[andruby]

> Perhaps the only weapon is to teach how to think for oneself. Who is going to invest in that in a scale necessary?

_Most_ developed countries do invest in the education and teaching of critical thinking. It's not even that expensive.

In most countries, if a political party prefers an uneducated voter base, they don't win elections. Or if they do, there are enough working checks and balances (and parties in the opposition) to prevent serious harm.

[srean]

LoL.

Political parties are very good at making elections about manufactured issues. They strategically polarize the voters by amplifying and creating fault lines within the society.

If what you say is true in your world, I would be sincerely interested to know where would that be (my guesses would be Uruguay, New Zealand). This is not sarcasm, I am genuinely interested. In my world, India, it is as untrue as it can be.

[andruby]

I grew up and lived mostly in Belgium. Only a year in the US and a few years in South Africa.

Belgium gets a lot of criticism for moving slowing, but it also rarely breaks crucial things. The system of >10 political parties has its flaws, but it's a lot less divisive than a 2 party system. It means compromise needs to be found, and that no 1 party has full control (slows things down but reduces corruption and critical errors imo). Purposely dumbing down the population or firing 10% of government employees in order to hide malicious acts (or make corruption easier) just aren't conceivable in Belgium.

[srean]

Appreciate your reply.

The only criticism of Belgium that I have heard are the horrors of colonialism under Leopold.

Its a picturesque country.

[andruby]

Thanks! As always, plenty of problems there too.

The colonization of Congo was indeed horrible. Inconsequential clarification: Congo wasn't actually a Belgian colony, it was Leopold's personal colony.

[srean]

Oh! I did not know that. So crazy.