This doesn't absolve those voters of the responsibility for their choice and the damaging consequences it will have. It just means that a single vote is a very fuzzy proxy for the fullness of what a person thinks...and winning in the future means more fully understanding what voters are thinking. - ThreadSky

sethcotlar.bsky.social • 191 days ago

This doesn't absolve those voters of the responsibility for their choice and the damaging consequences it will have. It just means that a single vote is a very fuzzy proxy for the fullness of what a person thinks...and winning in the future means more fully understanding what voters are thinking.

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miri-iron.bsky.social•191 days ago

@adamserwer.bsky.social’s piece on the 3 Circles Of Hell —I mean, the 3 circles of MAGA that made a coalition to elect Trump—seems important in understanding the election. Yet it figures in few recent postmortems. I worry. Propaganda is the elephant in the room.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/trump-campaign-cruelty/680498/?gift=Je3D9AQS-C17lUTOnl2W8FUfSQ873M0HX5KVT4ABn_s&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

scottyeager.bsky.social•191 days ago

Everything you said is true about those voters and their choices but, and it’s a big but, voting to keep abortion rights in your state and then voting for him as president where the Republicans will enact a national abortion ban, tells me you haven’t thought things through very well.

ivysorta.bsky.social•191 days ago

Voters who don't think things through very well will always be a major factor in American elections, unfortunately.

minimallycrazy.bsky.social•191 days ago

The magic of a cypher is that the cypher is a formless void into which you can pour whatever you like; I don't know that this is something we can do or something that we want to.

nedinska.bsky.social•191 days ago

Or manipulating what voters are thinking.

blargerer.bsky.social•191 days ago

Okay, but when people voted for Harris was caveats, there was some reason they were voting for her, if even just because the alternative was Trump/the potential end of democracy. Can you name the good reason for voting for trump?

sethcotlar.bsky.social•191 days ago

No reasons that I would consider good, but a lot of people based their votes on bad information or very little information. Most people just don't pay that much attention to politics. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's just a thing.

notstevenwhite.bsky.social•191 days ago

I think people who spend their free time talking about politics on social media are basically not capable of imagining what it's like for people less interested in politics to engage with politics.

anelson1818.bsky.social•191 days ago

The thing is, January 6th was a very high salience event that very clearly communicated “i hate democracy and may fuck around with turning us into a straight up autocracy” and ppl said “sure” I don’t know how we get past that. The guy has a mandate.

bedwyr.bsky.social•191 days ago

Putting on your historian hat, I would hypothesize that voters are actually marginally more informed now than in most of our past. And most of what happens depends on party dynamics and leadership. I don't know if I'm saying something banal or dumb but it's a thought in thy back of my mind.

bedwyr.bsky.social•191 days ago

Like, we humans are pretty bad leader choosers in s democracy, but it's important to have right of refusal.

bedwyr.bsky.social•191 days ago

Forgot to add: what do you think?

sethcotlar.bsky.social•191 days ago

Still trying to figure it out. This graphic spoke to me though.

endoftheaisle.bsky.social•191 days ago

"he looked upon Americans as hopeless children.... Any way one chose to relieve them of their riches, short of violence, was sporting, if not morally justifiable, since they would only squander it in some tasteless and useless fashion, in any event."
The Bonfire of the Vanities

anelson1818.bsky.social•191 days ago

Voters are thinking they like fascism and the only way it changes is for them to learn the hard way

ravenonthill.bsky.social•191 days ago

What do we do about the pro-rape vote?

sethcotlar.bsky.social•191 days ago

Those people can go straight to hell.

ravenonthill.bsky.social•191 days ago

They, I don't think Trump would be president without them.

daynamite.bsky.social•191 days ago

They want you to arm yourself. Live in a state of anxiety. Someone suggested taking a martial arts class to release negative energy and increase self confidence ❤️ I’m a little more yoga but round kicking and punching seems appropriate now.

taojonesing.bsky.social•191 days ago

A couple of things. First, many voters who supported progressive candidates and initiatives did not vote in the presidential at all. Second, human beings are not rational and do not have free will. That’s why they can be “radicalized.” We live in a world where everyone can have his own reality.

taojonesing.bsky.social•191 days ago

The only punishment they can suffer is when reality conflicts with their delusions, but the algorithm will just convince them that they are being victimized by their enemies, not by their own choices.

taojonesing.bsky.social•191 days ago

We need to realize that rationalizing the irrational only legitimizes the irrational. Just stop. Disinformation and misinformation hack the human brain. The hacked fully believe they are rational and we are crazy, bloodthirsty vermin (because, yeah, that tracks).

lettersfromthewasteland.org•191 days ago

They think Trump's first term was better for them. That's what I keep hearing from people I know that voted for him. As always, he gets credit for something he did nothing to build. Hard to argue that.

capitolhunters.bsky.social•191 days ago

It might be simpler though: some analyses show the combination of Trump plus downballot D wins was produced not by splitting tickets but by a set of voters who voted only for the presidential race: Ds voted like Ds, Rs voted like Rs, and then a set of people voted for Trump and no other race. 1/

capitolhunters.bsky.social•191 days ago

If that is the explanation nationwide, then Trump's victory comes from the lowest-information voters, who don't even know their local officials. The questions then are: why in 2024 and not in 2020? And, the campaign pitched so hard for R crossovers, with ads and Liz Cheney - did they not happen? 2/

capitolhunters.bsky.social•191 days ago

It starts to look like a strategic error: in the last weeks the Harris campaign bet on high-information, high-education Rs voting patriotically D. But maybe they should have been reaching out to low-info voters instead, who are vulnerable to drastic government cuts. If they were even reachable. 3/

escritoraclaro.bsky.social•191 days ago

A vote for Trump in 2024 feels like a not very fuzzy proxy for level of stupidity + malice though. Leaving out the oligarchy class, for them it's 100% malice.

escritoraclaro.bsky.social•191 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/michaelhobbes.bsky.social/post/3lafere76v22p

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