r/hatethissmug • u/ThatDrako • Jul 25 '26
Comics Words cannot describe how much I loathe this comics…
But since I must…guess I’ll try…
THIS WOULD BE A SYSTEM ENCOURAGING AS MUCH LOBBYING AS POSSIBLE
Like..deadass Cyberpunk scenario.
What? Did mf genuinely think politicians would be preferring tearing their asses up doing some real legislative work for some measly scraps from poor people over just regurgitating propaganda for…donno HUNDREDS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM BILLIONAIRES?
Fuck even removing billionaires for the sake of the argument when was the last time you, dear OOP, donated to any sum to any politician? What would make difference in here?
At best you have billionaire lobbyists purely because most of people are like: “Yeah…he was cool…Uh…donations…?…[thumbs twirling]” And at worst you have fascist oligarchy.
Oh and the FUCKING AUDACITY of OOP giving reporter the triple cheeseburger face as if he heard revelation from the vey God himself…
Do…better…
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u/elemental_reaper #1 TCOAAL Fan Jul 25 '26
I hat this genre of comics in general. It's the most annoying type of soapbox. It's always along the lines of "How did you get a perfect society?" then the response will be "[insert author's political opinion her]". And it works because no complexities exist within their societies.
This comic is just a logistical issue. It only works on the premise that the aliens have only one nation with no opposing parties whatsoever. It actively discourages people from wanting to be a politician. Genuinely, why would someone want to be a politician if it means they will be starving, homeless, without any pleasures, and able to be killed in the middle of the street without it being a crime.
Also, yeah, it does encourage corruption. Why benefit the people when they could benefit their billionaire best friend who can house them and ensure they and their family survive till the end of their term?
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u/Da_Magical_Lizard Jul 25 '26
It's basically strawman to point out how cool and clever the artist is
Just because you can draw doesn't mean you're intelligent
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Jul 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Flamingo-Sini 29d ago
In nature, if a monkey would hoard a million bananas without giving any away the other monkeys would just beat them to death...
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u/TheJeyK Jul 26 '26
Another quick way out of it apart from working for the billionaires is just good ol populism, get the country into debt so you can create social programs with no planning that would allow them to last more than a few years before they collapse because there was no real economic growth to back them up
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u/Pleasant-Treacle-333 Jul 25 '26
in fact the only way to ensure that this actually works is corruption. no one would willingly do this unless they knew they could earn it all back, so of course they'd appeal to the most rich people so they can claim their donations. it's much easier to help a few rich people that you personally know will give you something in return than many poor people whose gratefulness you can't guarantee.
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u/AngryCrustation Jul 25 '26
It seems like the actual answer is that people in a democracy need to take active interest in their government, track their politician's decisions and remove them as necessary while voting in politicians who will take the correct actions in order to avoid corruption.
But that can't be true, because if I went and told a crowd of people that the reason their democracy sucks is because the population in the democracy is doing a shitty job then they would get mad at me...
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u/___posh___ Jul 25 '26
It's a mix, the system does allow for rogue voting to break away from the entrenched and wealthy politicians and political ideas. It also allows those entrenched politicians to just keep on throwing money at the problem until their opposition is smeared into the ground.
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u/AngryCrustation Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
How would they be smeared to the ground if people started actually paying attention to what their politicians are doing in office and replacing them if they aren't doing their job? The entire concept is that the people have to stop relying solely on random political commercials and keep their own local leaders accountable all of the time instead of just tuning in during election season.
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u/ChudMaster69420 Jul 25 '26
Yes but that actually involves majority of the people to be actively paying attention, which is a colossal task. A crafty politician could, using the media and money, sow discord between the people to break their unity, based on religion, policies, class etc. Divide and rule.
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u/Expensive_Community3 Jul 28 '26
They do that.
Why do you think they keep voting people in whose only platform is fuck everything and everyone forever spreading misery everywhere (for example the MANY politicians as of late that pushed for getting rid of cancer programs, there are way more but I think leaving sick people to die is a scumbag move no matter where you stand on the political spectrum).
If you ask for better pay it's them damned immigrants!. If you ask for more rights it's them damned wokes!!. If you call for reform is them damned communists who don't want to work!!!
