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> This is the old "voters are actually stupid" idea. I don't think that voters are necessarily stupid. They just happen to act stupidly because they treat poli
by Aunche 4y ago
> This is the old "voters are actually stupid" idea.
I don't think that voters are necessarily stupid. They just happen to act stupidly because they treat politics as entertainment rather than their civic duty. If people dedicated their time trying to learn about policy instead of browse memes and articles that affirm their beliefs, we'd be much better off.
- kaba0 4y agoWell, unfortunately I do think that voters are stupid. For every smart people you know there is someone on the other side of the IQ distribution and you are just quite likely to be surrounded with a smarter bunch, biasing you towards thinking that the “average” is better than it actually is. Not the US, but I have read several reports of “vote counters” in Hungary and the amount of people that had to ask which of the options is (surprise) the right-wind, populist Orban is astonishing. And while illiteracy for example may well be worth in Hungary, the general idea is true of every country.
- Aunche 4y agoSure, the average person could be smarter, but there's nothing you can really do about that. The more concerning thing I'm noticing is that some of my peers who are highly rational when it comes to work but are completely irrational when it comes to politics (e.g. treat a heavily editorialized headline as an objective fact).
- cyberge99 4y agoGeorge Carlin summarized it best: “Think of your Average American. Now, realize that half of them are dumber than that guy!”
- 20after4 4y agoI think that George Carlin produced a large volume of the most insightful political commentary in modern US history. I re-watch this one at least every couple of months: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrSAxtIYM08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrSAxtIYM08