5 ms·

What exactly are you trying to achieve by calling a candidate as popular as Trump "extreme"?

by 794CD01 10y ago

ForHackernews 10y ago
> as popular as Trump You mean hated by 70% of the electorate? http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/15/politics/washington-post-abc-news-poll-unfavorable-ratings/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/15/politics/washington-post-a...
- 794CD01 10y ago
  There it is again. Unfavorable opinion is very different from hate. Why pretend they are the same thing?
  - Aelinsaar 10y ago
    Why are you pretending that "Popular" and "Extreme" are mutually exclusive?
    - 794CD01 10y ago
      They are not completely exclusive, but more extreme politicians are certainly unlikely to become very popular, and more importantly, the more popular they are, the more dangerous it is to think of them as extreme. Especially if you turn out to be wrong.
      - dragonwriter 10y ago
        > the more popular they are, the more dangerous it is to think of them as extreme. Especially if you turn out to be wrong. I don't think this is true at all. The closest thing I can thing of to this that would be true is "The more popular they are, the more dangerous it is for you to call them extreme. Especially if you are right." There's is generally little danger in thinking of a moderate politician with moderate followers as extreme, or even of overtly calling them that, no matter how popular they are. OTOH, there's plenty of danger in calling an extreme politician with a demonstrated history of encouraging violent reprisals against dissenters extreme, especially if they are popular (and, especially if the people with whom they are popular are also extreme.)
        794CD01 10y ago
        The danger I was referring to is in shaping your own worldview to be too widely divergent from reality. If you don't care about that, I suppose that's your choice.
  - ForHackernews 10y ago
    We don't have polls that accurately measure the intensity of political feelings, only their magnitude. Would you accept "extremely widely unpopular, reaching a historically unprecedented low" instead of "hated"?
dragonwriter 10y ago
> What exactly are you trying to achieve by calling a candidate as popular as Trump "extreme"? Trump is the single most unpopular major party nominee for President in the history of opinion polling, and was able to win largely because of the structure of the Republican nomination process being designed (and refined over several cycles) to lock-in the early advantage of a candidate able to most effectively appeal to particular extreme activist constituencies early in the process by creating large delegate majorities from small electoral pluralities, a design which has particularly extreme effects when the field of candidates early in the process is crowded as it was this year.
- 794CD01 10y ago
  Yes, but he IS still a major party nominee. It's like being the least skilled basketball player in the NBA. If you call him extreme, what does that make, say, the Independent American Party?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- jazzyk 10y ago
  Racist? Yes. But in other aspects, he is actually not that extreme: - much less of a war-monger than Hillary, - has been gay-friendly forever, before it became politically expedient (see his press interviews from 2000). - he actually employed a lot of women in high-up positions I am far from a Trump enthusiast, but calling him extreme is not entirely accurate.
  - enraged_camel 10y ago
    >>he actually employed a lot of women in high-up positions Yeah, about that... if you ever get the chance, you should look into how he treated those women.
collyw 10y ago
Hitler was popular wasn't he? Did that make him moderate?
- Aelinsaar 10y ago
  I was thinking Genghis Khan, but yeah that works too.
Spooky23 10y ago
There are actual experienced political people who believe that Trump is a trojan horse who is running to implode the Republicans this cycle. Go to Youtube, listen to a rally speech. It's pretty content free, even in the context of a presidential candidate rally.
smilingtom 10y ago
Back to /r/the_donald with you!

What exactly are you trying to achieve by calling a candidate as popular as Trump "extreme"?

by 794CD01 10y ago

What exactly are you trying to achieve by calling a candidate as popular as Trump "extreme"?

> as popular as Trump You mean hated by 70% of the electorate? http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/15/politics/washington-post-abc-news-poll-unfavorable-ratings/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/15/politics/washington-post-a...

794CD01 10y ago
There it is again. Unfavorable opinion is very different from hate. Why pretend they are the same thing?
- Aelinsaar 10y ago
  Why are you pretending that "Popular" and "Extreme" are mutually exclusive?
  - 794CD01 10y ago
    They are not completely exclusive, but more extreme politicians are certainly unlikely to become very popular, and more importantly, the more popular they are, the more dangerous it is to think of them as extreme. Especially if you turn out to be wrong.
    - dragonwriter 10y ago
      > the more popular they are, the more dangerous it is to think of them as extreme. Especially if you turn out to be wrong. I don't think this is true at all. The closest thing I can thing of to this that would be true is "The more popular they are, the more dangerous it is for you to call them extreme. Especially if you are right." There's is generally little danger in thinking of a moderate politician with moderate followers as extreme, or even of overtly calling them that, no matter how popular they are. OTOH, there's plenty of danger in calling an extreme politician with a demonstrated history of encouraging violent reprisals against dissenters extreme, especially if they are popular (and, especially if the people with whom they are popular are also extreme.)
      - 794CD01 10y ago
        The danger I was referring to is in shaping your own worldview to be too widely divergent from reality. If you don't care about that, I suppose that's your choice.
- ForHackernews 10y ago
  We don't have polls that accurately measure the intensity of political feelings, only their magnitude. Would you accept "extremely widely unpopular, reaching a historically unprecedented low" instead of "hated"?

dragonwriter 10y ago

> What exactly are you trying to achieve by calling a candidate as popular as Trump "extreme"? Trump is the single most unpopular major party nominee for President in the history of opinion polling, and was able to win largely because of the structure of the Republican nomination process being designed (and refined over several cycles) to lock-in the early advantage of a candidate able to most effectively appeal to particular extreme activist constituencies early in the process by creating large delegate majorities from small electoral pluralities, a design which has particularly extreme effects when the field of candidates early in the process is crowded as it was this year.

794CD01 10y ago
Yes, but he IS still a major party nominee. It's like being the least skilled basketball player in the NBA. If you call him extreme, what does that make, say, the Independent American Party?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
jazzyk 10y ago
Racist? Yes. But in other aspects, he is actually not that extreme: - much less of a war-monger than Hillary, - has been gay-friendly forever, before it became politically expedient (see his press interviews from 2000). - he actually employed a lot of women in high-up positions I am far from a Trump enthusiast, but calling him extreme is not entirely accurate.
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  >>he actually employed a lot of women in high-up positions Yeah, about that... if you ever get the chance, you should look into how he treated those women.

collyw 10y ago

Hitler was popular wasn't he? Did that make him moderate?

Aelinsaar 10y ago
I was thinking Genghis Khan, but yeah that works too.

Spooky23 10y ago

There are actual experienced political people who believe that Trump is a trojan horse who is running to implode the Republicans this cycle. Go to Youtube, listen to a rally speech. It's pretty content free, even in the context of a presidential candidate rally.

smilingtom 10y ago

Back to /r/the_donald with you!