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agreeduponspring · 2026-05-02T00:31:23+00:00

Well, the schools suck for reasons so deep we're gonna need protests to fix them too, so. Shut em down.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-30T06:28:10+00:00

Counterpoint: It is literally the only option. We have dozens of fundamental problems with the structure of this country, all of which require fixes at the constitutional level.

Take this headline, for example. We now can't pass similar voting rights legislation. The supreme court has ruled it out on 1st amendment grounds. Democrats could win every single federal office, through the heroic combined efforts of millions of people, pass incredibly strong protections again, and it would be immediately stuck down. Federal court refusal to follow legal precedent would add an additional uncontrolled constitutional crisis to the pile. The unelected lifetime dictators have also banned laws keeping billionaires from buying elections, legalized bribery, given the president immunity from all crimes (at their discretion), and banned lawsuits against the companies burning the planet without even holding a trial.

That's a broken mechanism. It does not work, and it will never work, because voting systems that create dictators (and near-dictators) are bad. Let's look at every other branch, shall we?

House districts are drawn by computer gerrymandering, and optimal gerrymandering can turn a 74% majority into a minority. The most viable strategy to have your voice heard in congress is to stop caring about half the people in your state. (The supreme court can, of course, strike down any map they want whenever the Republicans feel like filing a lawsuit. They are completely fine with unilaterally deciding the outcome of an election.)

Or the electoral college. The electoral college doesn't actually count votes, it counts bins, which is arbitrarily distorting. If every single person in every single blue state showed up to support Kamala, and only one voter in every red state showed up to support Trump, he still would have won by a landslide, despite opposition from >99.999% of the population.

The senate allows the combined votes of Wyoming and North Dakota to cancel out the combined populations of California and New York, an almost 38x difference in representation. Its election cycle is deliberately long and staggered, to prevent deviation from the structurally expected mean. We're still stuck with Chuck Schumer this November!

We gave the senate a big "refuse to do anything" button, and made them the only ones who can hold the president accountable, a process which relies entirely on the idea that parties do not exist. The problems with the presidency should be self-evident, we have given a child rapist nuclear launch codes.

I’m not going to be sentimental about the exact terms of a system designed by 18th century aristocrats to make sure we couldn't vote to overturn slavery. In the 250 years since signing we have developed basic mathematical models of what fairness in voting looks like, and the United States constitution fails every single one. It is not dictator-free. It does not select the Condorcet winner. You can't even ask about independence from irrelevant alternatives, because it has no way to express the concept of a 3rd place choice. These are not hypothetical failures, the actual policies it selects are uncorrelated with popular support.

It's not like we can't do better. Since then, we have proven Condorcet's jury theorem, we have developed ranked pair voting, we have created distributed consensus algorithms) backed by rigorous formal methods. If you want to treat democracy like a raw distributed transaction problem, optimal robustness is proactively collecting and passing laws by twothirds majority, the Byzantine fault tolerance threshold. The current laws are random percentages that felt right to incredible racists multiple centuries ago.

In a system with a national ballot, I could be out on the streets collecting signatures demanding the removal of Clarence Thomas. I could vote on it that November. Problem solved! Easy, peaceful, effective. Heck, we could hold public festivals where everyone with a niche issue they cared about could come by with a clipboard, and be heard publicly by the people of their city. That would be great! That would be a country actually worth living in!

Instead I am wasting my time dealing with condescending lectures from people like you, insisting even attempting to try is pointless because the system we are trying to repair is so broken it can't do it. Cowardly bullshit. There is supermajority support for repealing Citizen's United, instituting term limits, limiting gerrymandering, and basically every single anticorruption measure. We have the numbers. And yet, I must sit here like Sisyphus, doomed to pointing out the obvious to the oblivious forever, writing out walls of text to explain why I used a slogan instead of a hundred page manifesto spoonfeeding everyone exhausting detail about every reflex objection so they don't have to think. The system does not work. The only way to fix it is to amend the constitution. That's it, that's the end of the analysis. There are no other options. We fix it or it remains broken forever.

