4 ms·

And I'm sure someone targeted you with ads and false stories accusing Trump of being a white supremacist, which is why you believe crap like that.

whimsicalism 5y ago
I mean, there are numerous first hand reports of Trump saying pretty racist stuff that seem premised on the idea of white supremacy. "Only black people could live like that" when describing Chicago, for instance.
- hunterb123 5y ago
  "You ain't black if you don't vote for me" - Biden "You have poor kids and you have white kids" - Biden I don't know the context of the statement you mentioned, but I doubt it points to him being a white supremacist. Even what Biden says doesn't make someone a white supremacist (though his voting comment was bad), some things are just a slip of the tongue.
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    I wasn't discussing Biden, I'm sure he's said plenty of racist stuff (although the second one was clear a slip of the tongue). "Only black people could live like that" when describing Chicago does not seem like a slip of the tongue, and seems more blatantly racist than either of the two things you've mentioned. “He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn’t a ‘shithole'", etc. etc.
    - hunterb123 5y ago
      That's hearsay from Michael Cohen, Trump's disgruntled, disgraced ex-lawyer. Trump has disputed the claim so we have no idea who's telling the truth. We should assume Trump innocent until Cohen proves it. But we have Biden on tape and audio saying people aren't black if they don't vote for him. One is a rumor, one is a fact. That's my point.
      - whimsicalism 5y ago
        Well he hasn't disputed the claim under oath :)
        hunterb123 5y ago
        That's not the standard, it's still hearsay that you are passing off as fact. Would you want to go up to Congress every time you were accused of something, especially when that Congress has gone after you in every way possibly trying to destroy you? A baseless accusation from a disgraced lawyer is not proof someone is a racist. Please try harder. The fact that this was your reasoning and all you could scrape up is a great insight.
photochemsyn 5y ago
I did a little dive on my own into the practices of BlueLabs and Cambridge Analytica just out of curiousity, and this kind of specific targeting seems to be the norm these days, as facilitated by outfits like Facebook and other data accumulators. Now, Trump is, like other politicians, a generally opportunisitic creature. I generally assume politicians either have no ideology at all (weathervanes), or have a quite flexible ideology that can change easily based on popular opinion. Not exactly straight shooters in other words. However, even if only 5% of the people who voted for Trump self-identified as 'white supremacists' - that's enough to put him in the winner's seat, isn't it? So his political affiliates and campaign managers could use Facebook's system to target that demographic with specific ads that would be disastrous with other demographics (Hispanic, Rust Belt, etc.). Now, the fact that they were willing to secretly woo this demographic is rather disturbing, I think. Of course Clinton's team could do the same thing; you could target, I don't know, trans activists with specific ads that would not fly with say, suburban wine moms or whatever. This is also creepy in my opinion. It's not that difficult of a concept to understand, is it?

whimsicalism 5y ago

I mean, there are numerous first hand reports of Trump saying pretty racist stuff that seem premised on the idea of white supremacy. "Only black people could live like that" when describing Chicago, for instance.

hunterb123 5y ago
"You ain't black if you don't vote for me" - Biden "You have poor kids and you have white kids" - Biden I don't know the context of the statement you mentioned, but I doubt it points to him being a white supremacist. Even what Biden says doesn't make someone a white supremacist (though his voting comment was bad), some things are just a slip of the tongue.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  I wasn't discussing Biden, I'm sure he's said plenty of racist stuff (although the second one was clear a slip of the tongue). "Only black people could live like that" when describing Chicago does not seem like a slip of the tongue, and seems more blatantly racist than either of the two things you've mentioned. “He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn’t a ‘shithole'", etc. etc.
  - hunterb123 5y ago
    That's hearsay from Michael Cohen, Trump's disgruntled, disgraced ex-lawyer. Trump has disputed the claim so we have no idea who's telling the truth. We should assume Trump innocent until Cohen proves it. But we have Biden on tape and audio saying people aren't black if they don't vote for him. One is a rumor, one is a fact. That's my point.
    - whimsicalism 5y ago
      Well he hasn't disputed the claim under oath :)
      - hunterb123 5y ago
        That's not the standard, it's still hearsay that you are passing off as fact. Would you want to go up to Congress every time you were accused of something, especially when that Congress has gone after you in every way possibly trying to destroy you? A baseless accusation from a disgraced lawyer is not proof someone is a racist. Please try harder. The fact that this was your reasoning and all you could scrape up is a great insight.

photochemsyn 5y ago

I did a little dive on my own into the practices of BlueLabs and Cambridge Analytica just out of curiousity, and this kind of specific targeting seems to be the norm these days, as facilitated by outfits like Facebook and other data accumulators. Now, Trump is, like other politicians, a generally opportunisitic creature. I generally assume politicians either have no ideology at all (weathervanes), or have a quite flexible ideology that can change easily based on popular opinion. Not exactly straight shooters in other words. However, even if only 5% of the people who voted for Trump self-identified as 'white supremacists' - that's enough to put him in the winner's seat, isn't it? So his political affiliates and campaign managers could use Facebook's system to target that demographic with specific ads that would be disastrous with other demographics (Hispanic, Rust Belt, etc.). Now, the fact that they were willing to secretly woo this demographic is rather disturbing, I think. Of course Clinton's team could do the same thing; you could target, I don't know, trans activists with specific ads that would not fly with say, suburban wine moms or whatever. This is also creepy in my opinion. It's not that difficult of a concept to understand, is it?