it's weird that we are prepared to die for democracy, yet willingly enter dictatorships daily for work and spend the majority of our waking lives with people we vaguely know

The power a government has over you, and the power your employer has over you, are totally different.

The government is legally authorized to separate you from your possessions, your freedom, and even your life in extremis. Your boss can't do any of that and if they try the government should stop them.

Some people believe democracy is what prevents the government from punishing you capriciously, or allowing corporations to just do whatever they want to you. So they are willing to die to defend it.

I would say traditional liberal ideals are closer to what they'd want to defend than democracy itself, and I don't 100% agree in either case, but I can see the point of view.

As a person with family living under an actual dictatorship, I’d like to point out some differences.

You can leave a job. You’re generally not killed for poor performance at a job.

I’ll stop there. I think that’s enough to shatter this very poor comparison.

You think working for a corporation is the same as living under a dictatorship?

That's not what dictatorship means

Not sure I'd die for democracy.. it's a popularity contest where 80 year old millionaires compete to see who looks best in a suit.

Freedom, sure. But that's not the same thing.

I have a problem with the willingly in this thought.

The issue is that people are pretty unwilling to be homeless or starve if there's an alternative (no matter how terrible).

Working is the worst way to prevent yourself from starvation and homelessness except for all of the others.

The overlap of people willing to let themselves be beat down and exploited at work, and the people that would actually fight and die for democracy is slim to none.

Lots of people are not willing to die for democracy, some even fight against it out of ignorance or powerlust.

It's... not weird at all. Democracy is a form of governance that permeates all our lives and controls the state that has a monopoly of violence that can be used against us and take away our rights. It's not something we can opt-out of so it's important that everyone has a say in it.

Small groups forming to do things like commerce or non-profits or whatever are completely voluntary and can't take our rights away. The fact is, these authoritarian-like structures are efficient and effective. Even employee-owned corporations tend to organize this way by electing the officers.

Would love to see more companies experiment with democratic organizations though.

On which border is it common to cross from a democracy to a dictatorship for work?

No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.

-George Patton

I worked for a cooperative once. It had its upsides. But it eventually lost steam because of the diffusion of responsibility. At its peak it had a strong core council of 5-7 official members looking after it and it flourished. But it was somewhat of a labor of love and over time they had kids, moved away, etc and eventually there just weren’t enough committed core people to keep it going.

A small business generally has one person who is ready to do absolutely whatever it takes to make it a success. This can be game changing. All their skin is in the game. If they have to skip a paycheck they do. If they have to work all night they do.

You know, a dictator, as you call them -_-

Careful you might start thinking about democratizing the workplace. If you start doing that you might wind up one of us filthy syndicalists

You can go to work for yourself, you can’t fork your own country.

The dominant cultural ideology blinds us to the obvious contradictions.

Frankly, I'm a coward. There's very little I'd be willing to die for and democracy certainly isn't one of those things.

I don't have a choice. If I wanna do the kind of work I enjoy and pays enough to feed my family, I have to submit to corporate dictatorship.

In a workplace you're trading your labour, skills, and time for money. Think of it more like a convenience store, do you get to vote for the guy behind the counter, do you get to vote for the prices of the products? How would a convenience store be able to function if the customers could vote on these things?

Democracy works with government because most voters are also taxpayers. There's a an incentive not to vote for things that aren't affordable because the people voting have to pay for it.

Every single civilization with every single type of governance in human history requires most people to work. That will continue to be the case for a long time into the future.

Is the current system perfect? No. However it does allow for a greater degree of latitude than basically everything that came before it. It also has safeguards to ensure there's some sort of safety net if you fall on hard times.

You also mentioned democracy. Assuming you live in America, you can vote in a way that introduces reform to the system.

Starting a violent revolution is a last resort sort of thing.

There is a difference even between an autocracy and a dictatorship. There's a difference between specialization and dictatorship.

The things you don't fully grasp should get questions; not the host outrageous label you can think of at the time.

If you think about it, Thomas Hobbes was right but on a smaller scale. Society only works when people submit themselves to their bosses.

cognitive dissonance or something

People are not willing to die for democracy.

People are willing to die doe their cunt tree.

In my country i can choosr who runs it...

I cant, at my job

But i can easily choose to quit and find a different job, or start my own company. I dont have those options, when it comes to my country.

Democracy, the God that failed.

In the US? I only work full time because of the constant threat of death if I don't.

OP I'm familiar with your sentiment. This rhetoric is too ideological for most, I'd dial it back and try again. Most are allergic to leftist words and ideas. Union recruiters say to never even use the "U" word, and even saying burgeosie will have libs mocking you.