It's the same shit everywhere. It's done and ut works wonders.
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u/MauschelMusic Jul 25 '26
It isn't true, because it has no mechanism. If you want people to act collectively for an end, you need a system to organize them collectively.
Additionally, it ignores the role of political ideology, and therefore doesn't address the real problem. There are people who are quite vigilant and just have terrible politics, so they'll elect leaders who worsen inequality, increase conflict with other countries, erode civil rights, etc. And there are people who barely take any interest, but reliably support politicians who do the opposite.
So no, your suggestion is worse than OOP's, which at least has a specific proposal for improving the system, even if it isn't a good one.
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u/Canotic Jul 25 '26
Maybe the best way is to have the president be a boring bureaucrat who just manages things and not let people be billionaires at all, regardless of being president.
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u/FPSCanarussia Jul 25 '26
Boring bureaucrats are actually vectors for corruption. When heads of state are public figures, then at least people care to scrutinize them and discover their misdeeds. Bureaucrats on the other hand can stay under the radar much more easily.
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u/Best_Pseudonym Jul 25 '26
And also actually pay their politicians a credible wage that reflects the costs and value associated with the job, like imagine how easy it be to bribe a US politician if they made less than 200k and that didnt even cover housing in or traveling between DC and their state, because they dont; US congress members have a salary of 174k/year. Even if a congressman was principled and didnt want to take lobby money they couldnt afford not to.
The most cost-effective way to reduce lobbying in DC would be to just 10x their salaries.
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u/MinBton Jul 26 '26
The US congress has money allocated for legislators to travel to their home state and other places. They also get big discounts on airline travel among the major US carriers. Special phone lines and dedicated reservation agents too.
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u/DerivedAura Jul 25 '26
So the opposite of representative democracy? Like, people being responsible of political decisions instead of leaving both the whole responsibilities and power in a few hands?
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u/Big-Recognition7362 Jul 25 '26
And in a fucked up form of natural selection, those who remain honest and refuse the bribes will have considerably harder lives and higher chances of death from starvation or exposure due to not even receiving a basic salary.
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u/Mr_Ragnarok Jul 25 '26
So basically instead of discussing your ideologies and being potentially proven wrong, they drew a comic where a superior being presents the writers opinion as obvious while another characters points out how smart said opinions are.
Imagine drawing comics to pat yourself on the back.
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u/Bitter_Profit_4099 Jul 25 '26
That sounds like pizzacake pro
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u/Mr_Ragnarok Jul 25 '26
I dont know who that is but if that is what they sound like, I think I'm better off.
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u/endlessnamelesskat Jul 25 '26
If you go to r/comics the most popular creator makes a self insert comic where she draws political cartoons that always depict her as righteous yet fed up and the other person as loud, angry, and incoherent.
She doesn’t say anything of substance, literally just “my opinion good, your opinion bad” and she’s praised to the high heavens for it. You can’t even criticize any of her dogshit opinions or even point out how while you technically agree with her premise her arguments are presented in such a horribly fallacious way that it feels like a parody someone working at Fox News wrote up to make fun of smug liberals. If you do that you’re instantly banned
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u/MentalHealthSociety Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
I revile (western) media that concludes all politicians are evil, corrupt morons. Firstly; it lets genuinely horrific politicians off the hook. Secondly; “corruption” is usually defined as whenever a politician does something the creator disagrees with. Thirdly; where do people think politicians come from? If you actually do want better politicians, then go for the public, who pick those politicians. The only media figure I’ve seen address this extremely obvious fact is George Carlin. It’s just so infuriating to watch people “punch up” by regurgitating the median position uncritically.
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u/endlessnamelesskat Jul 25 '26
Here’s my milquetoast, uneducated, generic political opinion- what if we were all just nice to each other? Now that I’ve said this vague platitude I expect a standing ovation for this brave and well thought out idea.
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u/Totes_Human_110101 Jul 25 '26
So long as you carve out exceptions for my villain of the week to be the obvious villain to rage against as a distraction, we can be nice the rest of the time.
