I think it is ancient history at this point, but I don’t think the new face of Germany has really reached the ears of many Americans. Although the same can be said of many countries. The only tales I hear of Germany are of elections and Oktoberfest for the most part, even though I know there’s more out there that is interesting rather than just the annual seasonal festival. I’ve definitely seen photos of the Neuschwanstein Castle before, but I personally would not have recognized it as a German castle. It does look very beautiful there though.

All this to say, I think more countries should be putting their culture out there on display and show why they are worth checking out to a degree. A trip to Europe could be a once in a lifetime trip for many Americans for instance. You really have to have a fulfilling promise for people to take the risk of going to a certain country; making friends, unique sights, feeling welcome, and having food and beverages worth writing home about. Lots of little things have to come together to make it worth pursuing the adventure of the not-so-beaten path.

Side note: I recall seeing a video recently where someone sounded judgmental about Westerners not traveling to their country, which has a unique history and culture, and instead they are going so other more well known countries. The thing is though, those other countries have sold many Westerners on their culture through all the forms of media and art they export. Rather than being judgmental, I think their message would have gone farther showing me why I should invest myself in their culture and why I should want to be a part of it. I bring this up because I feel more countries could take on an active role in sharing their stories, music, and culture across more mediums and even new mediums.

Kinda interestingly that would not have been true had WW2 and Hitler rising to power never happened. German was one of the more spoken second languages in America even. I believe it would have been equally as mentioned today had those things not happened.

I feel Germany has steadily grown back over many decades to be an interesting place, but the main points of interest I feel comes from things like Oktoberfest, their engineering plants, and seeing the Autobahns over there. I’m personally clueless of a lot of the other cool things about Germany, I feel more mystique and cultural sites would pull someone like me to plan a trip out.

They are romanticized and have lots of history for many Americans. The French helped us break away from Britain all those years ago and many of us never forgot that. They even gifted us the Statue of Liberty which has become a National Treasure many aspire to see for those living here. Not to mention the Eiffel Tower which has been a strong symbol of romance here for a long time. Notre Dame as well is something that invokes images of something awe inspiring.

Britain meanwhile become a close ally over WW2 and English speaking Americans are curious of life across the pond where people speak the same as we do but sound quite different. I think there’s a bit of fantasy at play with the mystique of Britain, but the welcoming and lively people living there add to the fun.

Italy is well known for its beauty and delicious food, as well as its Roman history and art. Given the American government is modeled on certain parts of the English and Roman model, I believe there is a sense of connection to these pillars that led to our own society. Not to mention many Italian Americans are some that hold on the most to their Italian heritage, it makes you a little curious to how nice Italy is. Many American tourists speak highly of visiting Italy, often more so than France or even Britain for some.

I think what we’re familiar with is often what we are interested in. If there’s not a compelling reason or story to bring me to some place it would likely take more to sway me to go to that place. I personally haven’t visited Britain, France, or Italy but they are higher on my travel list than many places.

I believe there are downsides only if you are drinking too much caffeine or if it is in conflict with one of your medications or existing health conditions, afaik.

Healthline weighs the pros and very few cons of caffeine.

Do you drink any coffees or teas? I don’t really touch caffeinated sodas these days, but I believe coffee and tea with caffeine are great since the caffeine is a stimulant which can help with focusing. The most important thing is consuming caffeine in moderation and at the right time, I believe. Drinking coffee only really helps in the first hour or so of waking up for instance or before a twenty minute nap.

I feel that Healthline does a pretty decent job of weighing the pros and cons.

I would say it’s a post-jaded reformation era.

Where you’re trying to will positive change for the sake of it. Potential fruitlessness of the effort be damned, I am willing my hope into this world

You gotta flip the stats, 100 gorillas vs Gojo

Then go for the option where all the voting happens at one step based on preference. If you still want a best of two you can have the primary election earlier in the year with a score vote tally, and the two candidates that have the highest scores votes from that process then go into a head to head FPTP style for the general election.

For the record both Alaska and Maine are currently using an Alternative Voting system as well as many countries in Europe. Australia also uses an Alternative Voting system. So it can be done successfully in many countries without issue.

How is it crap and how does this overcomplicate any of it?

The person with the most votes does win under other voting systems I have brought up. What I want is exactly that. I my second example for instance person C has 29 votes compared to person A’s 24 votes, how is that not person C having the most votes and winning?

That’s a great argument in favor of an alternative voting system. Because we both agree that the most votes should win for each representative. Hence the added benefit of having the two rounds of voting since those additional vote preferences are taken into consideration. Through of one these alternative voting systems, we can truly say that the majority of people wanted that person for the job rather.

It’s also a great argument for score voting as well since that is only one round of voting, but you can give a score for each candidate and the candidate with the highest total score wins.

“Just because a person’s favorite choice isn’t the most popular, doesn’t mean the winning candidate is preferred by the majority of voters.”

If we’re being specific, I am acknowledging the why from the very first sentence of my original comment. I needed the details to help elaborate my point though.

To clarify though, I am not trying to cater to everyone, I’m trying to have a dialogue. People that are interested will likely want to read more, those that don’t will skim.

If I was marketing or just cared about short points I wouldn’t be so detailed, but I believe in what I am saying matters beyond just a surface level glance. Sometimes the answers are not short and sweet, sometimes to make change we have to dig in and put in some more effort.

The why is answered in the explanation, how many professors give you the answer upfront before you solve a problem? Usually they want you to be presented with the whole problem and have you work your way to finding the answer. I could spoonfeed the answer, but that lacks nuance. I’m personally tired of things being designed just for short attention spans to give a dopamine hit and then they jump to the next source of dopamine. I feel this view has degraded my own mental facilities after looking for ‘efficiency’ in language for several years now.

