• explodicle@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    1 month ago

    At least here in Los Angeles, there’s state-level regulation and budgetary constraints that limit what the mayor can do. And the city council is in the pocket of landlords.

    In the middle ages we could blame a single king. Now it’s a lot more complicated, between politicians and the people who bribe them.

    • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      1 month ago

      Nah you couldn’t even blame just the king back then. Lords and ladies were still a thing. Just like dukes and duchess. Hell a corrupt sheriff could be all it took for your life to be made harder.

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        Right? That’s the main villain in the Robin Hood story.

        A lot of popular entertainment shows the king as having absolute power, where the reality a lot of times was that he was constantly strategizing against his vassals to keep them from rising up against him. Those vassals wielded immense power themselves, since all of the levies at the King’s disposal came from his vassal’s dutchies, which they had direct control over.