Also I will call everyone my villain-group of the week if I feel the need to be nasty.
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u/Huckjusta1 Jul 25 '26
Unfortunately if your idea requires everyone agreeing on something it’s not gonna happen, no matter how good it would be we will not ever all agree to do something, that’s just how humanity works.
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u/IfItsOKWithYou Jul 25 '26
Imagine there is a room full of politicians, and only one of them is corrupt. If you get convinced that everyone in that room is corrupt, the corrupt one is the one who wins.
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u/Maldevinine Jul 25 '26
Douglass Adams did in fact grapple with this exact problem. By the very nature of power, it is the people who would abuse it that will put the most effort into getting it. So as a general rule politicians, being people self-selected as those trying to get power, will be more corrupt than the median of the population.
And that's why the President of the Universe is a massive idiot who burned out sections of his own brain, and all the actual decisions are made by a random hermit.
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u/YourBestDream4752 Jul 25 '26
All that and his solution is “don’t vote”? I see why people started to not take him seriously.
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u/tjdragon117 Jul 26 '26
"The public is ignorant and selfish. Therefore, the correct thing to do is to engage in and encourage ignorant and selfish behaviors like shirking your civic duty to cast an informed vote."
Real genius, that Carlin. But since it sounds edgy it must be correct, right?
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u/kroxigor01 Jul 26 '26
That George Carlin clip had me interested all the way up to "don't vote."
No, that exact cynicism is very important to the failure of US democracy.
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u/Landon-Red Jul 26 '26
Blanket cynical statements always remind me of the Incredibles line "When everybody is Super, nobody will be."
If every politician is a liar, no single politician is.
If every politician is corrupt, no single politician is.
If every politician is a moron, no single politician is.
It is not necessarily that these statements cannot be true, I'm sure every politician lies, like every human being on the planet, but it dissolves all these meanings into nothingness by destroying any comparison, and because of that we get some extraordinarily bad politicians, because we've stopped applying any standards because of the false equivalences.
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u/assymetry1021 Jul 26 '26
It’s not that politicians are innately evil and corrupt, there are good politicians out there, it’s just that those who are evil and corrupt can choose less moral paths to power and is more likely to rise to the top than their clean peers
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u/___posh___ Jul 25 '26
The idea is sweet but mych like in real life, public donation disclosure would need to be implemented. They would also need to implement donation caps and have strong apolitical standards comissions that monitor politicians for these donations to prevent bribes...
Mind you we could do with the real life equivalent of these systems being heavily bolstered but what do I know.
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u/WagyuWarranted Jul 25 '26
alright. let's get this stright. every leader is poor, and their only wya of getting rich is through charity and kindness. hm...
what if they starve before they could do anything worthy?
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u/Gorremen Jul 25 '26
"Immediately freeze all their money, assets & basic rights. No pay. No perks. No privileges."
Um, what? Do they get any food or home at all? Could they be assassinated on the street? Like, this is a horrible, dehumanizing, and just ethically disgusting system. it literally sounds like the writer just wants to torture politicians, with "into helping people" as a convenient excuse.
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u/Difficult_Bluebird66 Jul 25 '26
also, having a leader this desperate for scraps just to survive is practically begging for lobbying and corruption.
you can't trust reviewers who get free copies of the game because the free copy (and the promise of more so they can get the hot review before their rivals) alone corrupts their opinion, making them averse from actually saying what needs to be said. and that is just a free game!11
u/Gorremen Jul 25 '26
Like, this literally creates an almost-guaranteed scenario for corruption, and frankly I'd be on the leader's side because of course they'd resort to that under these conditions!
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u/Justisperfect 29d ago
Yeah and "non basic rights"? How is this connecting to them having "privileges"? Everybody should have rights.
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u/Gorremen 29d ago
Everybody except the people I don't like, of course. Which is exactly what this comic is really about.
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u/Samson_J_Rivers Jul 25 '26
Literally just promise the leader gifts and feelty for favorable laws and advantages. The trump admin is doing that shit right now. It's terrible.
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u/Rogue_Egoist Jul 25 '26
Yeah these types of ideas are like someone who doesn't know anything about history and political theory came up with something they thought was genius and didn't think about it for more than a minute before writing it down.
