often overconfident in their intelligence/competence. None of these qualities benefit the governed.

Like Danielle Smith. You have a dope of the highest order who just likes listening to herself talk. She has the mannerisms, tone of voice and confidence to project an image of a competent politician, yet everything she says is super fuucking stupid. You can totally dupe morons into voting for you when you present yourself as she does.

The best leaders are obviously the reluctant leaders, but reluctant leaders generally don't run for office due to their reluctance.

The pool of potential political leaders from which to draw on is frighteningly small. There are probably oodles of people completely qualified to lead us in incredible ways, but you'll never hear their names and they'll never run for office because:

• they don't want to be in the public eye
• they don't like attention
• they don't want a 24/7 job
• they don't want to work with a bunch of idiots
• they don't want to govern a bunch of idiots
• they don't want to lead a bureaucracy where good ideas/strategies/etc. will get bogged down in red tape and partisan opposition
• lately there is so much vitriol directed towards politicians that many don't want to subject themselves nor their families to the frothing hatred

So you're left with a very shallow pool of political candidates. And non-partisan types - the ones who would be the best leaders - are non-existent because we're too tribal to let them get anywhere near power. Pool gets shallower.

Plus, I don't think good people can even get elected because the electorate would rather believe lies. Trump. Smith. The list is long. Dumb-dumbs allow themselves to be willfully duped, and then you have people like Hillary Clinton and Notley not getting elected because they're too focused on responsible governance versus jacking off the morons who would vote for them if you told them the right lies.

Look at First Lady on here. What was she running for? She was probably one of the dumbest people to every come on CP. It was shocking she was incapable of recognizing her own intellectual limitations. Plus she couldn't even manage her own life or finances...she came on here begging us for money to send her family to Australia. Like, wtf...you want to control the public purse? GTFO.

[Fuzz]

And Notley is a good person and decent politician. Yet people still voted for the mentally stunted choice. Like, Smith has been elected, and has now asked for a course on how government works. That is totally backwards, yet half the province didn't even blink an eye at not voting for someone so incompetent. What is the point if that is the reality? Humanity is just collectively too stupid.

[iggy_oi]

The best part is that most of the “freedom” fighting rebels who claim to oppose government and don’t want to be held down by the system are doing exactly what the powers that be want them to do and don’t even realize it.

[Fuzz]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1671977436672843776


Cool cool, nice to see that endorsing bigotry and hatred has the expected outcomes. Not to worry though, once we have an Alberta Police Force these pesky incidents can be safely ignored.


Things are going just great.

[iggy_oi]

It boggles my mind how in this day and age there are still people who are afraid of other people for reasons that pose zero threat to them whatsoever.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

It boggles my mind how in this day and age there are still people who are afraid of other people for reasons that pose zero threat to them whatsoever.

Dude, think of the children!


People are afraid because the media they consume tells them to be afraid. They are hateful because the organizations they attend tell them they are superior, and anything outside their norm is evil. It's not a giant ####ing mystery, and it is entirely within human power to solve. But people choose to allow it, because freedom.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Dude, think of the children!


People are afraid because the media they consume tells them to be afraid. They are hateful because the organizations they attend tell them they are superior, and anything outside their norm is evil. It's not a giant ####ing mystery, and it is entirely within human power to solve. But people choose to allow it, because freedom.

I think this is a bit of an oversimplification, not all bigots are religious and not all religious people are bigots. (I’m assuming you were referring to religious organizations)

[Fuzz]

Ya, and I didn't say that. "Organizations" include anything from TBA to Hells Angels, to the Freedom Convoyers. Trust me, if I meant religions specifically, I would have said that.

[wireframe]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Dude, think of the children!


People are afraid because the media they consume tells them to be afraid. They are hateful because the organizations they attend tell them they are superior, and anything outside their norm is evil. It's not a giant ####ing mystery, and it is entirely within human power to solve. But people choose to allow it, because freedom.

People choose to allow it because they're neck deep in that same system. The reason media and organizations drive hate and division (a point that I agree with) is that the audience wants exactly that. It's like fast food - we know it's bad for us but our stupid lizard brains just f###ing love the cheap thrill.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by wireframe

People choose to allow it because they're neck deep in that same system. The reason media and organizations drive hate and division (a point that I agree with) is that the audience wants exactly that. It's like fast food - we know it's bad for us but our stupid lizard brains just f###ing love the cheap thrill.

It really seems like humanity is incapable of governing itself over the long term when you look at history and how much we've regressed in the last decade. Great civilizations rise up, thrive for a bit, then inevitably the people in charge #### it up and everything falls apart. At this point I'd be fully on board with an AI or an alien civilization coming along and making us a client species before we completely destroy the planet

[indes]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

It really seems like humanity is incapable of governing itself over the long term when you look at history and how much we've regressed in the last decade. Great civilizations rise up, thrive for a bit, then inevitably the people in charge #### it up and everything falls apart. At this point I'd be fully on board with an AI or an alien civilization coming along and making us a client species before we completely destroy the planet

We're just in the cycle. I've posted the link before but Ray Dalio has a YouTube video outlining the changes of world order throughout history and they're all the same as what we're going through.

World order changes, reserve currency changes, nations rise above and become rich, massive debt ensues, inflation and money printing happens, class division increases, wealth gets consolidated, political divide becomes a huge factor and gets worse.

These things have happened many times throughout history, it seems bad to us because it's the first time in our lifetimes.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by indes

We're just in the cycle. I've posted the link before but Ray Dalio has a YouTube video outlining the changes of world order throughout history and they're all the same as what we're going through.

World order changes, reserve currency changes, nations rise above and become rich, massive debt ensues, inflation and money printing happens, class division increases, wealth gets consolidated, political divide becomes a huge factor and gets worse.

These things have happened many times throughout history, it seems bad to us because it's the first time in our lifetimes.

In that case, what is the strategy for us middle class commoners at this point? How do we position ourselves and families for the future? Is it time to seriously consider taking up arms and becoming preppers?