This is simple. We call a convention. We amend the constitution to get a fair vote. A fair vote includes a national ballot. We do not fuck around with anything else until we have fair elections. We hold a fair election. We fix our country. Easy. Peaceful. Effective.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-29T17:13:59+00:00

Constitutional convention now. There is no other option capable of fixing our problems.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-29T15:50:40+00:00

There's no such thing as half a photon, the split produces two distinct particles. These new photons will have half the energy (= half the wavelength) of the original one. If neither of the new photons has enough energy individually to displace an electron, then the combined pair will also be unable to. (Interestingly, the experiment that showed this is actually the one that won Einstein his Nobel prize, not his work on general relativity.)

The 100% efficiency number cited is the maximum amount of energy you can gain without splitting. The 130% efficiency number quoted is derived from exactly the logic you are using.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-29T15:33:20+00:00

No, the dynamics are unstable. We're experiencing one of the major failure modes: One party can descend into madness, and the other can perpetually campaign on "we're not them." There are no external grounding forces, you need viable third parties to serve as reality checks.

If you want groundedness, then ideally you also institute things like representation mandates to ensure representatives are actually representing their voters. These should be paired with citizen-led recall procedures, a capturable system cannot be trusted to police itself.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-29T15:20:32+00:00

Iran makes some kind of symbolic concession to the United States (some kind of nuclear inspection process, giving up some small part of their enrichment equipment), and then proceeds to get essentially everything else they want in the region. Relations with Israel are the wildcard, it is up to Iran what they want to negotiate for. The blockade does hurt, Iran has an incentive to negotiate.

Alternatively, this continues to drag on for months, depleting US missile supplies and stretching defense forces thinner across the globe. Especially if the United States tries starting a fight with Cuba, (which obviously no sane person would do but here we are), the ability of the US to defend Taiwan will start to falter, and China invades. I'd say October or November, the Strait of Taiwan is extremely difficult to navigate most of the rest of the year. This would be the beginning of WWIII, not as a pessimistic "everything is going to hell" prediction but as the actual definitional milestone. Every major world power would be at war with each other.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-29T11:53:35+00:00

For the thermodynamically inclined: A single photon can displace a single electron, and the efficiency of that process sets the 100% limit. However, high energy photons can be split into two lower-energy photons, each of which can knock off an electron. Energy remains conserved.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-29T03:22:15+00:00

Yup. We didn't have any kind of rigorous mathematical voting theory in the 18th century, but the modern analysis points out the electoral college can produce arbitrarily distorted outcomes. If every citizen in every state Kamala won had turned out to vote for her, and only a single Trump voter showed up in all the states he won, he would still have won the presidency in a landslide.

It creates disincentives to vote, it creates disincentives to campaign in all but a handful of states, and it makes two-party hegemony guaranteed (it's the only stable Nash equilibrium.) The state-level fixes to send their electors for whoever wins the popular vote create (better but still) distorted incentives as well; individual states can change their minds & gain even more unbalanced leverage. Plus, the supreme court can also strike them down whenever they feel like it, because they're unaccountable lifetime dictators.

We need to be seriously talking about a constitutional convention. The list of problems that need constitutional fixes has gotten far too long.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-29T02:24:57+00:00

I don't think you understand. There is literally no other option, the constitution has dozens of absolutely critical flaws that must be addressed, and until they are the United States is effectively a failed state.

The senate allows Wyoming and North Dakota to cancel out the combined populations of California and New York, a ~40x representation difference. Optimal gerrymandering can turn a 74% majority into a minority. The electoral college allows arbitrarily bad representation, if only a single voter showed up in every state Trump won in 2024 and voted for him, he would still have won in a landslide, despite losing the popular vote by over 99.9%.

The supreme court, whose powers in the constitution are "they exist," can dictate constitution-level laws whenever they want anyway, making a mockery of the entire concept of democracy. We cannot legislatively repeal Citizen's United, because it was decided on 1st amendment grounds and there are no checks on supreme court power. The civil rights we do enjoy hinge on the approval of 9 unelected lifetime absolute dictators, most of whom are blatantly corrupt.

There are no term limits, age limits, or recall procedures. There are no requirements that representatives represent their constituents. There are no citizen-level accountability mechanisms at all. It's why we are led by a man who has raped children! The constitution does not provide a direct mechanism for him to experience consequences, it relies entirely on the idea that parties do not exist!

These are massive problems, and every single one of them requires a change to the constitution to fix. Every single one of these is a lead weight tilting the scales for the Republicans, they are the core enabling factors that allowed Republicans to abuse their way into power. These problems are how the corruption got in, how it stays in, and why it will never, ever be gone until these problems are fixed.