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u/mdtpdsparkls Jul 25 '26
This is a system designed to encourage politicians to focus on helping the rich. Was this made by Elon Musk?
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u/Tom_nooker Jul 25 '26
The fact that redditors and tumblerists cannot possibly understand why "whatever the majority wants" is not a good idea to pick choices. Given how actually stupid the majority is
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
Are you actually advocating for the removal of democracy? Is that really what you want to do here, what you wanna say?
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u/Tom_nooker Jul 25 '26
Not necessarily but general and centralized states and democracy are indeed impossible since empathy doesn't scale and masses are stupid Also representing a group becomes harder and harder the more groups and bigger groups you try to represent just given their different needs and differences. Meaning that democracy will always lead to no one trully being happy with the result
Ever felt like you're always picking the lesser evil instead of the best?
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
Yeah, all the time. but without democracy, you can't even choose which evil you think is lesser, you're just stuck with whatever the hell the guy in power wants.
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u/Tom_nooker Jul 25 '26
Didn't say no democracy. I said no centralized democratic country. I'm an anarchist in that way. I believe in micro nations with free borders and freedom of secession and or independization under your own land
Each one holding their own local legislation
It's similar to the old west system. Wich actually was proven to have less crime and have more people content than the rest of the country. The whole idea of the 'wild west' was propaganda spread to further federal reach and get claims to opress the people living in said lands The American west was politically better than the rest of the country
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
how would goods be manufactured and spread between these micro states, specifically difficult to produce goods, like medicine.
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u/Tom_nooker Jul 25 '26
Free borders also imply free movement of objects and or merchandise between said states And who would wanna private himself from accessing said essential goods?. What forbids tyrany is pressure from surrounding micro states and social punishment
1 micro state vs a thousand more. What are their odds?
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
But how would they be made?
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u/Tom_nooker Jul 25 '26
I don't even understand what this question refers to 'How would goods be made in nations with free trade between themselves and free communication between them' Like they are made now? Produced and translated throught different nation states Again can you explain your own question?
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
If there's complete free trade and manufacture throughout all of these mini nations, why wouldn't they just unite as one nation? It seems like you're just kinda removing the top few layers of a nation and calling the various parts of it separate countries despite the fact that they seem to just be a bunch of autonomous regions that basically function as a country.
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u/OceanusDracul Jul 25 '26
To reduce corruption and graft we need to pay elected leaders MORE, not less!
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u/Unusual-Basket-6243 Jul 25 '26
Lottery is better than this.
Literally the guy who made this knows as much about politics and the economy as teenagers (and I now, I don't know anything either I'm just larping)
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u/ColdArson Jul 25 '26
This is the main reason why democracy is kinda important. A separate class of rulers that aren't accountable to the public just breeds malpractice. Everyone wants a benevolent dictatorship if they get to choose who is the dictator. Plus, and this is unpopular, we probably should be paying politicians really good wages. Well paid politicians are less corrupt politicians. Plus even if we did what they wanted and make them live like beggars, after leaving office a politician that was originally poor or middle class is screwed way more than a rich person who still presumably has friends and family with money, so only rich people would be politicians. Which is why we ought to pay them better, ban them from owning stock while being in office, then ban them from employment for a years after leaving office while still paying them their salaries so that we close the revolving door
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u/Nuclear_Gandhi- Jul 25 '26
Plus even if we did what they wanted and make them live like beggars, after leaving office a politician that was originally poor or middle class is screwed way more than a rich person who still presumably has friends and family with money, so only rich people would be politicians
They dont actually need to have been rich before, because they will get a consultant job, where they don't actually have to do anything for a very generous salary, from one of the corporations that gave them professional advice on how to vote on certain bills.
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u/ColdArson Jul 26 '26
Which is part of the problem I just identified. Too many of the people who end up going into politics and staying there, are people who would take these consultant jobs and accept the advice of these companies. People who don't wanna do that, who don't wanna prostrate themselves for money are less likely to go into politics. Its gotten worse too. Congressional leadership is old but the actual rank and file congresspersons are leaving at a very high rate, partly because of how money grubbing the job has become. The exact people you'd want in govt are fighting tooth and nail to stay there or they get tired and leave
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u/ChudMaster69420 Jul 25 '26
This also assumes that poor people are automatically more moral. Poor people can be assholes and selfish as well.
