I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding here. From an European perspective you do basically only have one party. It ranges from quite a bit to the right to the right extreme. You don't get to choose through elections - the two wings of the party decide whom you get to choose from. That's not to dissimilar to the system in obvious dictatorships like Iran, where the candiates are pre-selected by the powers that be.

Obviously voting for the quite a bit to the right neoliberals is less bad than voting for the extreme right fascists. That goes without saying. But don't pretend like there is a real choice here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

From a perspective ignorant to the competing factions within our parties and their influence, I understand. However, I'm not going to pretend it's an accurate or useful perspective.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I had a similar discussion with a Chinese person criticising their ruling party.

From a perspective ignorant to the competing factions within our parties and their influence, I understand.

This is almost exactly the same thing they said.

I'm not trying to put down the USA. I'm trying to make people aware that improvement is needed and that their democracy isn't as democratic as it should be, or as they might think it to be.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

That's the beautiful part. I don't blame CCP members doing their best to make things better in a shitty system. We must all do what we can to improve things for everyone with the hand we're dealt. That's all we can ever do and all we can ask of each other.

There are things worse about the American system than China's, but the ability to criticize our government means there's more we can do to organize ourselves and undermine the popularity of plutocrats. Our system sucks, but I can't stand people who take that as a reason to sit at home doing nothing.