• BigNote@lemm.ee
        ·
        1 year ago

        "I hereby appoint myself the final arbiter of all terms and definitions!"

        All you guys do this, for obvious reasons.

        In this context, in political science, "authoritarian" does in fact have a very specific and well-defined meaning. Pretending otherwise just excludes yourself from the conversation. Maybe that's for the best.

        • Babs [she/her]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Which governments aren't authoritarian then?

          • BigNote@lemm.ee
            ·
            1 year ago

            As if Hobbes' Leviathan isn't a thing. Thanks, but no thanks. This is a pedestrian understanding of reality, and one with which I have zero desire to engage.

            Good day.

    • robinn2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

      • randint@lemm.ee
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes, instead of Wikipedia let's just use this random wiki that is heavily biased toward those authoritarian states.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism

        • robinn2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          deleted by creator

          • randint@lemm.ee
            ·
            1 year ago

            Ok, maybe Wikipedia is biased, but I want to hear your arguments on why Prolewiki is not.

            • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Nobody said it's not; the concept of an unbiased party, like so many other liberal frictionless spheres, doesn't exist and so is a useless hueristic for determining the veracity of information. The better question is what are this source's biases?

              • randint@lemm.ee
                ·
                1 year ago

                But then what the other commenter said would basically be "Both Wikipedia and Prolewiki are biased, but Wikipedia is biased to the wrong direction. I like Prolewiki's bias more than I like Wikipedia's bias. Therefore, Wikipedia is not reliable on the topic of Authoritarianism."

                • drhead [he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Bias is important for credibility of a source, but not for the validity of the argument presented, and for the latter you actually have to understand and think about the argument presented.

                  The most important part of that page is its argument that all states wield authority and tend to tighten or relax the exercise of that authority in order to serve a given set of class interests. There's nothing in this that relies on credibility, and dismissing it on account of bias makes as much sense as responding to someone in a debate by saying "you're biased, so why should I believe you?".

                • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Both Wikipedia and Prolewiki are biased,

                  Yes

                  but Wikipedia is biased to the wrong direction

                  Uh huh

                  I like Prolewiki's bias more than I like Wikipedia's bias. Therefore, Wikipedia is not reliable on the topic of Authoritarianism."

                  Aand here you lose me. The fact that you have to assign them a frivolous reason to choose one definition over the other (I just like it lol) as opposed to this choice being the outcome of any assessment of their relative usefulnes as analytical tools kind of gives away your game here.

            • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              1 year ago

              All human creative output is biased, ProleWiki just doesn't pretend it's not biased by hiding behind scholars and quotes that agree with the editor.

          • paholg@lemm.ee
            ·
            1 year ago

            Your source is a joke. It doesn't even define the word, it just shit talks liberals.

            • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              1 year ago

              It does give a definition: that there is none (lack of a definition is a definition). This is pretty clear if you read the whole page. Authoritarianism is just trying to distance itself from authority because all states wield authority in various ways, and so a word was created to separate the two and criticize the socialist bloc that also wielded authority, like the west did, but their authority was bad you see, not like ours which is good.

              But why am I saying this; you didn't read the page, you're not gonna read this either.

              In fact nobody has ever really been able to articulate to me why authoritarianism is bad beyond "I want my freedom". It just inherently is undesirable, don't ask too many questions, just accept it.

        • BigNote@lemm.ee
          ·
          1 year ago

          It's their go-to move. They'll do it every time. Redefine the terms and words in ways that are favorable to their positions. It's what one does when they have no objectively sound arguments. Again, pay attention, watch for it. They do it every single time.

            • BigNote@lemm.ee
              ·
              1 year ago

              Precisely my point. My degree in poly sci means nothing, you guys somehow "know" better than me.

              It's a huge part of why no one who matters actually takes you seriously.

              You are not intellectually serious people, you don't actually care about honest and open discussion of ideas, you are far more interested in policing language than you are in constructive conversation.

              • Catradora_Stalinism [she/her, comrade/them]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Precisely my point. My degree in poly sci means nothing, you guys somehow "know" better than me.

                It means nothing, I took poly sci too, its utter garbage.

                And those people who matter are surely taking any of us working class seriously at all

                We are serious, we disguise it in jokes so as to not be the "intellectual" asshole. Its very annoying to be that way.

    • BigNote@lemm.ee
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ah yes, the tyranny of small differences. Let us tear each other apart over this trifling distinction.

      Fact; fascism falls under the larger umbrella of authoritarianism.