• @fckreddit@lemmy.ml
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    364 months ago

    “Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas.”- Oscar Wilde.

    I think public opinion is overrated. Too many fools in the public. Just look at MAGA idiots in US.

    • Mayor Poopington
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      494 months ago

      I believe public opinion is fairly left leaning. Just looks how popular Bernie and AOC are. It’s just that corporate media discourse is very good at suppressing left wing views.

      • @NewDark@lemmings.world
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        504 months ago

        You can describe socialist and communist policies and people generally love them. You just can’t use those thought terminating trigger words.

        • @fckreddit@lemmy.ml
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          154 months ago

          That comes from dishonest politicians and media, who twist things for their benefit. They frame certain acts like they are coming for your 2 chickens, when in reality, they are coming for a rich fucks’ 100000 chickens. Such people have a vested interest in fooling the people with 2 chickens. Hence, they campaign by equating such measures with ‘scary’ words like ‘communism’. Propaganda works. These kinds of tricks are bread and butter of advertising industry. So why not politicians and media?

      • @fckreddit@lemmy.ml
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        34 months ago

        What I mean is taking the opinion of the public seriously. I mean, people believe in a lot of weird things and that includes me. As an example, lot of people are anti-vaxxers, that doesn’t actually make vaccines dangerous. Should their opinion matter? If so, how much?

        I think the quote is meant to consider that sometimes we must ignore public opinion and do what is right. But, I agree some nuance could be lost. But sadly, the quote has no context because it is from a list of quotes Oscar Wilde wrote. Maybe, we should supply our own nuance.?

        • @rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          Public opinion has a pretty big influence on who is getting voted into public offices. Ignore at your own peril.

          • @fckreddit@lemmy.ml
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            04 months ago

            Yes, but that is the problem of politicians. Regular people like you or me can safely ignore public opinion. Because we know how dumb public is.

        • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          44 months ago

          Only works if you’ve got the “right” politicians in place. Right now there’s a guy in power doing just that in the US and you see what it looks like.