2 ms·

> Sefton Delmer had as many bad lessons for us as good. I don't think the article is advocating for Delmer's exact approach ("black propaganda"* in the 1950s p

> Sefton Delmer had as many bad lessons for us as good. I don't think the article is advocating for Delmer's exact approach ("black propaganda"* in the 1950s parlance), but I find it reasonable that increasing people's agency might could get them to "do the research" and understand (didn't civics classes do this? do they still exist in the States?) how their own election systems work. (I might even hope for understanding of the population structure and MSA breakdown of their own country, but let's not get greedy...) * would you like to know more? see "source attribution" via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38294297 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38294297

rayiner 3y ago
> I might even hope for understanding of the population structure and MSA breakdown of their own country, but let's not get greedy Americans have a wildly inaccurate understanding of who other Americans even are: https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/41556-americans-misestimate-small-subgroups-population https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/41556-americans-m.... For example, “Black Americans estimate that, on average, Black people make up 52% of the U.S. adult population.” Can you imagine the impact of that perception—that black people are a slight majority of the population when in fact they are 12%—on people's political beliefs and trust in the system? I bet if you surveyed people who thought the 2020 election was stolen, they would vastly overestimate the percentage of the population that is rural white people. If you start from that premise, you start to understand how they could be astounded about the results of an election conducted under unfamiliar and quite different rules due to the pandemic.