The non-voters had nothing to do with this. They literally did not participate.

Any real democracy would count the non-voters as part of the results. 20M not voting? OK then, any policies that affect everyone can no longer be enacted. No new laws. No new wars. Government can then maintain plumbing and provide public services, that’s it.

Why isn’t that the case? Why is it not a requirement for people to vote for government to have power?

Democracy…? Sure. Whatever hope you need to feel, friend, see you in the streets I hope.

Thank you. Wow. I was basing that on something I saw or thought I saw in Cosmos (the 1980s version with Carl Sagan). Perhaps I was stoned when watching it. There is little better than to watch one of the Cosmos series while stoned - or the autotuned versions by Melodysheep (on YouTube).

For anyone who wants a quicker read on the above: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_greenhouse_effect

I shall have to revise my world view now. 🤯🤯🤯 Wow. I feel optimistic.

Tardigrades - they will likely survive then. And cockroaches, and other life. So even if we all + most animals die out, we will be like the dinosaurs, and life may indeed bounce back.

I mean… A shadow has been lifted from my soul.

Goddamn. I know it seems like I am joking but I am not.

Good news.

Yes… and what good it did everyone to reduce the distance of objects… Sometimes distance is good. Gives me time to think about why I’m really going there in the first place.

Yay humans.

Actually there is a serious risk that Earth turns into Venus. Perpetually self-reinforcing green house effect. All life on Earth, fried, for all eternity.

Edit: Well, until the sun blows.

FTP?

From an evolutionary perspective, only the ones who survive matter.

So in that spirit, the only way to create a society resistant to power consolidations is one that actively recognizes, seeks out and annihilates said power consolidations.

As otherwise, they will annihilate everything opposing them – as history tells us.

There are gentler social traditions to distribute wealth and power so as to avoid consolidation. Probably the post-colonial world is beyond that point.

A scary prospect, to be sure, but in the grand scheme of things… “The secrets of evolution are time and death” as Carl Sagan said in Cosmos.

I go with Njalla for torrents until I hear anything weird about them

No, Njalla at njal.la offers port forwarding

This is a bit of an old reply, but I thought I’d post something I stumbled upon here as it’s a response to your fear of warlords: https://kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPossum/111290743792188200

From the post (it’s quite extensive with plenty of references):

“Once people are free of state violence and hierarchy, how can they just stop some bad actor from taking over?”

The assumption is that people who are free from coercive hierarchies are powerless to act in their own self defense, alone or in cooperation with each other.

(The question is usually accompanied by some invocation of the dreaded “war lord” whom the questioner assumes will inevitably overrun a nonstate or non-hierarchical community.)

So, I thought I would take a crack at answering this as comprehensively as I can!>>

Actually, citizens pay taxes to avoid going to jail or, in the olden days (perhaps soon to be reintroduced), to avoid being killed on the spot.

They vote because when you are locked in a room with no way out, you’ll push one of the buttons in front of you frantically - trying to figure out if, perhaps, they are pushed just like this, you’ll get out.

When you’re not paying taxes or voting, someone richer than Smaug from the Hobbit is cashing in on the rest of your life.

To call this a system that serves its citizens seems… I’m not sure what to call it. Naïve? Misguided? Uninformed?

Big Oil doesn’t need to advertise. They do lobbying instead.