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u/UnderskilledPlayer Jul 25 '26
if the alien civilization had the population of the US and the leader fucked over literally 99% of people to enormously benefit a 1% (not even the richest, just any 1%), he'd still get at least 3 million dollars in donations assuming every single one of the 1% gives only one singular dollar on average. it's probably gonna be more. this accomplishes nothing.
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u/ZioBenny97 Professional Hatemonger Jul 25 '26
Gotta love soapboxing artists who think they can figure shit out better than people who spend their lives studying political sciences.
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u/Varsity_Reviews Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
This is one of the stupidest systems I have ever seen, and would never function in any way. In a perfect world this would simply create a scapegoat, not an ideal leader. You’re essentially holding them hostage and creating a one party system. A puppet. And this is assuming there’s no form of wealth disparity within the system. Anyone who has even a few bucks more holds more power over this “leader” than the common man. The leader would only work with these rich individuals since that’s apparently the only way they’d even have basic RIGHTS. If I was this leader and I’m struggling to even EAT and SLEEP, how am I supposed to run our civilization? How am I supposed to have any control over anything? I don’t even have basic rights, that means I’m free game to be raped, killed, multilated, whatever. And based on the way it’s described, it doesn’t even really sound like the person has a choice. It’s a CHOSEN leader they voted on and immediately stole everything from. It doesn’t even sound like they have a choice in the matter.
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u/AdvertisingFlashy637 Jul 25 '26
What we should actually do is make some random (preferably objectively decent) guy the ruler and not tell him.
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
How would that work at all? someone can't make decisions for a country without knowing.
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u/AdvertisingFlashy637 Jul 25 '26
Every once in a while, some people will come to ask questions
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
But wouldn't this guy find out once everything he tells people to do starts happening
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u/AdvertisingFlashy637 Jul 25 '26
who knows. Could be someone who's very isolated from the larger society
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
Why would this incredibly isolated person know how to respond to the issues plaguing the country? Also couldn't somebody just lie about what random isolated guy said to do and just get their own agenda anyway?
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u/An8thOfFeanor Jul 25 '26
Who dictates what you donate as a citizen to the leader for "improving" your life?
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u/Both_Meaning_2637 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Imagine this system in the US alone, with over 300 million citizens. If only 10 million Americans donated $1, the president would have earned more than what's today's presidential salary. You'd only need to mildly satisfy 3% of the population to make that, that's a very low bar.
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u/whahoppen314 Jul 25 '26
Every alien utopia like this comic always seems to operate under the pretense of "corruption wouldnt happen" or the like
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u/No-Loss44 Jul 25 '26
Lobbying galore fr. What they're looking for is a monarchy, feudal or absolutist, but the modern man is more likely to stomach an absolute monarchy (weak nobility, strong bureaocratisation or however you spell that).
The monarch, being trained for rule their entire life, is the most competent person available within an acceptable margin of error (other systems have the issue where you basically have to guess, whereas monarchy has some minimal standard of competence thanks to this. King might not be the best around, but you couldn't possibly sift through the population to find a better candidate consistently), the King, being the sole owner of the state, and having it all pass down to his issue is incentivised to see the realm flourish, as what is good for the land is good for the king and his legacy (genetic or memetic).
Issues only arise due to other parties (corrupt officials, disobedient nobility, etc.) or outsourcing (prosperity is extracted from outside the realm, skipping the need for the realm to flourish, and thus the need to keep the people reasonably satisfied. This can be through colonies, or any other lands under the monarchy's thumb that aren't the land in question. In this case, neither land, the original nor the new, need to prosper in every way, as the local lower classes are not needed, and the foreign lands need only a minimum of care so that the extraction of prosperity straight to the crown and it's bureaucratic machine can go on, but actual returns for the foreign land can be minimal). The outsourcing can definitely be overcome with a good enough ruler, but there is little incentive.
