this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2025
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The trick is to build a system with good checks and balances and an informed populace willing to uphold those rules.
I don't know who said it, but it goes something like this.
"Every time you build a fool proof system, the fools get more creative."
You can't force people to be 'well informed' or even aware of their own interests.
There was plenty of evidence that Donald Trump was a complete idiot and a scoundrel available in 2015. a decade later and there are still tens of millions of people who will tell you he's a genius and a moral exemplar.
That's why independent news media is so important. And not just independent from state interference, but also financially. Consolidation into a few big players is really counterproductive.
And lately there is the whole social media debacle that needs a solution, even more so with fakes and invented "news" becoming more and more easier. That's an unsolved problem that needs a solution.
However an informed population really is the only way to keep a system from going downhill, everything else basically bets on some benevolent ruling class or dictator and history has plenty of examples how that goes.
Look up Roger Ailes, Ronald Reagan, and the death of the Fairness Doctrine.
Back in the day, if a commentator on a TV or radio station expressed an opinion, the station was obligated to allow any member of the public to present an opposing view. That meant that most stations avoided wild rhetoric.
Reagan got rid of that. He did a lot of other things to make the media worse. Before Reagan, half hour commercials like "GI Joe" or "The Transformers" weren't allowed.