Or a real democracy with voters either deeply apathetic about being watched or deeply anxious about what happens if nobody's watching.

this comment would make sense if this was the only issue where this was true instead of one amongst almost an uncountable number

Vectors pointing in all directions can sum to zero. If people are generally dissatisfied, but can't find common ground to coalesce their dissatisfaction into action, movement, or party, the status quo vibrates but does not move.

Broadly speaking, on one side of the aisle in the US I see people who refuse to coalesce, spend more time tearing at each other than figuring out how to work together, and find the entire idea of touching the system, let alone changing it, distasteful...And, sadly, on the other side I see a very successful coalition of surface-incompatible causes who figured out how to work together anyway and got their men elected.

what is missing from this surface level analysis is any real content about what the US government is, what it does in the world, the structure of the constitution, and the legacy of anti-democratic movements under the banner of anti-communism. All roads point to a conspiracy by the rich to deprive us of agency and sow death and destruction like a supervillian.

No need to even hypothesize a conspiracy when incentives alone suffice to explain behavior.

There is benefit in controlling the governmental process and the wealthy have resources to take the time to do it (and pay others to use their the to do it). Individual citizens don't have the money but they have the numbers. What's missing is the actual collective action.

Real but too constrained with two-party system.

> It's crazy almost nothing changed after this revelation.

The "democracy" noted that when you bomb someone's brain with information and emotions (modern journalism), "he" will forget in 5 minutes what "he" was told. Especially when "he" has to pay the rent and feed a family.

"he" here could be any person.