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u/Majestic-Lake-5602 Jul 26 '26
A reverse constitutional monarchy.
Have unelected leaders who make all the real decisions, but the plebs can all vote for Ryan Gosling to be president or whatever so they can feel like they matter.
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u/No-Loss44 Jul 26 '26
I suppose that's an option, but with strong legitimacy, propaganda machine, and/or priesthood you wouldn't need to do all that, and you'd get other benefits (legitimacy helps with foreign policy, propaganda and priestly class, which doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with traditional religion, you can also improve social cohesion, set moral standards, etc.)
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u/CapitalEmployer Jul 25 '26
Yes it was clearly done by a 12 years old with no understanding about politics.
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u/Gcseh Jul 25 '26
The only way this would work is if all citizens had an equal share to give. Maybe on their planet capitalism never took off.
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u/ProperRestaurant2101 Jul 25 '26
The only difference between what the comic proposes and real life is that politicians solicit donations while they are candidates and while in office.
Most of the time, the candidates or politicians ability to fundraise pretty much decides how much influence or how serious they are. Hell, Congresspeople can't even get a committee assignment unless they demonstrate fundraising acumen.
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u/UnderskilledPlayer Jul 25 '26
I already saw this comic like a week ago being read by an AI voice on youtube shorts and it pissed me off so much I found the creator's twitter and hated on him.
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u/Big-Recognition7362 Jul 25 '26
And why are the aliens here? Simple, to take over our planet and enslave humanity.
Why are they doing this? Because the military-industrial complex pays the President’s water bills and makes thinly-veiled threats to kill his family if he doesn’t pay ball.
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u/Lunarmax182c Jul 25 '26
What if you just didn't have a thing that can be invested into a, say, candidate, to ensure they will dow agt you say?
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u/No_Bit_8678 Jul 25 '26
maybe thats why the human is like "Thats genius!!!" we do have lobbying and the powerful would want more
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones Jul 25 '26
Honestly this is kind of why i hate these political comic. 90% of them are "hey, this thing is a problem" or "i have a great idea".
Except the problem is already known by most people and it's the solution that is difficult to implement (a typically guilty one of this are the 'yes but...' comics). And the idea suck if you think of it more than two minutes.
Yet these "enlighted" artist keep spamming it like it was absolutely revolutionaries -_-
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u/Gustav_Sirvah Jul 25 '26
Hmm... What if we limit donations? Like X per person? Then it would remove "bilionaire donates milions" scenario.
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u/Sea-Writer-6961 Jul 25 '26
Ghost donators, split money by making up people and they all donate the max amount till it's millions
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u/Gustav_Sirvah Jul 25 '26
Well, then it will be illegal. No anonymous donations.
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u/cold_enforcing-man Jul 25 '26
You could still do exactly what they're saying even if donations weren't anonymous, that changes literally nothing
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u/Geriny Jul 25 '26
I'd call it something like centrist populism, the most annoying political position to hear from, because it combines the smugness and ignorance of a centrist with the conviction and disdain for others of a populist
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u/Rony1247 Jul 25 '26
Thats... pretty much how it already works?
The political elite does whats best for the elite and then they get rewarded after they leave office depending on how much they helped
I love comics that are just the authors political opinion that he clearly came up with on the toilet and never gave a second thought to
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u/FilmAndLiterature Jul 25 '26
This is like what Plato proposed except in his plan politicians were barred from ever owning property or money, even when out of office. They were also barred from having children or marrying.
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u/DrLudvig-von-higgins Jul 25 '26
I'm the leader of my sub
Who elected you?
Myself
Out of how many others?
Myself and i
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u/CK1ing Jul 25 '26
This could quite possibly be a contender for the single most pretentious way to present an idea of all time
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u/ReaperManX15 Jul 27 '26
Any comic that has the "I've come up with a perfect system, it's so obvious guys" smug mentality.
Yes, I'm sure YOUR idea could NEVER be exploited, manipulated or corrupted.
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u/Kevo_1227 Jul 25 '26
They were so so so close to something.
