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> Why is the teenager who follows the Yang bots and MAGA bots "sad"? Is there a corollary teenager following Democrat bots? Are they sad too? Which party do yo

> Why is the teenager who follows the Yang bots and MAGA bots "sad"? Is there a corollary teenager following Democrat bots? Are they sad too? Which party do you think Yang is running for? Anyway, the article was clearly describing as "sad" that the teenager is trying to build an online following but his "following" is just bots using him to look less like bots.

godelski 7y ago
One of Yang's pitches is that he is pulling from the MAGA group. Just scroll down the subreddit [0] and you'll see tons of posts about MAGA/Republicans switching sides for Yang. If anything I'd __expect__ a real person to be more likely to be connected to both MAGA and Yang (compared to the average democratic voter). But that also makes it difficult to tell real people from bots, which is what this story is really about. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/YangForPresidentHQ/ https://www.reddit.com/r/YangForPresidentHQ/
- lonelappde 7y ago
  Obviously a dark horse Democratic candidate would claim MAGA support, that's a tactic to present as "electable".
  - bnjms 7y ago
    Sure but in this case it’s his adherents who are claiming to be right leaning and former MAGA supporters. It doesn’t look good to Democrats to see memes for Yang or back to Trump so I cannot be cynical here. edit: Because it's a bad look with Democrats to have a lot of right leaning support I take the MAGA supporters at their word. Particularly because I'm a Yang supporter and became politically disengaged after supporting Bush in my first election cycle.
    - godelski 7y ago
      Just an FYI, a lot of people that voted Trump in 2016 were big Bernie supporters. I personally know quite a few people that made this switch. Is it a surprise that the same thing is happening again?
      - bnjms 7y ago
        A lot of people who voted for Trump are Bernie supporters now. It isn't surprising that people who are anti-establishment would be for Bernie. I am objecting to the casual dismissal by loneappde. It is meaningful that a large part of the population, left and right leaning, is so anti-establishment and flippant dismissal will become dangerous in another cycle or two. Unfortunately I think I'm being mis-read and unfortunately I am blind to why. ...it happens

godelski 7y ago

One of Yang's pitches is that he is pulling from the MAGA group. Just scroll down the subreddit [0] and you'll see tons of posts about MAGA/Republicans switching sides for Yang. If anything I'd __expect__ a real person to be more likely to be connected to both MAGA and Yang (compared to the average democratic voter). But that also makes it difficult to tell real people from bots, which is what this story is really about. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/YangForPresidentHQ/ https://www.reddit.com/r/YangForPresidentHQ/

lonelappde 7y ago
Obviously a dark horse Democratic candidate would claim MAGA support, that's a tactic to present as "electable".
- bnjms 7y ago
  Sure but in this case it’s his adherents who are claiming to be right leaning and former MAGA supporters. It doesn’t look good to Democrats to see memes for Yang or back to Trump so I cannot be cynical here. edit: Because it's a bad look with Democrats to have a lot of right leaning support I take the MAGA supporters at their word. Particularly because I'm a Yang supporter and became politically disengaged after supporting Bush in my first election cycle.
  - godelski 7y ago
    Just an FYI, a lot of people that voted Trump in 2016 were big Bernie supporters. I personally know quite a few people that made this switch. Is it a surprise that the same thing is happening again?
    - bnjms 7y ago
      A lot of people who voted for Trump are Bernie supporters now. It isn't surprising that people who are anti-establishment would be for Bernie. I am objecting to the casual dismissal by loneappde. It is meaningful that a large part of the population, left and right leaning, is so anti-establishment and flippant dismissal will become dangerous in another cycle or two. Unfortunately I think I'm being mis-read and unfortunately I am blind to why. ...it happens