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> The energy behind Trump was insane and it seemed pretty clear something was going on in the media to make it sound like only a "minority" of people supported

> The energy behind Trump was insane and it seemed pretty clear something was going on in the media to make it sound like only a "minority" of people supported him. Only a minority of people did. What’s wild about 2016 is that people seem to have bought into the narrative that because it was such an upset of the mainstream media’s expectations, that somehow that translated into an actual landslide. Trump didn’t win the popular vote, and his actual margin in the decisive states was razor thin as well. Did he have more passionate fans than Hilary? Clearly. But a passion vote counts the exact same amount as a “lesser of two evils” vote. See: 2020.

Jonovono 4y ago
I'm Canadian so I was pretty removed. All i'm saying is I wasn't surprised that Trump won. I was expecting that based off of my experience.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  I wasn't surprised Trump won either, but then I followed 538's coverage closely which made clear that he wouldn't win the popular vote, but could well win the presidency.
rgifford 4y ago
Passion votes count the same, sure. But impassioned voters advocate for their candidates and get their friends to vote. Lesser of two evils voters don't really care like that. It's the whole reason startups go for natural marketing. Users that naturally come upon and love your product will proselyte it more and better than anyone else.
- wbsss4412 4y ago
  And yet the candidate with the more impassioned voters got significantly fewer votes in both 2016 and 2020.
  - timapplesauce 4y ago
    I would argue in 2020 Biden had more of the passion votes. It was passion AGAINST Trump of course, not FOR Biden. The entire media apparatus with only a few notable exceptions worked tirelessly to undermine Trump at every opportunity and suppress negative stories about Biden. There was almost no media coverage of Biden’s obvious mental decline, lack of energy to campaign, low rally turnout, his son’s incriminating laptop, blatantly racist comments made by Biden both during his decades serving as a Senator and even during the campaign (such as the infamous “you ain’t black” comment on Charlamagne tha God’s show.
    - wbsss4412 4y ago
      I don’t deny the existence of a mainstream media bias against trump, but all of the things you listed weren’t really all that secret. I and everyone I know knew about those things and they weren’t exactly following things super close.
      - timapplesauce 4y ago
        The NY Post got their Twitter account suspended for daring to cover Hunter Biden’s laptop. That story in particular was heavily suppressed. What the media, both the social and traditional varieties, did to Trump is disgusting and goes way beyond bias. It was a targeted campaign with the goal of undermining and removing him from office from the moment he won the election. Propping up and protecting Biden was a means to an end.
    - wbsss4412 4y ago
      For the record, I passionately voted against trump because of things that I watched him do, not because of media spin. I and a lot of other people strongly disagreed with both his policies and his character, which were on plain display constantly and unfiltered on Twitter.

Jonovono 4y ago

I'm Canadian so I was pretty removed. All i'm saying is I wasn't surprised that Trump won. I was expecting that based off of my experience.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
I wasn't surprised Trump won either, but then I followed 538's coverage closely which made clear that he wouldn't win the popular vote, but could well win the presidency.

rgifford 4y ago

Passion votes count the same, sure. But impassioned voters advocate for their candidates and get their friends to vote. Lesser of two evils voters don't really care like that. It's the whole reason startups go for natural marketing. Users that naturally come upon and love your product will proselyte it more and better than anyone else.

wbsss4412 4y ago
And yet the candidate with the more impassioned voters got significantly fewer votes in both 2016 and 2020.
- timapplesauce 4y ago
  I would argue in 2020 Biden had more of the passion votes. It was passion AGAINST Trump of course, not FOR Biden. The entire media apparatus with only a few notable exceptions worked tirelessly to undermine Trump at every opportunity and suppress negative stories about Biden. There was almost no media coverage of Biden’s obvious mental decline, lack of energy to campaign, low rally turnout, his son’s incriminating laptop, blatantly racist comments made by Biden both during his decades serving as a Senator and even during the campaign (such as the infamous “you ain’t black” comment on Charlamagne tha God’s show.
  - wbsss4412 4y ago
    I don’t deny the existence of a mainstream media bias against trump, but all of the things you listed weren’t really all that secret. I and everyone I know knew about those things and they weren’t exactly following things super close.
    - timapplesauce 4y ago
      The NY Post got their Twitter account suspended for daring to cover Hunter Biden’s laptop. That story in particular was heavily suppressed. What the media, both the social and traditional varieties, did to Trump is disgusting and goes way beyond bias. It was a targeted campaign with the goal of undermining and removing him from office from the moment he won the election. Propping up and protecting Biden was a means to an end.
  - wbsss4412 4y ago
    For the record, I passionately voted against trump because of things that I watched him do, not because of media spin. I and a lot of other people strongly disagreed with both his policies and his character, which were on plain display constantly and unfiltered on Twitter.