#participatory democracy.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Just spent all day facilitating a citizens’ assembly and whew, I am exhausted but so inspired. You see ordinary people, who don’t seem radical or political, coming up with ideas for free public transport and a sharing economy, calling for rewilding and housing security for all. The public are so incredible when you just give people a voice and let them know their opinion matters. I really think direct democracy could change the world, but only if it’s given the power and influence to actually inform legislation

[calicojack1718]

Influencing Your Member of Congress and Other Government Office Holders: A Guide to Surviving 2025 and Beyond

Reading time: 8 minutes A thorough guide to contacting your government representatives and being an effective participant in our democracy. If we're going to stop the fascists, we're going to have to actually do some things. This is the least of it.

Summary: This post provides practical guidance on how to effectively communicate with your elected representatives. It emphasizes a hierarchy of contact methods, ranging from in-person meetings to social media interactions. The importance of group coordination and local press coverage is highlighted to amplify advocacy efforts. Additionally, the post encourages readers to engage with…

[katchwreck]

We vote 'For!' (the collective farm)

1920s, USSR.

[krsonmar]

This is quite literally how the sausage gets made!

At the barricades of freedom *vague sizzling of cooked meats*

[circuitmouse]

Chris Kluwe being arrested at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting after speaking out against MAGA.

[kree8r0]

Why is democracy considered an ideal form of government?

This post is a response to a question initially posed on Quora, and can also be accessed via “https://www.quora.com/Why-is-democracy-considered-an-ideal-form-of-government/answer/Antonio-Amaral-1“ There is no such thing as an “ideal form of government” because humans are from “ideal.” What makes democracy a superior form of government to all others is self-determination. What makes democracy a…

[daiduongdinh]

Understanding Digital Citizenship in the Age of Intersectionality

Digital citizenship, in today's technologically advanced society, is the responsible, moral, and proactive use of online spaces. It includes how people use social media, the internet, and technology to make meaningful and informed contributions to society. Comprehending digital citizenship is crucial for advancing a more inclusive and participatory democracy, as digital platforms are becoming more and more venues for public conversation and activism. Digital citizenship is often discussed through three main approaches: unidimensional, multidimensional, and critical/radical. The unidimensional approach focuses on narrow aspects of digital engagement, such as technical skills, without considering the broader social and ethical issues involved. However, digital citizenship is more complex than simply knowing how to use technology. The multidimensional approach adopts a more comprehensive perspective, acknowledging that media literacy, digital ethics, online engagement, and even critical resistance to social injustices are all components of digital citizenship. This strategy recognizes that digital platforms offer avenues for civic engagement, activism, and cross-cultural exchange. In order to illustrate the complexity of digital citizenship, Choi (2021), for example, developed a scale model that incorporates various degrees of online participation, ranging from simple technical abilities to more complicated kinds of online activism. However, there is a growing demand for a critical/radical approach which challenges current power structures and tackles more fundamental societal issues. This method compels us to acknowledge that not everyone has the same experience with digital citizenship. The concept of intersectionality, which holds that overlapping social identities such as gender, race, and class affect how people feel privilege or oppression, is essential to this understanding. Intersectionality helps us better appreciate the special difficulties marginalized people have in accessing and using digital platforms, which is why it should be included in talks about digital citizenship. Furthermore, participatory democracy needs to be emphasized in digital citizenship education. Moonsun Choi and Dean Cristol's research suggests that social media and the internet can increase political involvement by providing a forum for underrepresented groups to voice their opinions and participate in democratic processes. This requires a curriculum that educates children about the consequences of their online behavior, promotes critical thinking, and pushes them to participate actively in digital communities. In the end, digital citizenship is about how we utilize digital platforms to influence society as much as how we behave online. Focusing on intersectionality and participatory democracy as we negotiate this complicated environment makes sure that digital citizenship promotes equality and engagement in society and gives people the ability to actively interact in both offline and online groups.

Reference list

Choi, M & Cristol, D 2021, ‘Digital Citizenship with Intersectionality Lens: Towards Participatory Democracy Driven Digital Citizenship Education’, Theory Into Practice, vol. 60, no. 4

DeHart, JD 2023, Critical Roles of Digital Citizenship and Digital Ethics, IGI Global.

Mamlok, D 2021, The great promise of educational technology : citizenship and education in a globalized world, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland.

Rogers-Whitehead, C 2019, Digital Citizenship, Rowman & Littlefield.

[townpostin]

BJP Launches 'Sankalp Patra' Campaign in Jharkhand

Former CM Arjun Munda outlines initiative to gather public input for election manifesto BJP seeks public suggestions via ‘Sankalp Patra’ to shape its vision for Jharkhand’s future development. JAMSHEDPUR – BJP initiates ‘Sankalp Patra’ campaign across Jharkhand to collect public input for its election manifesto. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched a comprehensive campaign to gather…

[whateveradjunct]

Reminder: They Actually Are Planning a Dictatorship

I’ve been having as much fun as anyone this week watching Trump and the GOP knocked off-kilter by Kamala Harris’ entrance into the presidential race, and I’m certainly guilty of adding to the stack of “Couchfucker Vance” memes out there in the world, but while we’re having fun, please do remember that Trump and his friends really absolutely 100% intend to end participatory democracy in the United…

[dr-amer]

الأنواع الديمقراطية بين التكامل والتنازع - الديمقراطية التمثيلية والديمقراطية التشاركية نموذجاً

الأنواع الديمقراطية بين التكامل والتنازع – الديمقراطية التمثيلية والديمقراطية التشاركية نموذجاً   الأنواع الديمقراطية بين التكامل والتنازع – الديمقراطية التمثيلية والديمقراطية التشاركية نموذجاً الكاتب : العباسي بوعلام ملخص: ظهر على مفهوم الديمقراطية التقليدية الكثير من مواطن الضعف والقصور، بحيث بات الشك يحوم حول نوايا المنتخبين المحليين، مما جعلهم محل اتهام بالتقصير في أداء مهامهم، وانصرافهم إلى…

