A secret recording of parliament members in Iceland revealed who they really were.

[conuly]

What else are we not hearing from our representatives?

As always, I'm gonna focus on one small thing, namely, the defense of "Well, it was a private conversation!"

This ought to be self-evident and probably is to everybody who isn't a raging hypocrite, but when you're a public figure in a public place, your conversation is not private. And when you, an elected official, go and air your private opinions in public, they are no longer your personal private opinions that are nobody's business but your own. They're information that the public can use when deciding whether or not to vote for you in the upcoming election or, better yet, to mobilize for you to leave office.

Sorry.

It's one thing to say that Joe Q. Random Truck Driver shouldn't be fired from his job for the things he said at a bar one day, or Dr. Random Doctorperson. Elected officials are doing a very different job, and they got it in no small part based on their opinions, so they're SOL on that front.

Comments

[silveradept]

The way the cartoon frames it as a problem of trust resonates with me. We want people in government who are the people they say they are, not people who put on one face to the public and have another when they assume nobody is looking or listening. If people don't trust that the government will do the things they promise, then government doesn't work.

There's also an interesting thread to pull on for government here in the States, where it seems like the power that is open about what they intend to do, who they intend to hurt, and which of the -isms they intend to enshrine is able to gain popularity and enact their agenda, while the party with better morals and ethics and carefully thought-out plans that try to minimize harm doesn't get much except as reaction to the other party following through with their agenda.