Instigator / Pro
14
1571
rating
19
debates
65.79%
won
Topic
#3879
Democracy Is Tyranny
Status
Finished
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
Winner & statistics
After 2 votes and with 14 points ahead, the winner is...
Public-Choice
Parameters
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 3
- Time for argument
- Two days
- Max argument characters
- 5,000
- Voting period
- One week
- Point system
- Multiple criterions
- Voting system
- Open
Contender / Con
0
1487
rating
1
debates
0.0%
won
Description
STANCES:
PRO shall only argue that Democracy is Tyranny
CON shall only argue that democracy is NOT Tyranny
* * *
DEFINITIONS:
All definitions shall come from Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary, available here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/
TYRANNY (definition 1 of Merriam Webster): oppressive power
DEMOCRACY (definition 1 especially): rule of the majority
* * *
RULES:
1. Burden of Proof is shared.
2. No Kritiks
3. No trolls
4. Forfeiting one round = auto-loss.
Round 1
From the dawn of human history, mankind has been engaged in a struggle. A struggle for property. A struggle for camaraderie. And a struggle for freedom to choose. Freedom to choose his job. Freedom to choose where he will live. Freedom to choose his house, his car, or his way of life.
But mankind has also impeded his brother from these choices, under the guise of "Democracy." In fact, for thousands of years, "Democracy" went under another name. Tyranny. Tyranny of the majority. And this is so for good reason, as will be objectively shown in this opening argument.
As the Renew Democracy Initiative explains:
Why did Socrates, arguably the most famous philosopher of all time, think it was so dangerous? Well, Socrates and Plato, in addition to many other prominent political philosophers that followed them, were concerned that democracies might lead to a tyranny of the majority, whereby the majority of citizens oppresses the minority in a democratic state. Typically, a tyrannical majority is led by a demagogue who ridicules the previous established power, appeals to popular sentiment, and launches attacks against minority groups—all to the delight of the demagogue’s supporters. [1]
Democracy is tyranny of the majority. Plain and simple. It is one group of people asserting their opinions and way of life on another group of people. This is oppression in its most obvious and dangerous form.
It is for this reason James Madison, the Father of the United States Constitution, one of the most revolutionary documents in existence which spawned governments around the world to rethink politics altogether in favor of natural rights and limited government, stated in Federalist #10:
A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert results from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party, or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is, that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives, as they have been violent in their deaths.[2]
To underscore the point that Democracy is mere tyranny of the majority, let us recall that some of the most horrific regimes in human history were democratically elected.
The Nazi Party was democratically elected into power by the German public in 1932, when they obtained a shocking 107 seats in the German Assembly. Just two years later they became the largest party with 232 seats. [3]. Here democracy struck a death blow, causing, in its wake, the Holocaust, the bloodiest war ever fought in known human history, unprecedented displacement of the Jewish people, and unprecedented and horrific deaths of the masses in gas chambers and furnaces. They killed off the elderly, the infirm, and the differently abled, and the German people willingly and enthusiastically elected them into office.[4]
Meanwhile, in America, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 4-time democratically elected President, Americans were subjected to witch hunts, internment camps, and confiscations of property. Italian Americans were wrongly deemed terrorists and threats to America simply for their heritage, and Japanese Americans were displaced from their homes and thrown into internment for the crime being at the mercy of a racist, democratically-elected regime. [5].
And in Italy, during the same period, Mussolini was democratically elected into power, and commenced a regime so vile and despicable that many Italian Americans and their immigrant parents hang their head in shame that such a cancer on the livelihoods of their fellow Italians was ever elected into office.
Mussolini and the National Fascist Party literally decreed Italy to be a totalitarian regime and they stripped citizens of their rights and brutally punished anyone who stood up for rights and human dignity. [6]
As the World War II Reference Library states:
By 1926, Mussolini had become a dictator. He dissolved the parliamentary system and all political parties, took control of the press, and put himself in charge of the military and most of the government ministries. "Il Duce" demanded absolute obedience from everyone, and anyone who resisted would soon be crushed. [6]
Realize that CON who is defending democracy here, agrees with these atrocities by upholding the government that creates them. He agrees that democratically elected officials should be able to do whatever it is they want, and he does not see a problem with the horrific and tyrannical societies that appear as a result of democracy's usage. He is for the very system of government responsible for the Holocaust, Japanese Internment, and agrees that one group of people should have every right to oppress, slaughter, and displace anyone they wish by simple vote.
SOURCES in comments.
Forfeited
Round 2
CON has forfeited. Vote PRO.
Forfeited
Round 3
Democracy is tyranny. Vote PRO
Forfeited
Democracy is a majority vote. Majority vote is oppression of minority peoples. Therefore Democracy is tyranny of the majority. Any method where a group of people votes on policy is an act of oppression over the other group that does not want the policies.
just wanted to point out some obvious facts. democracy it's never been "the majority". I do not agree with your sentence becouse goverrnamnets are bound to the the current economical system. power is not shared, it is kept in place by few people who actually promote tyranny, a small number compared to the majority of humans. I link here what better explains my thoughts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN61AOjbzxg
have a good debate!
Round 1 sources:
[1] https://rdi.org/defining-democracy-overview/dd-tyranny-of-the-majority/
[2] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-10-02-0178
[3] https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-rise-to-power
[4] https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/07/09/medical-war-crimes-nazis-murdered-mentally-physically-disabled-13172
[5] https://www.dispropaganda.com/single-post/2019/01/30/President-Franklin-D-Roosevelt-crimes
[6] https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/italian-history-biographies/benito-mussolini
delete the description's definitions and i'll accept
But have you considered the third option that you want to redefine reality based on your own personal opinions and not those of dictionaries?
It is up to CON to argue that democracy is not tyranny. In fact I can think of two ways to do so that would be very strong arguments. It isn't my fault that you think there aren't any strong arguments against it.
You either know what you have done or you are too stupid to reason with. Considering that your title and definitions are a blatantly combined trap, it's the former.
So, in other words, you think dictionaries shouldn't be used to define words?
I agree that you know how to abuse descriptions.
So then you agree that Democracy is tyranny?
your definitions are why you will abusively win
What do you mean?
Semantic nonsense game as per the description