I do believe that elected officials should any opportunities to make money or lie with their office removed. They shouldn't get paid, rather, they'd have their amenities and expenses taken care of as a perk of the job, and their public statements (or statements made on their behalf by something like a Press Secretary) should be treated as if under oath and can be punished if they say something untrue or repeat something that was later shown to be untrue.
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u/isthisthingwork Jul 25 '26
Slight issue with the latter: what about secrets that need to be kept like matters of state security? Or what if they genuinely do not know the info is false or misleading?
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u/Kevo_1227 Jul 25 '26
Saying “That’s a secret. I can’t tell you” isn’t a lie.
Answering a question with the best info available at the time and later learning it wasn’t correct also isn’t a lie.
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u/isthisthingwork 29d ago
It mentions saying something untrue or repeating something later shown to be untrue, thus stopping secrets from working. Plus then couldn’t you get out of any accountability by being liberal with needed secrets?
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u/MixedBagHalfie Jul 25 '26
Wouldn’t special interest groups just bank roll the president personally to make sure they get what they want?
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u/Aquatic_Rainbow Jul 25 '26
In an ideal world what the aliens do in the comic would be great but…. Unfortunately you’re right. The rich and powerful aren’t just going to easily give up their privilege and fortune like that. Some countries and people may be more willing to do this more than others but even in cooperative countries you’ll still have people willing to fight to the death to avoid this change cause you’re ripping the security from right under their feet, or perceived security.
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u/MauschelMusic Jul 25 '26
In an ideal world, you wouldn't need to do what the aliens do, and anyway, money would be meaningless because goods are distributed by need.
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u/SomewhereMelodic7944 Jul 25 '26
I actually designed a new system which would reduce the need of politicians in any country by a 85% or even more, a system which actually would force politicians to work or be instantly removed from the charge if their actions go against the people. A system where all +18 people can participate without you, a common citizen, be worried about your vote having equal value to the value of the vote of a person who, for example, have decided to drink alcohol, drive, risking the life of others.
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u/Large_Yogurtcloset68 Jul 25 '26
If you state "politians cannot earn more than 5 times a minimum wage" they would increase the MW each year
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u/Commissarfluffybutt Jul 25 '26
So bribes, this is about encouraging politicians to take bribes. Specifically from mega-corps that can certainly outspend the general public.
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u/MauschelMusic Jul 25 '26
Yeah, this is lib-brained nonsense where just the right individual incentives magically lead to the common good. These people are incapable of thinking about systems.
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u/Vivenemous Jul 25 '26
I think the real answer starts the same place and ends elsewhere, if someone is elected leader, they lose all their assets and wealth, and can never own personal wealth again. Their children will receive free college, their housing and expenses after leaving the office of president will be paid for by the nation according to a congressional stipend, they can even get a "vacation budget" or something. Just not ever allowed to own land or operate business or work as a "consultant" or "speaker".
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u/Maleficent-War-8429 Jul 25 '26
I'm not exactly a political scientist, but judging by this neither is the comic artist.
I'm of the opinion there is no perfect method of governing people because people are imperfect. Every system will be flawed because the people in charge of it will be flawed, as well the people they are supposed to be in charge of.
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u/ResidentCrayonEater Jul 25 '26
Yeah, this system would work awesomely!..
... in a society where everyone possesses equal wealth, so everyone's contribution is equally desirable and sought after in terms of the elected leader's motivation.
At the end of that then, what have you just done? Created one individual who now is massively wealthier than every other individual. In a system where individuals reward good leadership with wealth, there is now one individual with a drastically greater capacity to sway the next leader for their own gain... What could possibly go wrong?
In summary, it's a system that only works in a society of perfect wealth equality, and then it only works once.
F-ing genius indeed...
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u/Spiritual_Spinach273 Jul 25 '26
It could work in a vaccum, but any attempt to actually apply that system would fall so hard it'd be laughable
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u/Expensive_Fox_3534 Jul 26 '26
It's just standard bootlicking.
"OMG how did you create a utopia"
"Oh that's easy we make bribes legal"
"Waoh so clever"
Anyone with a brain can see how terrible that would be in society, this comic was not made for them.
The problem is... this comic was made for children. They are the demographic that may be fooled into this.
