10 ms·
Gay marriage: a case study in conformism
- ZeroGravitas 14y agoBit of a strange article, I think there's a whole bunch of shibboleths/dog-whistles in there that I don't know so it's sounds a bit like buzzwordy-gibberish to me. But on the point about acceptance of gay marraige being a sudden and inexplicable change unlike anything ever seen, or indeed possible, in a free state, I was reminded of this article by Nate Silver who says that it's actually been gaining slowly in support for years and that at least half the change can be attributed to older folk dying and being replaced by a younger generation of voters: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/how-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage-is-changing-and-what-it-means/ http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/how-opin... This has lots on interesting knock-on effects because some states are older than others, certain ages are more likely to vote etc. Key conclusion: "it’s the steadiness of the trend that makes same-sex marriage virtually unique among all major public policy issues, and which might give its supporters more confidence that the numbers will continue to break their way".