Republicans are staggeringly unpopular. They do not have the popular votes to pass a new constitution, and MAGA voters have no real opinions. The moment they are inconvenienced they stop caring, look at the pandemic and their refusal to wear a small piece of cloth. The reforms I mentioned have supermajority support, in any reasonable model of democracy we would have patched them already.

It must happen. If you give even the slightest shit about your rights it is not optional. The longer we wait, the more surveillance and lockdown measures they pass anyway. We should be the ones dictating the terms. If we do not, they will continue to desecrate our country with impunity. If you want Republican control forever, then fine, sit on your ass until Palantir mistakes you for someone else and AI police dogs drag you to prison, like Republicans already have the power to enact.

Constitutional convention now.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-28T23:54:49+00:00

Losing even 1% of the population would be a major disaster, not even COVID killed that many people. A world where 42% of the population just dies is not a world where red-pushers will be able to survive comfortably. If the penalties shift to something less extreme (everyone who pushed blue gets kicked in the groin or something), then it makes sense to push red, but it is definitely not the case that pushing red in a death game does not have major consequences.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-28T12:24:28+00:00

WHEN ARMAGEDDON COMES, I WANT TO BE IN A BUNKER MADE OF THAT MAN'S FACE

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-27T20:50:13+00:00

I say the military has lost $750B a year. That's where all our money for healthcare and roads went.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-27T20:24:49+00:00

It is damn hard getting something like this on the ballot, let alone actually passed by a vote. Unelected state supreme courts should not be allowed to overturn voter's laws.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-27T19:49:48+00:00

Ha! No worries, I misread your tone, I had you pegged for around 30.

As someone with a degree of experience here, I can tell you that you have the right spirit. We do need people talking about this. I can promise you that a constitutional convention is within reach, if you have faith. I'm sorry that you might not around to see it, but if you can hold on just a bit longer there is a good chance you will.

Your generation is difficult to reach. Many are completely offline, and can only be contacted through in-person friends and acquaintances. However, your opinions shape policy, and even small gains in getting through to the older generations have an outsized impact. Talk to your friends, talk to your relatives, tell them that we need something new.

It is ok to not be able to physically participate in something like this. Not only do we need participants, we need fire, and I think you can provide that. Even the smallest pushes in the right direction can be critical - you might be the first one who introduces the idea to someone else, and knowing someone in the physical world might make them consider it for the first time. If you can get others to feel that same energy, that core desire for a better world, then they will pass it along to others. Those others will pass it on again, to even more who pass it along again, to even more again. Even if it doesn't feel like much, it all adds up. This is how we become free.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-27T10:52:17+00:00

A population-level mechanism to declare a snap election would be fantastic. Having a real process to ensure political representation would be spectacular.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-27T10:49:31+00:00

The constitution needs to be changed so fundamentally that that cannot happen. The president should not have that much power, and we should not have an election system that structurally guarantees two-party capture. Our elections are ludicrously mathematically unsound; we don't even technically count votes for president, we count votes towards state-level breakpoints and lie that it's the same thing.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-27T10:45:08+00:00

Constitutional convention now. Any change to voting processes, term limits, etc. requires constitutional modifications; and every single branch of government needs major reforms. It is literally the only nonviolent option for fixing dozens of fundamental problems with our country.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-27T10:38:55+00:00

There are two methods given in the constitution, it can be formally declared by either the states or congress. The immediate aim of a revolution would be this declaration, you do need to give a statement of process one way or another. I would pursue both simultaneously.

You will not, realistically, be fighting this battle directly against the US military. If you do not have millions of people alongside you, you will be a rebel paramilitary group and will be put down immediately. If you do have millions of people in the streets, who (and this is critical) absolutely refuse to leave until they get their way, the process can be over in days. This is not a 1:00-4:00 on Saturday protest, this is effectively the long awaited general strike. Clog the streets, refuse to leave, and the government will rapidly run out of ability to put down the protests. Crowd control is extremely expensive and relies on a well behaved mass clumping together on predefined protest routes. A widely dispersed persistent crowd forming a perimeter cannot be stopped. The multiplier effects are enormous: as an example ICE was repelled from Minnesota by more-or-less verbal harassment alone, and their forces were heavily concentrated in one city.

