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Couldn't agree more. If this election is shocking to you, you may want to forcibly try and exit your own bubble. Read media you don't frequent - I recommend Qui

Couldn't agree more. If this election is shocking to you, you may want to forcibly try and exit your own bubble. Read media you don't frequent - I recommend Quillette and Reason for an alternative yet logical perspective. Stop eating what the mainstream media feeds you without any analysis. I had been telling my family and friends for months that Trump might pull this out, and they were shocked (once again). There is a huge world out there beyond Twitter and the NYT.

ThrowawayR2 6y ago
It's worth adding that even in California, Trump got about 1/3 of the vote according to the current numbers and the percentages for the other west coast states are higher than that. The narrative in our circles that the American left is dominant and has the universal support of the people is not supported by the voting numbers; if we avoid a repeat of 2016, it will be by sheer luck.
- Izkata 6y ago
  Likewise Illinois is considered reliably Democrat because of Chicago, but the state as a whole is currently at 43% Trump and 55% Biden.
- ryandrake 6y ago
  I thought this was pretty well known. All you have to do is travel ~2 hours in any direction away from the Silicon Valley and LA bubbles, and you're deeeeeep in Trump territory. I mean, half the counties in NorCal are so red, a significant population want to secede and form their own state. Same with Pennsylvania: It's basically Philly and Pittsburgh surrounded by Alabama. The vast, vast majority of the country by land area is deeply conservative, because it's mostly rural.
SamBam 6y ago
> I recommend Quillette and Reason But I already know of the existence of a sizable number of conservative intellectuals. I don't see how that helps me extrapolate to whether it's going to be 60 or 70 million "regular" Americans that are going to vote against my candidate. (Not to mention that the difference between a razor-thin margin, and a huge Electoral College blow-out that would have resulted in articles like this not being written, is only a few hundred thousand carefully-placed votes.)
- seibelj 6y ago
  I wouldn’t call Quillette and Reason conservative. They are alternative media that do not fit neatly into simple buckets. Quillette is part of the so-called “intellectual dark web” that prints articles too dangerous for places like The New Yorker and The Atlantic but in a similar vein. I would categorize it as a classically liberal magazine in the sense it is free thinking but the mainstream liberal press is too orthodox to print anything that challenges them. Reason is the most mainstream libertarian news organization but is increasingly popular for its free thinking politics and resistance to woke trends. Highly recommend.
  - SamBam 6y ago
    Quillette is absolutely socially conservative. Just looking today -- their posts are all about disparaging Black Lives Matter, social justice, "gender ideology," and "cancel culture." Flipping through Archive old front pages, it's all more of the same -- "cancel culture" again and again, sneering at the notion of systemic racism, at pronouns, etc. The term "intellectual dark web" merely means "disagreeing with liberals." I'm not sure how else you'd describe this beyond "socially conservative" -- it's the exact same stuff that Fox talking heads rail against day in and day out.
    - gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
      > The term "intellectual dark web" merely means "disagreeing with liberals." I'm not sure how else you'd describe this beyond "socially conservative" Idk it seems like liberals act like they're morally superior. That's insufferable and why minorities, etc. are voting against them. No one likes being told they're irredeemable and need to repent. And insofar as "the liberals" can't introspect, they're not considering that they're deluding themselves into thinking they represent the working class when they largely represent the affluent, educated people who know the intricate socially profitable phrases to say among their conformist city friends. So basically - are liberals so infallible that "disagreeing with liberals" means you're socially conservative? Hogwash!
      - 6y ago

ThrowawayR2 6y ago

It's worth adding that even in California, Trump got about 1/3 of the vote according to the current numbers and the percentages for the other west coast states are higher than that. The narrative in our circles that the American left is dominant and has the universal support of the people is not supported by the voting numbers; if we avoid a repeat of 2016, it will be by sheer luck.

Izkata 6y ago
Likewise Illinois is considered reliably Democrat because of Chicago, but the state as a whole is currently at 43% Trump and 55% Biden.
ryandrake 6y ago
I thought this was pretty well known. All you have to do is travel ~2 hours in any direction away from the Silicon Valley and LA bubbles, and you're deeeeeep in Trump territory. I mean, half the counties in NorCal are so red, a significant population want to secede and form their own state. Same with Pennsylvania: It's basically Philly and Pittsburgh surrounded by Alabama. The vast, vast majority of the country by land area is deeply conservative, because it's mostly rural.

SamBam 6y ago

> I recommend Quillette and Reason But I already know of the existence of a sizable number of conservative intellectuals. I don't see how that helps me extrapolate to whether it's going to be 60 or 70 million "regular" Americans that are going to vote against my candidate. (Not to mention that the difference between a razor-thin margin, and a huge Electoral College blow-out that would have resulted in articles like this not being written, is only a few hundred thousand carefully-placed votes.)

seibelj 6y ago
I wouldn’t call Quillette and Reason conservative. They are alternative media that do not fit neatly into simple buckets. Quillette is part of the so-called “intellectual dark web” that prints articles too dangerous for places like The New Yorker and The Atlantic but in a similar vein. I would categorize it as a classically liberal magazine in the sense it is free thinking but the mainstream liberal press is too orthodox to print anything that challenges them. Reason is the most mainstream libertarian news organization but is increasingly popular for its free thinking politics and resistance to woke trends. Highly recommend.
- SamBam 6y ago
  Quillette is absolutely socially conservative. Just looking today -- their posts are all about disparaging Black Lives Matter, social justice, "gender ideology," and "cancel culture." Flipping through Archive old front pages, it's all more of the same -- "cancel culture" again and again, sneering at the notion of systemic racism, at pronouns, etc. The term "intellectual dark web" merely means "disagreeing with liberals." I'm not sure how else you'd describe this beyond "socially conservative" -- it's the exact same stuff that Fox talking heads rail against day in and day out.
  - gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
    > The term "intellectual dark web" merely means "disagreeing with liberals." I'm not sure how else you'd describe this beyond "socially conservative" Idk it seems like liberals act like they're morally superior. That's insufferable and why minorities, etc. are voting against them. No one likes being told they're irredeemable and need to repent. And insofar as "the liberals" can't introspect, they're not considering that they're deluding themselves into thinking they represent the working class when they largely represent the affluent, educated people who know the intricate socially profitable phrases to say among their conformist city friends. So basically - are liberals so infallible that "disagreeing with liberals" means you're socially conservative? Hogwash!
    - 6y ago