Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army • Hacker News Board

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#71

Post by pb7 » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:06 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #57

It may be an unpopular opinion, but I am ok with Bloomberg spending some of his money. Granted, 300MM to him like approximately $20 to me, but still.. Do not misunderstand me. His attempt to simply buy an election is.. annoying, if not unseemly. That said, I am perfectly fine with him finally spending at least some of his vast fortune instead of hoarding it like a dragon. Hell, he wants to pay me $2500? I will pocket…

Surprised to see such naive takes on HN. Wealthy people don’t “hoard wealth like a dragon”. It’s invested in companies that translate to products, services, and jobs.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#72

Post by rdtsc » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:07 PM UTC

Interesting. Now that the cat is out of the bag any mention about him from any acquaintance is just going to make me think they got a check from Mike and make me dislike him more each time.

Does buying support like this work? "Hey family, Mike Bloomberg is awesome, we should all vote for him". That just feels so artificial and fake, but maybe if the phrase gets repeated enough people start believing it...

> Outvote also allows users to look up whether their friends have voted in past elections by matching their contact lists against public data.

That's a good way to lose family and friends. "I see you haven't voted, if you want to stay friends and be invited out, better vote or donate to Mike's campaign".

> it is important to be transparent about paid commercial promotions, but he views the ethics of political activism as less clear. ... “it took decades for TV and radio to figure out what disclosure for ads should be.”

So promoters don't have to put disclaimers in their messages. Does that open the door for his opponents to pretend to be Bloomberg's supporters but say ridiculous stuff to make people dislike him.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#73

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:07 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #56

ulfw wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People got fooled by Trump. Anything can happen.

Trump did not buy the election like Bloomberg is trying to do. Sadly Bloomberg is pretty much evidence of that in three years the Democrats have not managed to formulate a message of other than "not Trump". Bloomberg is much more authoritarian bent than any current candidate or Trump. Trump might be an embarrassment but because he is under the Republican banner we know the press is more than willing to ride his ass n…

Your assessment is pretty accurate based on some of his talks I listened to. Trump is scary to me partly, because he is not that competent and has low impulse control. Bloomberg is scary, because he is competent and seems to have very.. top-down view of things. His talk about regressive taxes in particular was illuminating.

It feels like a Simpsons episode. We are the democratic party. I don't know how we are going to blow it, but we will give it our best shot.

It gets very depressing.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#74

Post by chrisco255 » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #57

It may be an unpopular opinion, but I am ok with Bloomberg spending some of his money. Granted, 300MM to him like approximately $20 to me, but still.. Do not misunderstand me. His attempt to simply buy an election is.. annoying, if not unseemly. That said, I am perfectly fine with him finally spending at least some of his vast fortune instead of hoarding it like a dragon. Hell, he wants to pay me $2500? I will pocket…

I don't think it's going to work. Money may be a guaranteed way to get yourself in "the top tier" in polling but when it comes to voting, I don't think that pans out. Money is a factor but it's not the only factor. Ross Perot spent I don't know how many millions and never got more than 10% of the vote. Clinton outspent Trump in 2016. If people don't get excited for a candidate and connect with them its just not going to translate to votes.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#75

Post by grumple » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

So he's hiring a bunch of barely-over minimum wage workers to spread his message... and? What do you think the other politicians are doing with the millions they raise? This isn't a story.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#76

Post by potatoz2 » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

malandrew wrote: post #20

turk73 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily, we're not a democracy!

While it's not very substantive, this observation is correct so while it may be valid to downvote, it isn't valid to flag. The US is not a democracy. It's a constitutional republic with an electoral college. The checks afforded by this system make it much harder than just manipulating a mob (which is another way to describe a democracy).

Democracy and Republic are orthogonal the same way you can be libertarian and right-wing, libertarian and left-wing or authoritarian of either economic policy.

The U.S. is a democratic republic, because the power stems from the people (demo-), not from a small group of people (oligo-) or a single person (auto-).

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#77

Post by chrisco255 » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:09 PM UTC

pb7 wrote: post #71

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #57

It may be an unpopular opinion, but I am ok with Bloomberg spending some of his money. Granted, 300MM to him like approximately $20 to me, but still.. Do not misunderstand me. His attempt to simply buy an election is.. annoying, if not unseemly. That said, I am perfectly fine with him finally spending at least some of his vast fortune instead of hoarding it like a dragon. Hell, he wants to pay me $2500? I will pocket…

Surprised to see such naive takes on HN. Wealthy people don’t “hoard wealth like a dragon”. It’s invested in companies that translate to products, services, and jobs.

This is generally true. Most billionaires are there because of their stock ownership in large corporations. And if they were to cash out their stock they'd lose control of their enterprises.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#78

Post by eej71 » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:09 PM UTC

majormajor wrote: post #40

malandrew wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's not very substantive, this observation is correct so while it may be valid to downvote, it isn't valid to flag. The US is not a democracy. It's a constitutional republic with an electoral college. The checks afforded by this system make it much harder than just manipulating a mob (which is another way to describe a democracy).

Right now if you want to win the electoral college in the US you can largely rely on manipulating a smaller mob than you would have to otherwise...

You can keep calling it manipulation all you want. But I truly believe both HRC's message reached the voters and that Trump's message also reached the voters and they chose accordingly. Are you suggesting that their respective messages weren't heard?

At no point did someone fail to deliver their message. HRC's message (to the extent that it could be parsed) just didn't click with a lot of people. Trump's did.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#79

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:10 PM UTC

pb7 wrote: post #71

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #57

It may be an unpopular opinion, but I am ok with Bloomberg spending some of his money. Granted, 300MM to him like approximately $20 to me, but still.. Do not misunderstand me. His attempt to simply buy an election is.. annoying, if not unseemly. That said, I am perfectly fine with him finally spending at least some of his vast fortune instead of hoarding it like a dragon. Hell, he wants to pay me $2500? I will pocket…

Surprised to see such naive takes on HN. Wealthy people don’t “hoard wealth like a dragon”. It’s invested in companies that translate to products, services, and jobs.

Companies are assets and as such they are still part of his wealth. It is not like I said he sleeps on gold coins in a vault.

No need to get literal.

Re: Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

#80

Post by rudedogg » Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:12 PM UTC

octonion wrote: post #41

sigmaprimus wrote: post #25

I'm looking forward to the debate tonite, hopefully Bloomberg will get to show everyone what kind of candidate he really is. I still think his entire campaign is just a twisted way to get around campaign contribution limits and possibly a bulwark to keep the wacko socialist candidates from winning the nomination. Hopefully he proves me wrong and is a real candidate that will be able to stand toe to toe with President…

Improving society is "wacko"?

I don't think the OP meant it in the way you think. My guess is they're speaking of the riskiness of Bernie winning the nomination, where as someone more centrist seems like a safer bet.

But who knows, the experts said Hillary would win too.

Edit: Nevermind, the OP meant what you thought :D