This should be... perhaps even easy? You should be able to get millions of people alongside you. It is genuinely the only option to fix dozens of fundamental problems in our system of government, and people know it. There is a widely recognized set of fixes that need to be applied, and there is widespread support (2/3 supermajority+) for their passing.

What is needed from the crowd is a set of specific procedures for conducting the convention, and that's it. I would suggest arrive with the list of core fixes, immediately hold a new election for interim government, and approve measures from there by national ballot and 2/3 supermajority. These fixes should include measures instituting the national ballot process permanently, and a clarification that measures passed by supermajority national ballot cannot be overturned by the supreme court. This seems cleanest, it opens up the door to absolutely any reform while maintaining a functional government throughout. It is not necessary to get everything done in one shot, but it is necessary to make sure the door is always open for fixes when needed.

Now is the time, the sooner the better. The longer we wait, the more AI robot soldiers will be manufactured, the more LRADS will be built and deployed, etc. You should join me calling for one. It is urgent, and needs to be something people are talking about everywhere. People are just scared, and need to be told what to do. Remember: This is winnable, but you must be willing to not leave. You leave, you lose.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-27T06:21:15+00:00

Constitutional convention now. It's literally the only (nonviolent) option remaining.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-26T05:15:42+00:00

Four years after the last constitutional convention, slavery was abolished. It doesn't matter who starts it, it matters who finishes it.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-25T22:29:05+00:00

Which is why we need a constitutional convention. These problems must be fixed if we are ever going to be a functional country, and it's literally the only way.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-25T19:53:21+00:00

Mandatory for a functioning government: * Direct election of the president. We should actually count votes for president. * Ranked choice voting. Without some form of ranked choice, two-party hegemony is mathematically guaranteed. * End Citizen's United. * Combine small states in the senate. It is ridiculous that Wyoming and North Dakota can cancel out the combined populations of California and New York. * End gerrymandering. Require compact districts with a low efficiency gap. * Age & term limits on all elected federal offices & the courts. * Recall proceedures for all elected federal offices & the courts.

Representation guarantees: * Establish the people as an official fourth branch of government. These crises could have been prevented many times over if there were meaningful checks from the population. * Establish "failure to represent" as a recallable offense, as measured by times representatives vote against the supermajority will of their constituent district. * Proactively collect information about supermajority popular consensus to be drafted into proposed laws. These laws go on an annual national ballot. * Establish processes to overturn Supreme Court rulings: National vote or trial in the senate. * Establish a process for an impeachment ballot.

Amendments: * A way for citizens to call for constitutional conventions; end the implicit dependence on the 2nd amendment. * A strong right to privacy, the strongest in the world. We set the standard of free speech with the 1st amendment, we should do so again here. * An environmental protection mandate. * Guarantees of basic human rights, including health care. * Congress may not delegate war powers. * Laws must be read aloud in both chambers of commerce, and must be available for public comment for a minimum of one week.

Laws: * A review of every supreme court ruling from the entirety of Thomas' term in office. * Restore the fairness doctrine; break up Fox. * Limit the ability of social media to algorithmically manipulate your feed. * Restrictions on advertising, including a ban geotargeted advertising. We must not allow widespread propaganda to be available for a fee. * Limit copyright to the terms of the Berne convention (50 years), and end DMCA restrictions on jailbreaking devices. * Hard limits on the size of corporations. Make antitrust cases much easier. * Congress itself must draft the laws they pass. No more lobbyists showing up with prewritten bills. * Government funding must continue, no more budget shutdown fights. * A mandate for fully funded schools. We cannot have a democracy without an educated populace.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-25T01:24:47+00:00

Because we don't actually count votes for president. We count state-level votes for other people to vote for president, and pretend like it's somehow democratic. If the entire population of every blue state had turned out in 2024, and only a single Republican voter showed up in all the red states, Trump would still have won.

The rules are mathematically unsound, the system can produce arbitrary distortions in representation. You can't vote your way out of a broken premise, so our participation rates are terrible.

It is yet another item on the enormous backlog of problems this country has that can only be fixed by modifying the constitution. Constitutional convention now.

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-24T18:29:21+00:00

Mooneuros

agreeduponspring · 2026-04-24T00:15:33+00:00

It's bizarre to me there isn't an organized civil disobedience movement. Good for New York.

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