just as the Mongols and the Romans and the British gave way.

Yeah, being on top is what makes you weak. No reason to strive

@raqdog not gone be pretty when China or India is almost on par with them

wonder what the Union would do to preserve its place

Nope, they are coming. The cultures are so different. Kids in American elementary schools test somewhere around 25th or worse in math

Compared to other 1st world countries

But they score #1 in their confidence to do math

In China it's the exact opposite. They test much higher in ability to do math, and Lower in confidence

America is in it's dumbing down phase. We've got a very toxic and coddled culture.

if you look at individual states you'll notice it can get way more competitive. Places like california are skewing it a lot. Still needs to be fixed after so many years of neglect by democrats.

Gen Z is showing some hope, too. thankfully.

the youth is the future, as always

The youth is Hispanic which has a very different outlook on education

lol

Democracy is the will of the people

If the people willingly choose a dictator

That is democracy

so people collectively deciding on imposing nuclear suicide on the human race is equally democratic then

That is an absurd scenario, but yes.

If democracy is pure then whatever wins, wins.

It isn't like the people of Brazil don't know who Bolsonaro is

It is why they voted for him

democracy in your context could not care about outcomes.

again with the contextual example I used

That is democracy in any context.

It is what the definition is

The will of the people

the will of the people does not account for outcomes lol

but obviously, we have some ounce of rationality in our society even with uneducateds in it, so that isn't happening

That isn't democracy then

Democracy includes the uneducated

Pure democracy is dangerous, right? Why not let the smartest people in a Gaussian distribution make the decisions.

2 standard deviations above the rest only

IQ doesn't inherently make people decent human beings

That's dangerous too, but a better alternative

No, it doesn't. But you don't want the decision makers to be too morally inflated.

I dunno where to find a balance. Probably the way the US does it, we have a good balance of cold hard truth and coddling ourselves like infants

The US is far from a democracy

I never said it was

They do a good job balancing the duality though. Seems like the power shifts every election cycle between what's expediently moral, and hard truths that need to be discussed in order to get desired outcomes in the long run