The Great Alternative Vote Debate

[mister_vodka]

I see a lot of heat, but very little light.

Let's start with a disclaimer. I'm an anarchist. As such, the mechanism by which the parties divvie up power is primarily of academic interest to me. That said, I'll launch into the debate of "what colour do you think the wheel should be?" and ignore the shape. Why not

Comments

[_pyromancer_]

Now that's what I call an interesting and insightful post! Well argued and very interesting

[mister_vodka]

"UK general elections these days are decided in a small number of marginal seats, by no more than a few hundred thousand voters in total."

This sentence, I can agree with.

I can't argue with the rest: not because I agree, but for the same reasons I can't argue with Creationists.

[_pyromancer_]

Any chance of expanding on that? Ok, the empire stuff is personal belief, by all means ignore it - it probably makes as little sense to you as anarchy does to me, but hey-ho - but what's religious about the rest? The idea that some people actually vote for fringe parties? That East Leeds is safe Labour? That Kali is awesome? :-)

Genuinely puzzled.

[mister_vodka]

Sure.

Without a shared frame of reference, debate is futile. It's not about religion, but talking to Creationists is the classic example:
-"Look, there are fossils here we can conclusively prove are more than 4000 years old."
-"Satan put them there to tempt us!"
...pointless to continue.

Similarly, as you say, any political discourse between us is doomed to furrowed brows:
-"Would AV actually produce more representative government?"
-"An Empire in North Africa would give Europe free power!"
I can't adequately explain to you, in a way you'd understand, all that's wrong with that. And the fact that I'd need to makes it similarly pointless to continue.

[_pyromancer_]

I think you're being somewhat unfair. I opened with my political position because you did, but I don't think either of them actually have any bearing on the AV argument, other than that we perhaps have different views on how important governance as a whole is. And I'm not saying anyone should attempt to build an empire now - we have the on-going misadventure in Iraq to demonstrate why that is a terrible idea

[mister_vodka]

Maybe I am being unfair. But let me try explaining my reasoning in a little more detail, and with a tad less polemic

[_pyromancer_]

Sorry for long delay, a very pleasant trip to Republican France got in the way