You see politicians disagreeing with each others, protesting, calling out bad politics etc. You almost never see policemen refusing their orders or stopping violent colleagues. If they do, they get fired, so saying ACAB doesn't include them
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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No, for the simple reason that some (yes, definitely not enough) politicians are trying to actually do good things, and they can do good things, in theory. Cops are bad because they're enforcers of any and all laws, and nobody has purely good laws, and they're specifically in the business of protecting property over lives, restricting peoples' freedoms/etc.
The only case where all politicians are bad is in pure, actual communism, which cannot exist at this point in history.
Name for this kind of slogan is a "Thought-terminating clishé"
A thought-terminating cliché (also known as a semantic stop-sign, a thought-stopper, bumper sticker logic, or cliché thinking) is a form of loaded language—often passing as folk wisdom—intended to end an argument and quell cognitive dissonance with a cliché rather than a point.
It is a sentiment that separates politics from the people.
I believe/hope it is not a popular term because enough people believe it's bad for democracy.
Depoliticaztion of the populace is what allows governments like Russia's to happen.
Most local politicians I know don’t get paid (school board, commissioners, etc) or they get paid very little for the time they put in.
If you count up all the elected folks in the USA, less than 1% are what you think of as “politicians.” They are mostly just people you see at the grocery store
Fair observation. Police are enforcers of the state's will; politicians/bureaucrats shape said will.
But also police enforce "policy", not so much the law. Someone distills the laws and rules into policy to dumb it down for cops to understand., but they always end up misinterpreting it. They end up bastardizing the law.
Politicians without cops become blowhards real quick.
Cops aren't the root cause of evil, they're just actively standing in the way of making progress (in theory).
The root cause of evil might actually be in most of us not cooperating when that's needed.
They are elected. That means that the real B in there would be a majority or plurality of citizens in the riding/town.
Politicians choose the qualifications to be a cop (via passing laws). So if the cops are terrible, perhaps that's the politician's fault.
I think about it quite similar to you. I'd even go a bit further: shortsighted and bad laws are the biggest source of problems.
Often the kind of law that a populist gains popularity/notoriety through.
APAP: All Politicians Are Pussies.
Maybe try again without the misogyny.
APAP: All Politicians Are Preposterous?
The law is just an expression, more or less up-to-date, of the existing balance of power between those who have power and those who don't
Plenty of examples where both public and executive and legislative would've deemed certain behaviour problematic, yet the perpetrator, of marginal power, walks free.
I'd say the law also gives power to the marginalized, when the judicial behaves independently, as they should.
I agree with you there are perversions to this ideal, such as elected judges, plea bargains.
Disagree in general that it can empower the marginalized -- it is at most a reflection of the power that the marginalized can sometimes use, either because they did things like strike or organize in the past, or because they have access to powers won by less marginalized people.
Would you say we'd be better off by merging executive and judiciary, doing away with legislative?
I don't exactly know what it'd mean to merge the judiciary and executive. If we're just tinkering with the system, the most democratic parts of the system are the US House of Representatives, UK House of Commons, and similar population-based representation, so I'd want to expand them at the others' expense.
I don't believe that will solve much, though. In a hierarchical society, those on top will use any existing govt structures to their benefit, having more control when there is less democracy. In general, I believe in spreading power so thinly that it effectively disappears. Instead, people affected by a decision should be the ones to make it, not merely to vote for those who promise to do right by them.
In a hierarchical society, those on top will use any existing govt structures to their benefit
That's exactly why there's separation of power! The idea being that executive, legislative and judiciary are of equal power. One can block or strenghten the behaviour of the other on an independant, case-by-case basis. Those properties should, imo be strenghtened, not weakened.
people affected by a decision should be the ones to make it, not merely to vote for those who promise to do right by them.
Samesees. My utopia would be liquid democracy.
But even here, there would be law! It's a necessary good, to combat arbitrary prosecution, imo.
Cool yeah I need to look into liquid democracy more.
I'm sorta ambiguous about the law -- it is always a blunt tool in that it can't possibly cover every situation (despite judicial contortions) and every person's particular circumstances. It ages badly and can be hard to keep it up with changing times.
At this point, though, I'm willing to accept laws written and passed by community assemblies, covering their community. It'd be a huge step forward anyway.