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It's not America that did this it's a minority of America. The rest of us feel like prisoners in our own country when faced with this kind of complete and utter
by hesdeadjim 10y ago
It's not America that did this it's a minority of America. The rest of us feel like prisoners in our own country when faced with this kind of complete and utter insanity.
- tpaksoy 10y agoHow is it a minority when 48% of voters elected him a few months ago?
- DanBC 10y agoHow many people voted?
- freddyc 10y agoThat is quite literally the definition of a minority :) Seriously though, I take your point and this is a reminder that if we ignore vocal minorities spouting hate, eventually they may grow big enough to take control. If you see this type of behavior in your own backyard then please vote even if you don't think it will matter.
- finid 10y ago"vocal minorities spouting hate" tend to win, as they are more than willing to do anything to get their way. Remember Hitler and his gangs? I won't be surprised if a new executive order orders muslims to a camp nearest to them. God help America!
- selectodude 10y ago63 million people voted for Donald Trump. That's 20 percent of Americans.
- ohnotthatguy 10y ago"Voters" is the important distinction. 26.3% of "Eligible Voters" elected him. http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/11/politics/popular-vote-turnout-2016/ http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/11/politics/popular-vote-turn...
- sorenjan 10y agoIf you don't vote you're just as responsible for any unwanted outcome as the ones that did vote.
- jmcgough 10y agoBecause the majority voted for Clinton.
- grzm 10y agoJust a plurality: Clinton received the most votes of any one candidate. Not a majority (over 50%).
- chris_wot 10y agoWhere are you getting that figure?
- appleiigs 10y agoIt's not a minority, 46.1% voted for Trump according to CNN
- _delirium 10y agoI believe 46% is less than 50%, and therefore a minority. Not a tiny minority, but nonetheless a minority.
- appleiigs 10y agoIf you want to be pedantic, a minority voted for Hillary too.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- _delirium 10y agoCorrect! And I think it's also correct, non-pedantically, to say that only a minority of Americans agreed with the policies proposed by either Clinton or Trump.
- mikeash 10y agoIt's not pedantry. "Minority" is not a synonym for "small," neither in its official definition nor how it's commonly used. And yes, a minority voted for Hillary too. Is that supposed to be some sort of gotcha?
- appleiigs 10y agoIt is pedantry. We are arguing the definition of "minority" when in this context enough people in the US voted for Trump to make him President.
- grzm 10y agoIf you're going to quote statistics to the tenth of a percent, you should also be very comfortable using terms like minority, majority, and plurality appropriately. This doesn't undermine your position at all, or the fact that Trump won the election fairly as the process is defined. Why argue it? It just makes you look unreasonable and needlessly argumentative.
- hackuser 10y ago> It's not America that did this it's a minority of America. That's democracy; that is America or else there is no America. All Americans must own this problem, not say that it's not their fault. For one thing, it didn't come from nowhere; Trump's policies merely put in action what many in his party have advocated for years. Yet many smart people I know overlooked it and continued to vote Republican.
- deadowl 10y agoI'm not saying that Americans shouldn't own this problem, but it's notable that Trump's presidency isn't even majority representation, nevermind democracy.
- cmurf 10y agoNot even a plurality, let alone majority.
- RivieraKid 10y agoHow is it a fault of a random guy who didn't vote for Trump?
- hackuser 10y agoBeing a citizen involves far more than voting once every four years. And regardless of fault, it's everyone's responsibility.
- aaronmu 10y agoThe quality of a democracy is defined by how well it protects minorities.
- cmurf 10y agoTrump voters are a minority, they should be defended also. Geek philosophy (let's pick Yoda this time) applies to Hillary and Donald voters: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Attack the policies, not the voters, not the president. Convincing will happen with compelling arguments that demonstrate these policies are flawed.
- pjmlp 10y agoGood luck with the fight, this is not looking any good from this side of the Atlantic and brings me memories from 1938.
- crispinb 10y agoMany HN readers (and Dem voters) are among the tech elite who at best benefit (and at worst promote) the fundamentalist neoliberal-corporate ideology that has crushed the US citizenry and contributed substantially to the von Clownstick revolt. They were the useful idiots content to keep their heads down, buy shitloads of expensive tech gadgetry, pay the elevated rents that dehomed locals, and obediently wrote code whilst their fellow citizens slept in cars. Well the 'minority' bit back. Irrationally, and probably fatally, but it was entirely predictable.
- mikeash 10y agoI'm rather sick of being blamed for Trump's election. How about the people who voted for the candidate from the party of personal responsibility take the responsibility for choosing who they voted for?
- crispinb 10y agoOf course they're responsible too. But mass-scale movements come from somewhere. They have systematic causes. The tech industry, and the ideology driving it, is manifestly amongst those causes.
- mikeash 10y agoThen we have a cause too, so why point the finger at us? Something else caused it! Or, I have a better idea: point the finger at the people who cast the votes.
- concinds 10y agoThat again ignores that these people are operating inside a system, not in a vacuum. If you want to assign blame, fine, but don't confuse that with problem-solving. The blame game will not make American democracy functional again, it'll make it even worse.
- 10y ago
- vacri 10y agoTalk to your representatives at all levels. You get much more bang for your buck than complaining online.