How Ask Justina™ Turns Debate into Structure

Online, everyone is posting opinions, arguments, and outrage. Almost none of it adds up to a plan. Ask Justina exists to change that. Instead of treating each post or proposal as noise, we squeeze out the underlying logic and organize it into a shared structure the public can actually use.

Everything you do here — proposing principles, ideals, ideas, actions, calling out principle violations, voting, or commenting — is adding one more piece to that structure.

The structure we're building together

To solve problems, a society needs more than opinions — it needs a common structure to think with. On Ask Justina, that structure looks like this:

• Ideals & Objectives: what success looks like and why it matters.
• Principles: the non-negotiable rules and limits that keep us fair and consistent.
• Ideas (Proposals): candidate ways to reach our objectives without breaking principles.
• Actions & Collaborations: concrete steps and plans that can actually be carried out.
• Assertions & Principle Violations: logic checks that test whether ideas are justified.
• Votes & Comments: how we see what Americans prefer, what they reject, and what needs work.
• Measures & Public Policy: where all of this connects back to real-world laws and decisions.

The platform doesn't just collect content. It assembles these pieces into a transparent, evolving blueprint: here are our goals, here are our rules, here are our best ideas, and here is the prioritized to-do list of actions that can actually get us there.

Ideals & Objectives — defining what "solved" means

Most debates skip the most important step: agreeing on what a "win" looks like. On Ask Justina, we capture that as Ideals (why it matters) and Objectives (what we're trying to achieve).

• Ideals describe the values and outcomes we care about (e.g., affordability, safety, opportunity).
• Objectives translate those values into concrete, measurable targets we agree are worth pursuing.
• When you propose or vote on Ideals and Objectives, you're helping define what success means for everyone.

Over time, the most supported Ideals and Objectives become our shared definition of “what we're trying to fix.” That's the foundation every serious solution must answer to.

Principles — the rules we can't break

Principles are our guardrails: the one-sentence rules and limits that apply universally, before we talk about preferences. They answer the question: “What must we never do, even if most people want it?”

• Each Principle is written to be universal, mirror-tested, and free of special pleading.
• Principles prevent double standards by forcing the same rule to apply no matter who is involved.
• When you propose or vote on Principles, you’re deciding what counts as a legitimate rule for everyone.

Ideas and actions that violate supported Principles are flagged and pushed out of the solution set. This is how we keep “the will of the majority” from becoming mob rule.

Ideas (Proposals) — what we could do

Ideas live as proposals: "Here's something we could do to move us toward our objectives." An Idea is only valid if it:

• Connects clearly to at least one Objective / Ideal.
• Doesn't violate any of our supported Principles.
• Includes some explanation of justification: why this method should work and what trade-offs it carries.

When you submit or vote on Ideas, you're shaping a menu of permissible options — things that not only sound good, but survive basic logic, fairness, and constraints.

Assertions & Principle Violations — stress-testing the logic

Even good-sounding Ideas can hide bad logic. That's where Assertions and Principle Violations come in.

• Principle Violations: claims that an Action or Idea breaks a supported Principle (e.g., unfairly targeting a group, using selective logic, or creating double standards).
• Assertions: structured attempts to refute or defend those claims — "This doesn't actually violate the principle because…" or "Here's why it does."
• Voting on Violations and Assertions helps surface which arguments are justified and which are just special pleading.

This layer is where justification is vetted. Arbitrary or selective logic gets exposed and loses support. Only Ideas backed by non-arbitrary principles and consistent reasoning stay in the “serious solutions” stack.

Actions & Collaborations — building the to-do list

Collaborations take a strong Idea and break it down into specific Actions — the actual steps that would have to happen in the real world.

• Each Action is assessed for feasibility, cost, side effects, and sustainability.
• Principle Violations can be raised at the Action level when the details cross a line.
• Votes on Actions help prioritize which ones belong on the short list versus the scrap pile.

As Collaborations develop, we don't just get "good ideas" — we get a prioritized to-do listof concrete, principle-safe Actions that collectively move us toward our Objectives.

Measures & Public Policy — connecting structure to the real world

Measures are where this structure meets reality: actual bills, ordinances, resolutions, and policies already in play. You can see how well they line up with our Ideals, Objectives, Principles, and preferred Actions.

• Voting on Measures shows which real-world options the public supports or rejects.
• Comments, Violations, and Assertions on Measures reveal which parts are justified and which are not.
• Over time, Measures can be compared against the structured blueprint created by the community —are leaders implementing what we've clearly said we want?

Votes & Comments — turning participation into signal

None of this works without participation. But here, participation isn't just noise — it's structured signal.

• Votes tell us which Ideals, Principles, Ideas, Actions, Assertions, and Measures Americans prefer, and which they don't.
• Comments add context, edge cases, and refinements — but they're anchored to specific parts of the structure (an Ideal, a Principle, an Idea, an Action).
• Over time, this reveals a clear, transparent picture of what the public actually wants and what it is willing to reject on principle.

From chaos to a transparent blueprint

Put together, the platform becomes more than a forum. It becomes a living blueprint:

• Shared Ideals and Objectives define what “solved” looks like.
• Principles set the non-negotiable rules and prevent double standards.
• Ideas and Actions provide candidate paths forward that respect those rules.
• Assertions and Violations test justification and filter out arbitrary logic.
• Votes and comments show which paths have real support and which don't.

The result is a prioritized, principle-safe to-do list — a set of Actions that collectively achieve our Objectives and can be used to hold leaders accountable: "This is what we agreed on. This is what we expect you to do."

What you can do right now

You don't have to understand all of this under the hood to help build it. Every small action contributes:

• Vote on Measures, Proposals, and Collaborations to shape what moves forward.
• Propose a Principle, Ideal, or Idea that you're willing to apply consistently.
• Raise a Principle Violation when something crosses a line that should apply to everyone.
• Join a Collaboration and help turn a good Idea into a concrete, testable Action plan.