• explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months 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
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      3 months 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
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        3 months 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.