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You're implying that people are too stupid to know what they want so we have to prevent politicians from advertising to them because they'll be fooled. That's v

You're implying that people are too stupid to know what they want so we have to prevent politicians from advertising to them because they'll be fooled. That's very arrogant. The idea of democracy is people get whatever they want - if they're stupid and get something bad, they'll learn their lesson next time. If they don't learn their lesson, they'll continue to suffer from their own personal choices. That's freedom - you don't have the right to dictate to somebody else what's best for them. They might value things that you don't value and are actually better off with what you think is a wrong choice. I think this is a common attitude of democrats about Trump voters - nobody could be that stupid, so they must have been fooled by Russian interference or fake news or secret targeted ads. But actually they voted for what they wanted and are very happy now that they've got it. They're not going to get their coal mining jobs back, but that's not the point. The point is to give the middle finger to the "liberal elite" who seem to be oppressing them. That gives a genuine sense of satisfaction.

nl 9y ago
No, not at all! The issue isn't when people are dumb, it's when they have biases confirmed and expanded by groups with a hidden agenda and no interest in the truth. For example, [1] is an advertisement published for an anti-Trump protest by a group called "BM" (ie, a BLM variant). The same group was also running this advertisement [2] blaming a "BLM Movement Activist" for killing a police officer. Then they also run [2]: "Don't shoot", a "we aren't against police we are against police brutality" promotion. They get engagement on the reasonable sounding things, then slowly ratchet it up until groups which sounded reasonable originally are doing things like claiming that the Black Panthers should be celebrated[4]. You can bet that will be used in ads on the other side too, just like "AntiFa" is used as a bogey man at the moment by the right, or "the Mercers" is by the left. Just look at it yourself: https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/hpsci-11-1/hpsci-minority-open-hearing-exhibits.htm https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/hpsci-11-1/hpsci-mi... Most of these are things you'd never ever see unless you were targeted. [1] https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1509564403505-Screen-Shot-2017-11-01-at-30932-PM.png?resize=511:* https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1509564403505-S... [2] https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/police_anti_blm_ad_6058358909175.pdf https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/polic... [3] https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/dont_shoot_page_6042389760996.pdf https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/dont_... [4] https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/blacktivist_oc_343308009345635.pdf https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/black...

nl 9y ago

No, not at all! The issue isn't when people are dumb, it's when they have biases confirmed and expanded by groups with a hidden agenda and no interest in the truth. For example, [1] is an advertisement published for an anti-Trump protest by a group called "BM" (ie, a BLM variant). The same group was also running this advertisement [2] blaming a "BLM Movement Activist" for killing a police officer. Then they also run [2]: "Don't shoot", a "we aren't against police we are against police brutality" promotion. They get engagement on the reasonable sounding things, then slowly ratchet it up until groups which sounded reasonable originally are doing things like claiming that the Black Panthers should be celebrated[4]. You can bet that will be used in ads on the other side too, just like "AntiFa" is used as a bogey man at the moment by the right, or "the Mercers" is by the left. Just look at it yourself: https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/hpsci-11-1/hpsci-minority-open-hearing-exhibits.htm https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/hpsci-11-1/hpsci-mi... Most of these are things you'd never ever see unless you were targeted. [1] https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1509564403505-Screen-Shot-2017-11-01-at-30932-PM.png?resize=511:* https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1509564403505-S... [2] https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/police_anti_blm_ad_6058358909175.pdf https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/polic... [3] https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/dont_shoot_page_6042389760996.pdf https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/dont_... [4] https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/blacktivist_oc_343308009345635.pdf https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/black...