Mamdani

Pope Francisco was cool and he seemed quite nice.

Union representative is a position of power. I got elected union rep because my colleagues liked me and trusted me.

Not necessarily. E.g., teachers are often great people with the best of intentions, yet we put them in a position of hierarchial power over students. (No disrespect to the teachers in the building, exactly the opposite. Education is so important, and I want to be a professor. But I’m sure we can agree that education is too hierarchical in it’s current form.)

IMO, authority and hierarchy would not suddenly be good ways of organizing society if a good person was at the reigns.

In open source community there is a term called “Benevolent dictator for life”, such as the creator of Python programming language Guido van Rossum or creator of Linux Linus Torvalds.

In politics and corporate environment I would agree with you though.

This meme template really needs to die. I don’t want to see this Nazi asshole in my feed.

This isn’t addressed to OP, I’m pissing on Calvin’s premise:

Historically influential power can be gotten by being good: Jonas Salk, MLK Jr, Ghandi, Darwin, some philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians, etc. Unfortunately there’s a significant section of the population who don’t like good people (possibly due to foiling).

But assuming none of us are getting out of life alive, personally it seems like it’s worth risking being a historic level of good versus clinging to the status quo for an extra decade or two without the hope of making a difference.

In Multilevel Selection evolutionary theory there’s selection at the selfish gene and individual level, but also at group, population, species, etc levels. Those latter levels serta contribute game theory value to the community which is at least a definition of good (or moral).

Power isn’t inherently bad is the minimum thing I’m trying to demonstrate.

Hence our current predicament. Good kings never want the throne.

Challenge accepted; exhibit A:

Exhibit B (I’m assuming this is Salvador Allende):

Exhibit C:

I think this discussion would benefit from a clear definition of what a “good person” is. No one achieves power on their own, and what’s good for the individual is not always good for the group. The inverse is also true. I have lead small teams where I actively fostered collaboration, enabled autonomy and encouraged contribution from all levels. This placed me into a position of power, and I don’t think anyone would describe what I did as the actions of a “bad person.” But achieving relative power in a small group of people working towards a similar goal is not the same as achieving power in a political system where crabs in a bucket mentality is prominent and everything is seen as zero sum.

Technically a sniper a few hundred feet from the White House isn’t necessarily a bad person and could be in a very good position of power.

I think this explains why so many politicians (especially conservative ones), billionaires who aren’t politicians, religious leaders, and simps who idolize them all, so frequently turn out to be child-raping pedophiles or just rapists in general.

Statistics relentlessly attempt to claim that pedophilia has no political correlations.

I think these claims of ‘no correlation’ are failing to account for the more important question of how often an offender is CONVICTED of child sexual exploitation or abuse, because…

MEANS. MOTIVE. OPPORTUNITY.

Even IF it turned out to be empirically proven true that this particular underlying especially malignant and destructive paraphilic disorder did not have any other correlations, you know what DOES correlate to following through with raping someone…?

The difference between someone who is a predator and someone who isn’t is that the predator attempts to pursue prey: predators actively LOOK for opportunities, and actively DEVELOP means, to appease their motives.

SO WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE WHEN A PERSON TRIES TO ESTABLISH THE MEANS TO GET AWAY WITH ACCESSING A VICTIM AND RAPING THEM?

Rhetorical; I’m going to tell you - it’s AUTHORITY. Social trust. Political power. The money to buy both. Even if the same motives were to hypothetically exist across all demographics, you will see a disproportionate amount of OFFENDING among those specific demographics where means and opportunity exist.

This is why most rapists are related to their victims familially.
They are an elder in their family, which confers authority, power, and trust: MEANS.
The potential victim is right there in the house on a fairly regular basis: OPPORTUNITY.

This is also why people who have fewer hesitations regarding the acquisition and exploitation of authority are disproportionately represented… They believe that authority entitles them to the right to use or abuse people as they please. And THOSE beliefs align with…

… TRADITION.

AND

… CONSERVATISM.

There most certainly ARE leftists who are perverts, especially when they attain some degree of popularity - because POWER ENABLES RESISTANCE TO CONSEQUENCES. But usually when it happens in the left they are dog piled and eaten alive before they can form an international ring of child sex trafficking. Not so with so-called “centrists” who optimize for loose tolerance and “coalition building” with inhuman irredeemable scum sucking vermin in the way that mainstream Democrats were ALSO buddy buddy with Jeff Epstein.

It’s always going to be a problem that paraphilic individuals with few scruples will ooze out from between the cracks of any societal structure and inflict harm. It’s that some societal structure are more hospitable to their ilk than others. Societies that value resistance to concentrated power or authority, and prioritize mutual consent and egalitarianism, are at least SLIGHTLY less conducive with letting predatory exploitation fly.

THERE ARE OBJECTIVELY FAR MORE RIGHT WING GRIFTERS THAN LEFT WING ONES, AFTER ALL. when there’s a grifter on the right, they are lauded as successful masters of their craft. When there’s a grifter on the left, criticism calling them out is often the FIRST exposure you’ll have to their very existence.

I’ll change your mind with a rock if you don’t, then punish everyone who cares about you!

There. Did that work?

good relighting

You can be a good person even though (all) people don’t think that you are. And clearly visa versa