[alewaanewspaper1960]

الأنواع الديمقراطية بين التكامل والتنازع - الديمقراطية التمثيلية والديمقراطية التشاركية نموذجاً

الأنواع الديمقراطية بين التكامل والتنازع – الديمقراطية التمثيلية والديمقراطية التشاركية نموذجاً   الأنواع الديمقراطية بين التكامل والتنازع – الديمقراطية التمثيلية والديمقراطية التشاركية نموذجاً الكاتب : العباسي بوعلام ملخص: ظهر على مفهوم الديمقراطية التقليدية الكثير من مواطن الضعف والقصور، بحيث بات الشك يحوم حول نوايا المنتخبين المحليين، مما جعلهم محل اتهام بالتقصير في أداء مهامهم، وانصرافهم إلى…

[jscalzi]

Reminder: They Actually Are Planning a Dictatorship

I’ve been having as much fun as anyone this week watching Trump and the GOP knocked off-kilter by Kamala Harris’ entrance into the presidential race, and I’m certainly guilty of adding to the stack of “Couchfucker Vance” memes out there in the world, but while we’re having fun, please do remember that Trump and his friends really absolutely 100% intend to end participatory democracy in the United…

[braindeadingifs]

You're very stream-of-consciousness.

BRAINDEAD | 1.04 ↳ Wake Up Grassroots: The Nine Virtues of Participatory Democracy, and How We Can Keep America Great by Encouraging an Informed Electorate

+ bonus: Gareth being visibly worried about Laurel

[qqueenofhades]

Having seen what's currently happening in Venezuela, I feel so terrible for everyone to tried to vote Maduro out, and I worry about the US election. Will Trump and the GOP be able to do the same thing??

I agree that what's happening in Venezuela is bad and scary, but it's also not unexpected (unfortunately), and it doesn't correlate to the US election. It is very much a cautionary tale for us, but in the case of what could happen, not what has happened yet (and which we could and MUST still avoid). Here's why I think that.

First, Maduro is the heir of 25+ years of dictatorship (first the Chavez regime and then his), and that political machine has had a full generation to fix/control everything in Venezuela just as they want it. They've collapsed the economy, driven mass emigration/purges/brain drains, installed corrupt systems and destroyed civil society, staffed the government with cronies who will only ever do what Maduro personally says -- etc. In other words, exactly what Trump and the Republicans aspire to do here in America, but with 25 years' head start, so all those fixes are well entrenched. Outside observers were also warning well ahead of the Venezuelan vote that even an overwhelming majority for the opposition candidate might not be enough, because Maduro and co. can just fix the result however they want with imaginary fantasy numbers. (See Putin's "win" in the Russian presidential "election.") Because dictators all draw from the same playbook regardless of their professed ideological temperament, they always use the same tools.

Next, voting in Venezuela is all-electronic, which is obviously the easiest kind of voting to jigger, and which means that whatever the people actually select has little to no relevance to what gets published, recorded, or proclaimed. Now, despite the Republicans' constant screaming about ELECTION FRAUD, the 2020 elections in America were widely hailed as the safest, most accurate, and fraud-free in the nation's history. (For that matter, multiple investigations afterward have re-confirmed this, and the tiny handful of cases of election fraud that were found were committed by, you guessed it, Republicans.) This did not happen because of the Orange Fuhrer and co., who were busy trying to commit election fraud on their own behalves, but because America, however flawed, is still a participatory liberal democracy and citizens have the right to engage and to do so in a meaningful fashion. We had the entire investigation about how Russia meddled with the election in 2016, and changes were made. Cybersecurity experts were brought in; redundancies and failsafes were introduced; etc., and even the Russian campaign focused on psychological influence rather than actually, physically changing already-cast votes, because that is very, very hard to do in America. We are not an all e-voting nation; there are paper trails, hard-copy ballots, hand recounts, poll observers, election lawyers, and multiple other safeguards that exist. The Republicans have been attacking them as hard as they can, but they're still there.

Thirdly, the Evil Orange tried to fix the elections when he was the sitting president (don't forget the infamous "find me 11,780 votes" phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State that got him slapped with felony charges), but he couldn't do it even then. He also tried a coup as the sitting president, with full discretion as to whether, for example, the National Guard should be deployed to the Capitol on January 6, and that didn't succeed. As such, when he's a disgraced jobless felon who is not the commander-in-chief of the American military and holds no official or political role, he's definitely not getting it done now. There were reforms made to the Electoral Count Act to prevent another January 6, Biden and not Trump would be the president at any other attempted attack on the counting of electoral votes, and I can guarantee Biden would not sit around for three hours watching Fox News and cheering the rioters on if such a thing happened again. Trump has been threatening violence again because that's the only move in his playbook, and he wants to intimidate people into voting for him out of fear that he'll attack them if they don't give him what he wants, like any other psychopathic bully. But that does not mean he actually has the tools to successfully carry it off, and honestly, motherfucker? Try it one more fucking time. I double fucking dog dare you. Biden has 6 months left in his term and total immunity, according to your own SCOTUS. So.

Basically, Venezuela has already been a banana republic for 20+ years, the dictator has had a full generation to destroy it/remake it/turn it into his personal fiefdom, he allows elections only because he already knows they won't change anything or actually remove him from power, and that is precisely what Trump wants to do in the US -- but, and this is crucial, has not done yet. Which is why it is so, so important to Orange-Proof America and get rid of him once and for fucking all on November 5th. We can do it. So yes.