>What political institutions promised ‘full democracy’?

I mean democracy that actually represents people, vs one that represents business in the majority of cases. Politicians have the job of pretending this isn't the case while also ensuring that this non-representation continues.

>If you’re in US we are not a direct democracy as know and we never will be nor are designed to be.

Direct or indirect isn't the issue I'm referring to. That's an implementation detail. I'm talking about who gets represented vs who really doesn't. I claim that most politics isn't about improving the lives of individuals so much as it is about trying to ensure markets are always ticking up or there's access to resources, etc.

Regular people are not sufficiently in control of the new tech that's coming out. The political institutions that promised full democracy have woefully failed to deliver (see COVID safety, climate change, etc). Further, we all know the basic fact that if an endeavor is not profitable, it's taken off of the table as a possibility. As time marches on, more and more needs are unmet due to their inherent unprofitability.

I'm not a pessimistic person either but I can at least understand where this is coming from: a sense of powerlessness and the inability to enact changes over society to address this.

In short, the new tech isn't democratically owned or controlled in any way because private companies are mini tyrannies controlled by a dictator (CEO). Watching Musk and others waste $billions for no reason all while your friends and family work harder and smarter than he does and still can't make enough money, pessimism is expected.

The only alternative to pessimism I can see would be revolution/violence. Not sure most people are into that ... yet.

Post-capitalism becomes whatever we want the world to look like. Free from the constraints of markets and the growth imperative, we no longer must shape our activities around making somebody else's line go up. That means we can use AI for human needs and wants. That's what we were always dreaming of!

While "it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism", if we're headed to the end of capitalism regardless, the time for dreaming of a better world is now. Thinking cooperatively not competitively and remembering that no matter the system, we are still all connected anyway, goes a long way. Our differences aren't really too different.

To me, this is what fully-automated luxury Communism will be. I look forward to it. But how bloody it'll be to get there will depend entirely on whether we see the keepers of the old system (the few that think themselves better than the rest of us) the enemy or our neighbors (because they don't look/believe/behave like we want, etc).