3 ms·

It's not a minority, 46.1% voted for Trump according to CNN

by appleiigs 10y ago

_delirium 10y ago
I believe 46% is less than 50%, and therefore a minority. Not a tiny minority, but nonetheless a minority.
- appleiigs 10y ago
  If you want to be pedantic, a minority voted for Hillary too.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - _delirium 10y ago
    Correct! 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 ago
    It'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 ago
      It 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 ago
        If 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.
        appleiigs 10y ago
        I get your point of not being argumentative. I wonder why HN doesn't show up and down votes. Would be easier to let go of a position if HN would show the actual support of both sides, instead of people replying with the schoolyard "no, you are".
        grzm 10y ago
        I think the reason the up and down votes aren't shown publicly is so people don't focus on the votes so much. It shouldn't be a game. I can see how it might be useful. I've thought about the utility of making flagging (for uncivil, unsubstantive comments) the only way to dim comments. I think people want to be able to express agreement and disagreement separate from whether they think the comment is worthwhile or not, though admittedly the disagreement part is harder to distinguish honestly. In that case seeing the vote count would be useful. I don't know. It's hard to predict how community behavior would change as a result, and whether it would be for the better.
      - mikeash 10y ago
        The entire point of the original comment up there is that most Americans didn't vote for him. Nobody was arguing the definition of "minority" until you incorrectly said the number didn't qualify, so if anyone's being pedantic, it's you.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

It's not a minority, 46.1% voted for Trump according to CNN

_delirium 10y ago

I believe 46% is less than 50%, and therefore a minority. Not a tiny minority, but nonetheless a minority.

appleiigs 10y ago
If you want to be pedantic, a minority voted for Hillary too.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- _delirium 10y ago
  Correct! 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 ago
  It'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 ago
    It 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 ago
      If 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.
      - appleiigs 10y ago
        I get your point of not being argumentative. I wonder why HN doesn't show up and down votes. Would be easier to let go of a position if HN would show the actual support of both sides, instead of people replying with the schoolyard "no, you are".
        grzm 10y ago
        I think the reason the up and down votes aren't shown publicly is so people don't focus on the votes so much. It shouldn't be a game. I can see how it might be useful. I've thought about the utility of making flagging (for uncivil, unsubstantive comments) the only way to dim comments. I think people want to be able to express agreement and disagreement separate from whether they think the comment is worthwhile or not, though admittedly the disagreement part is harder to distinguish honestly. In that case seeing the vote count would be useful. I don't know. It's hard to predict how community behavior would change as a result, and whether it would be for the better.
    - mikeash 10y ago
      The entire point of the original comment up there is that most Americans didn't vote for him. Nobody was arguing the definition of "minority" until you incorrectly said the number didn't qualify, so if anyone's being pedantic, it's you.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]