[SpicyLemonZest]

The logic is that the world we see is chaotic in a way that’s difficult to reconcile with the idea that it’s all being masterminded behind the scenes. There does not seem to be any one group of people who always win every political dispute they engage in.

[GolfPopper]

Yet there is a group that reliably loses in the United States: average citizens. From "Testing Theories of American Politics" (Gilens & Page 2014)[1]:

"These results suggest that reality is best captured by mixed theories in which both individual economic elites and organized interest groups (including corporations, largely owned and controlled by wealthy elites) play a substantial part in affecting public policy, but the general public has little or no independent influence."

1. https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_th...

[SpicyLemonZest]

I guess this result doesn't seem surprising to me? A majority of the general public can't even identify how long Senate terms are (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/07/what-amer...); they simply don't have the required knowledge to meaningfully influence politics without mediation through interest groups. (Anecdotally, it’s a truism in political circles that you will drive yourself insane trying to understand the median voter’s theories of politics.)