5 ms·

> At no point do these people take a step back and say,"hey, maybe Trump got elected because people don't like us?" This is arguably the key point. And I think

by CM30 8y ago

> At no point do these people take a step back and say,"hey, maybe Trump got elected because people don't like us?" This is arguably the key point. And I think the reason that's the case is because well, what were the mainstream politicians and parties offering? Not much. At least, not much that their bases wanted, and not much that'd improve people's standard of living. It was 'more of the same', with a helping of pro corporation laws and tax breaks. And their marketing was especially dire during the EU Referendum and 2016 election. Tons of comments about how wrong or stupid or 'deplorable' the other side was, lots of assumptions about how they'd automatically win. No promises about how the world/population would be better off under their system or how things would improve in general. Will either Trump or Brexit or what not make things better? No, likely not, but the solution isn't to try and lock down communication systems to stop it happening again, it's to take a long look at your party and political platform and start offering things people want rather than what gets you money or power.

mike_hearn 8y ago
The marketing was even worse than you say - the core message of the Remain campaign was "we can't leave because our friendly allies who we definitely want to integrate more with in future will punish us by destroying our economy". Cast in personal terms this argument is clearly disastrous, it makes the EU sound like a cult. However, it's easy to understand why they did it. What a lot of people didn't realise back then and still haven't accepted now (but mainstream politicians are very aware) is that they lost the positive argument years ago. Polling showed that the EU as a concept only really appealed to about 30% of the electorate. A clear majority felt the EU was bad, with wanting to leave narrowing to 52:48 only because of the fear of retaliation: https://dominiccummings.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/screenshot-2016-11-27-13-58-441.png https://dominiccummings.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/screensh... They're still at it now with these new wave of stories about stockpiling food and medicine and Ireland closing its airspace, etc. This strategy is unlikely to be more successful than last time. Given this desperation it is maybe not surprising that some of the establishment are desperately casting around for ways to censor social media and return to a world where they and a small cadre of broadcast executives control the discussion.

by CM30 8y ago

mike_hearn 8y ago

The marketing was even worse than you say - the core message of the Remain campaign was "we can't leave because our friendly allies who we definitely want to integrate more with in future will punish us by destroying our economy". Cast in personal terms this argument is clearly disastrous, it makes the EU sound like a cult. However, it's easy to understand why they did it. What a lot of people didn't realise back then and still haven't accepted now (but mainstream politicians are very aware) is that they lost the positive argument years ago. Polling showed that the EU as a concept only really appealed to about 30% of the electorate. A clear majority felt the EU was bad, with wanting to leave narrowing to 52:48 only because of the fear of retaliation: https://dominiccummings.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/screenshot-2016-11-27-13-58-441.png https://dominiccummings.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/screensh... They're still at it now with these new wave of stories about stockpiling food and medicine and Ireland closing its airspace, etc. This strategy is unlikely to be more successful than last time. Given this desperation it is maybe not surprising that some of the establishment are desperately casting around for ways to censor social media and return to a world where they and a small cadre of broadcast executives control the discussion.