Live data from Hacker News

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

apnews.com

611–620 of 1001 posts

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

#611

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

This is affecting me, too. I see immediate family members (especially older generation) unable to distinguish sources of truth. It makes me reconsider China's state-run propaganda system filtering what people are allowed to see/hear. Perhaps western civilization swings too far towards individualism when railing against the value of groups & institutions digesting information first.

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

#612

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.

> We have to come together as Americans or someone will divide and conquer us.

The problem is that the US has a historical example of what happens when the "economic engine" and the "conservative culture" reach an impasse.

The "economic engine" wins. The question is how much damage will get done until that happens.

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

#613

The thing that will sit deep within me for at least the next few years is that, no matter how you slice it, a vote for Trump is complicit acceptance of his divisive and harmful behavior. Of course you don't need to be a racist to vote for Trump, but you do need to fear the other options so much that you agree that his behavior and the way that he represents our country to the rest of the world is tolerable compared t…

[deleted]

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

#614

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

Seems like a lot of these problems stem from a failing education system. Teach kids critical thinking and scientific literacy and about media bias. Seems more important ever to teach kids that they shouldn't believe everything the see at face value. Easier said than done I suppose

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

#616
Regardless of media projections (and we know how accurate projections have been the last few years), it's simply not true that Biden has won.

No one has yet won. No one will have won the election until states certify their counts. It'd be nice if the counts, and recounts, were already completed. (Florida, of the "hanging chad" debacle, actually finished its count within hours in this election. Why did these less populous states move so quickly, and then slow down so much, once it became apparent who was winning? Scroll down on this page: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/... to see the timeline in the battleground states)

No state (out of all 50) has yet certified their count, and certainly no battleground states have certified their counts. In fact, many of them have still not even finished counting the votes.

To assert otherwise, over a weekend when none of the recounts or court cases are resolved, is literally spreading misinformation that many of the same media outlets are claiming to be stopping. Instead, they're shaping the narrative and rushing to crown a victor so that it becomes a fait accompli.

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

#617

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

Yeah, it's really weird.

My dad is an old guard conservative, and he's flabbergasted at the embrace of Trump and all these conspiracy theories and people going, "MY FREEEEDOM!!" instead of wearing a mask.

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

#618
post #322

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 was talking to a US expat this afternoon. Besides the congratulations and commenting the expectations for the new administration we reflected on the damage the last 30-40 years of propaganda for individualism have made. Individuals, their inner world and potential are very important, but you have systematically mortified the importance - and the “evolutionary advantage” - of the human societal organization. Over op…

Absolutely not. Every society that denies individualism or prefers collectivism finds itself sooner than later in misery.

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

#619

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

Where would you go? Conspiracy theories aren't unique to the us.

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

#620

My biggest concern is how seemingly so many conservative people are becoming huge conspiracy theorists. I don't mean normal conspiracy theories like there being something more behind the JFK assassination, but like QAnon, Bill Gates injecting people with microchips, Pizzagate, etc. A lot of people in my own family in a rather backwards state believe that stuff. It's making me completely lose faith in this country and…

In a sea of readily-available information with no way to qualify it, people gravitate towards concepts they can understand and that fit within their ideological framework.

If we're in the Information Age, why is information literacy not as important as literacy itself?

Post reply on HN