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AI Billionaires Are Flooding Money Into Politics to Influence Elections, But It’s Backfiring: Even a whiff of AI money seems to disgust voters. (futurism.com)
submitted 8 hours ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] [S] 44 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

That’s the unsettling part. When billionaires spend fortunes shaping elections, it’s reasonable to ask whether they see voters as citizens to persuade or obstacles to manage. Democracy becomes a lot less inconvenient when you can fund the candidates, influence the platforms hosting the debate, and lobby the people writing the rules. All perfectly legal, of course.

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  • [–] 47 points 7 hours ago (1 child)

    Y'all should stop using the word lobby and call it what it is. Bribery. The only reason your country isn't stupid corrupt at face value is because you legalized bribery.

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  • [–] 26 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

    Annoyingly it also turned the word "lobby" into a contaminated dirty word, even though lobbying is a healthy and important part of a functional democracy.

    Any group collectively arguing in favour of their interest to the government is a lobby. That group can be anything from employers, to unions, to civil rights advocates.

    The problematic part is the bribery, not the fact that there is interest groups lobbying the government.

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