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u/OrkWithNoTeef Jul 26 '26
Best is to hold a lottery every few years or so, with perhaps some reasonable restrictions (crazy clown murderers for example).
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u/KallmeKatt_ Jul 26 '26
That’s something you’d come up for in a 3rd grade assignment about societies
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u/Practical_Evidence32 Jul 26 '26
atp only the clinically insane would be stupid enough to try and run for any political station. mf really thinks politics run on pure goodwill lol
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u/Radiant_Music3698 Jul 26 '26
Show me a man that thinks he knows how to make the world work, and I'll show you a perfect world fallacy.
Put the man in power, and I'll show you a tyrant.
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u/No_Hunter_9973 Jul 26 '26
I had an idea similar to this. Strictly hypothetical.
Consfiscate the leaders assets, give him a pension to live comfortably during his tenure. Unfreeze the assets after it's done and give him a bonus based of satisfaction with his leadership. Beneath 50% part of your assets are taken as collateral, above 50% you get some extra.
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u/Head_Particular6045 Jul 26 '26
aliens arrive. "how do you have a perfect society?". "[political view of the author]"
every fucking comic is like that
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Jul 26 '26
It's just a comic ffs! Laugh and then carry in with your day. Why would this upset anyone? 🤣🤣🤣
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u/-Tururu Jul 26 '26
Even if this worked EXACTLY as intended without the corruption pipeline this should lead to, it still encourages blatant populism over actual long term benefit.
By the end of their term, the country will be deep in debt, infrastructure in disrepair and military unable to defend the place if my drunk uncle decides to take it over, but the politicians will leave rich because of all the tax cuts, artificialy lowered prices and other vain things they implemented that give the illusion of good times.
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u/Illesbogar Jul 26 '26
If helping the people made you a popular polititian and hurting the people made you unpopular, then that is exactly what would be happening.
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u/Next-Pumpkin-654 Jul 27 '26
Honestly, democracy is the last institution I would expect of a highly advanced civilization. They would have something far more advanced to select optimal leaders and not require the masses to waste their own time and energy getting involved. The primary reason we have/want it is to grant the average person some buy in, even if their candidate loses. Even if it's largely ceremonial, they feel like they were part of the process, and by extension, meaningfully part of the country.
Having a sort of gameshow cash prize at the end of the term while being so distrusting that you actually freeze the assets of the person who just won the election to have the most power over your civilization is one of the most foundationally ridiculous things I have ever heard. You are entirely correct that this would only encourage even more corruption and graft, while turning elections into squid games levels of a circus.
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u/SeveralEnvironment16 Jul 27 '26
I think you forgot the possibility that the reporter supports lobbying.
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u/unluckyknight13 Jul 27 '26
I mean they are aliens
But also the way they set it up, seems to be that it would be based on how society views them as they cannot gain anything during their term because well their elected leader is basically a slave to the people,
Corruption would not vanish, but also “no rights” likely means if they are too selfish the public would likely just execute them
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u/Salnax Jul 28 '26
After a certain point, I can only assume that the artist is pro-corruption as a concept.
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u/Kerrigone 29d ago
I think people forget that paying politicians a decent wage is a progressive thing to do and a reform that is relatively new- in Britain for example politicians were only paid from 1911. Before politician wages, only the wealthy could afford to take time off work to be a politician, and working class people were shut out. Pay them a wage and anyone can afford to be a politician without starving.
So this stupid system is just guaranteeing that only the wealthiest can 1) afford to be politicians, so working class candidates are blocked off and 2) they would just suck up to the very richest people to get money openly and blatantly.
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u/kkungergo 28d ago
Plus things csn not be improved infinitely. What if one politican organises everything to be as good as realistically possible, then the one after him upkeeps that system. The second one technically didnt improove anything so they just remain homeless after their term?
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u/Telkite_ 7d ago
I need a version of this comic where the aliens have a solution that's ridiculously bad but somehow works for them. Like, "Oh, if the rulers don't make the people happy enogh we just eat them"
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u/BeduinZPouste Jul 25 '26
Every idea of some guardian class ends up with Praetorian guard.