If my comment was a post on its own I would have included a hook for why it matters at the start, but if someone is specifically asking me to explain it I’m going to frame it differently.

Why? We’re talking about electing representatives to govern our country, not picking what movie a few people want to go watch. What do you want from a representative? You want them to reflect the consensus of the wider electorate that voted them in rather than just their smaller base. If 66.6% of the voting electorate didn’t vote for someone of a certain political spectrum in a election where that person won by getting 33.4% of the vote, then how are they the most representative option or how do they reflect the views of the majority? My example is a bit extreme, that’s what winner takes all is. The great thing about other systems is, if you personally only want to vote for one candidate, you still can. However, if you wanted to have a backup option in case your favorite lost the first round, then that’s okay too under other systems.

Even something as simple as ordering food with friends makes sense to use an alternative voting system such as approval voting. You and your friends pick all your favorite options, and you’re less likely to be upset at the results since you can show preference. Some options you might hate, some options others may hate, and other options you might all be okay with having.

Yes! Thank you for sharing this, the NPVIC is so huge and we are so close to it actually being possible.

I feel we can make it happen, especially if we continue to get the word out and reach out to our senators and representatives, then we can have momentum for it actually happen as well.

My response to the why is buried a bit tbf. The why is ‘who are we defining as the majority winner’? If we are defining it based on the current FPTP voting system, then yes the person who got the most votes in the one round of voting is the majority winner. If we define it in another system or based on who the total voting population would be happy to have as the winner, then another system would be better more often then not.

I agree there is a simple and more concise way of answering, but I saw it as a teaching moment to go a bit more in depth.

FPTP is terrible for encouraging a two party system over a long enough period of time, because it can incentivize partisan division to secure voter share, and since it often ignores the opinions of the majority of the entire electorate.

The damage of FPTP is further amplified by the House and Senate being capped on the amount of Representatives and Senators for each state. For many states, they just need to secure 51% of the voter base and it becomes winner takes all, especially so with gerrymandering. If there were Alternative Voting systems in all states and if states have had a minimum of five Representatives and five Senators per state scaled up based on population, then our country as a whole would be properly representative to how different populations throughout the country feels. It wouldn’t be just red or blue states anymore, multiple third parties would be able to flourish, and people would have congress-members in office that actually reflect their views.

I just wooshed the joke there lol.

RCV is still solid over FPTP ~>85% of the time, I’m just advocating for these other voting systems. Many people have heard of RCV, but maybe not one of these other systems. There isn’t really a universal favorite, but I feel having a dialogue about the alternatives is something we want to clarify before we commit ourselves to one without acknowledging any potential drawbacks.

Just because a person’s favorite choice isn’t the most popular, doesn’t mean the winning candidate is preferred by the majority of voters. Let’s say there are three candidates A, B, and C and their vote totals are below.

A: 20 votes

B: 18 votes

C: 15 votes

In First Past The Post A wins.

Now, let’s give voters the option to select their top two choices so they can safely pick their favorite option first and while still having a safe choice secondary pick. In this case the election results are the following:

A: 1st pick 20 votes; 2nd pick 4 votes

B: 1st pick 14 votes; 2nd pick 12 votes

C: 1st pick 19 votes; 2nd pick 10 votes

B got the least votes in this different voting system, and B gets eliminated first. Then we move onto the second round of voting to compare the total votes of A vs C. A has 24 total votes and C has 29 total votes. In this example, C wins the election as they are the candidate most preferred by a majority of the voters. The majority winner still wins as they have the votes of a plurality of the electorate.

My example is a simplified explanation for alternative voting systems, the exact mechanism for each of them differs though. I specifically support Ranked Robin, STAR, or score as the specific alternative voting systems I would prefer over FPTP, as I believe they are all more fair and have the best outcomes for the majority of people expressing their preferences.

If we want elections to be more representative of what the majority of people want, then taking in more preferences of the voters only makes sense. They have less incentive to vote strategically for the same reasons, at least under the systems I mentioned. So for a real world example, most people can safely pick a third party candidate without worrying about the spoiler effect. This would be huge for properly showing just how much true support third parties have out there, because currently they have to compete for people that vote similarly between two or more parties.

Y’all Australians really have one of the best systems with your compulsory voting and not having FPTP. I feel the only thing that would make your system better is if it was upgraded to use ranked robin or STAR voting instead, as the least liked candidate can still win in uncommon circumstances under RCV.

From what I am seeing in a few states is that some establishment Dems push back against it or tore it down, but the progressive Dem groups showed open support of it. I was tracking RCV in Nevada and Arizona specifically and there was not a recommendation to shoot it down, but the main Democratic Party in those states didn’t tell their voters to vote one way or the other from what I saw, only the progressives groups advocated for it though.

I would believe Colorado Dems shot it down though, as they did the same in a few other states. I think it’s still possible to sway public opinion and pressure certain Dems to be in support of Alternative Voting though. I don’t think there is a consensus to shoot it down 100%, but they shoot it down in instances where they might feel it threatens some of their hand picked Senate seats. If they think it would gain the party as a whole more seats on the state level or even federally I believe they could be convinced to back Alternative Voting.

On a side note, Ranked Choice specifically is only slightly better than FPTP compared to say Ranked Robin, STAR, or Score voting. I believe we should push for one of these other three alternatives to prevent uncommon instances where the least liked candidate still can win.

Maybe just the timing? No actual person would be actually mad about something like this. If it was done right after any random person’s death with the knowledge of the person’s death it could be seen as in slightly bad tastes. Knowing it was produced beforehand though makes it more wholesome but just unfortunately timed. I personally think it’s something the pope would have liked given that Luce exists as an official church anime character. I don’t know why the actual person removed it, but it could be they thought the timing was not so great.