&gt; Direct democracy with an effective news media is more resistant to corruption than the representative democracy with corporate media that we have now. If you disagree with that statement, let me know.<p>This is only true if you make a series of very large assumptions about the people involved. Such as that voters individually choose to consume an inclusive variety of media, instead of filtering to just the media that caters to their tribe.<p>This is the sort of assumption that seems easy if you are utopian and don&#x27;t really understand tribalism in nearly-hairless primates. Suffice to say it&#x27;s not nearly as simple as you think and far from the guarantee you clearly believe.<p>&gt; So your argument is that implicit power structures are just as problematic as explicit power structures as you can still have a small number of actors who seek to game the system to their own advantage?<p>Implicit power structures are <i>worse</i>. This is because they lack accountability mechanisms and centralize power, making corruption easy while also making it difficult to get rid of. This is in no way an improvement.<p>Frankly, it&#x27;s becoming painfully clear to me that you simply don&#x27;t understand power.<p>&gt; I find that insulting, quite frankly.<p>Bully for you.<p>&gt; As I&#x27;ve said before, none of those societies you&#x27;re referring to were communist societies, nor did they start out as communist societies and devolve into something else. They were never communist to begin with, and did not make efforts to become more communist as time went on.<p>I imagine you think it&#x27;s just a coincidence that without exception, every single historical case wherein sincere attempts at Communism were made the result was a dictatorial bloodbath. You think the examples aren&#x27;t relevant.<p>After all, they were not <i>true</i> Scotsman.<p>I&#x27;m afraid I&#x27;m done with this conversation. If I believed in God, I&#x27;d be praying very hard that you never find yourself near levers of power. You have no conception of how much your naivety terrifies me.