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Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

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Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#311

Post by crimethink352 »

lovecg wrote: post #124

Can we have a conversation about broader implications of the increasing power in the public discourse of Twitter et al.? I’m no Trump supporter but I do wonder if the tables were turned and Twitter e.g. turned Biden’s page into a wall of hidden tweets because of something it disagreed with (there are enough grievances with Big Tech from both sides). Do people think this is isolated (because Trump is, well, Trump) or…

Of course it's not isolated. It's clear that the left wants the power to censor factual information that undermines their narratives, like crime statistics, and especially interracial crime statistics. That's why they hate 4chan so much.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#312

Post by srtjstjsj »

jayd16 wrote: post #213
softwaredoug wrote: post #81

On the data nerd side I continue to be shocked at how people misinterpret the certainty of polls/forecasts. Forecasts give us probability distributions based on historical polling error data. Not infallible predictions the expected value will 100% happen. It’s fairly revealing of society’s general innumeracy, just as it was 4 years ago when Trump won.

Whats even more frustrating is recognizing the population difference in day of voters and mail in votes, expecting a "blue shift" as votes are counted, and then watching pundits chime in on Tuesday about surprising results. As far as I can tell the most surprising result was Trump's popularity among Cuban Floridians.

Cubans are anti-Castro Republican. The young generation of pollsters forgot that Cubans aren't just "generic Hispanic".

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#313

Post by bradlys »

1_player wrote: post #221
gigatexal wrote: post #138

What is really keeping me up at night is the existential problem the US faces for the next 50 years: the ever increasingly large divide that is the polarizing of the electorate. We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

What surprises me is how politicised American teenagers have become nowadays. I'm a (European) Millenial, and when I was 14 neither I nor my peers had any faith or interest in politics. Have a look on Reddit, where most of the population is US-based teenagers: in that place politics has infected every single discussion. /r/The_Donald was a bunch of angry teenagers. Meh, I must have become a cynical grumpy old person:…

It could be you were just checked out. I certainly paid quite a bit of attention during the Bush years. (When I was a teenager) I wouldn’t say many of my peers paid as much attention but I grew up in a very conservative and rural area.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#315

Post by globular-toast »

bfieidhbrjr wrote: post #224

It's amazing. My friends on the left think the only reason for voting trump is racism, and friends on the right think the only reason for voting biden is socialism. Where did all the intellect go? The social dilemma documentary I think is very useful. It feels like social media bubbles are a large component, although of course there have been many contentious elections in the past. Being centrist I can relate to part…

Even your view of left/right being a spectrum is a woefully inadequate model. In reality political parties sit on at least two dimensions, as shown by the political compass. People who can only think in terms of left/right, red/blue, etc simply shouldn't be voting.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#317

Post by hobofan »

swsieber wrote: post #275
gigatexal wrote: post #138

What is really keeping me up at night is the existential problem the US faces for the next 50 years: the ever increasingly large divide that is the polarizing of the electorate. We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

I personally subscribe to the idea that week need to kill the self serving two party duopoly[0] Part of the problem is the candidates the parties are fielding. I know lots of people who view trump, clinton and biden as corrupt. None of them are good candidates. 0. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/politics-industry/

From the perspective of a European outsider, I very much agree. A lot of problems seem to stem from the two party system.

I'm just wondering if there is a good way for a strong third (and fourth and fifth...) party to form under the current system? Are there any good examples from other countries making that transition, and can they be applied in the US as well?

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#318

Post by glitcher »

gigatexal wrote: post #138

What is really keeping me up at night is the existential problem the US faces for the next 50 years: the ever increasingly large divide that is the polarizing of the electorate. We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

IMO the saddest part of it all is that many people seem to be choosing paths of division. I have different family members who are firmly inside bubbles on both sides of the political spectrum. And all of them are way too comfortable in parroting the divisive language they hear on their favorite network news channels. The terms right/left, red/blue, republican/democrat, conservative/liberal are commonly used with insulting tones towards opposing sides. And when they use these broad terms they seem totally content that they have made a strong argument on some issue that actually boils down to making huge over-generalizations of people, and over-simplifications of complex issues.

I don't accept the demonization of fellow Americans based on bad faith arguments, but I sometimes I feel like this is a minority opinion. We should absolutely fight against specific events, behaviors, political rhetoric, and policies we disagree with. And sometimes individuals or small groups deserve to have their actions demonized as completely against our values. But looking for simple labels to place on literally millions of complex humans in order to point at simple answers to issues where simple answers don't exist is a fool's game.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#319

Post by tsimionescu »

justinzollars wrote: post #286

Biden will be the First Democrat since Grover Cleveland to take office without a Democratic Senate. The House majority is smaller. So his mandate is effectively toast. Another interesting historical fact. America has never elected 4 consecutive 2 term presidents. If Trump would have been elected it would have been the first time in US history that this has happened. This election wasn't a blue wave by any means, Trum…

You're forgetting by far the most important item: some efforts to combat climate change will happen. This single issue should have been enough to mark Biden as preferable to Trump, even if everything else had been worse.

Re: Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided U.S.

#320

Post by tiziniano »

lovecg wrote: post #124

Can we have a conversation about broader implications of the increasing power in the public discourse of Twitter et al.? I’m no Trump supporter but I do wonder if the tables were turned and Twitter e.g. turned Biden’s page into a wall of hidden tweets because of something it disagreed with (there are enough grievances with Big Tech from both sides). Do people think this is isolated (because Trump is, well, Trump) or…

Broader tendency for sure, look at the Alexandra Ocasio tweet asking for a list of Trump "enablers". The future is scary
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