politics

Missouri voted to legalize abortion again. Then elected the man who will get it banned nationally. Previously we voted to reduce dark money etc in local elections. And in the very next election repealed those restrictions again. People are fucking ignorant. Those in the state of misery doubly so.

I fully believe that the Rs pulled some sort of shady shit with ballots. For them 'every accusation is a confession' is an immutable law.

It doesn't matter, though, because the people who could do anything about it are on his team.

I had suggested to people before that if you are not going to vote for President, at least vote down the ballot for local people and don't discard the whole election. Voting Democrat but then for Trump does seem very odd.

It's true that downballot Dems ran ahead of Harris in most states. Why do you think it's statistically unlikely? Polls ahead of the election showed downballot Dems were more popular than Harris. Republicans focused most of their negative campaigning on Harris. Biden's very unpopular and she didn't try to distance herself from him (I'm not saying that she should have, I'm just observing that she didn't). Sexists and racists were less likely to vote for Harris.

Yep. The only real election fuckery is fox news, christianity and russia poisoning people's minds.

Good point, thousands of ballots being destroyed and forged definitely isn't voter fraud

Sure, if it's somebody you know or trust who's saying this, then it's not disinformation; agreed about helping them contact election officials and/or other authorities, and if you think it's useful to amplify it, then I'm not trying to talk you out of it.

If it's not somebody you know or trust, then amplifying it is quite possibly helping out a disinformation campaign.

And in any case, amplifying individual claims is very different from the unsupported claims about "millions of missing votes", and that's what I am trying to talk people out of.

"check to see if the information is accurate" is better advice.

This is just great general advice for anything you read or post online. A misinformation tweet on Monday, spreads like wildfire on Tuesday, is looked at by professionals on Wednesday, a reasonable take or correction appears Thursday, and by Friday the only thing anyone remembers is the lie.

I'm reminded of "This Video Will Make You Angry" by CGP Grey, https://youtu.be/rE3j_RHkqJc

But you don't get likes or whatever by taking time to write out a well thought out opinion.

I don't know why so many people are hurt by this statement. The turnout was abysmal.

the fervent belief that the framework upon which our Republic is built can withstand the test of time

Which it clearly can't. You don't need to be a genius to figure out that the founding fathers weren't the demigods they're usually portrayed as and thus weren't able to predict 21st century problems in the 1700s.

Especially since their mechanism for changing anything fundamental has been made impossible by polarization.

Like the whole "American Dream" and trickle down economics, you'd have to be asleep to still believe that it's working.

What's the evidence you find "literally incontrovertible"?

The comparison is apt though:

• In 2020, almost all non-partisan voting rights organizations and election experts (as well as most Republicans, despite losing) were saying that there was in fact no evidence of widespread election fraud. So conservatives claiming election fraud were seen as conspiracy theorists who were spreading disinfo (either intentionally or because they really thought there was evidence).

• In 2024, almost all non-partisan voting rights organizations and election experts (as well as most Democrats, despite losing) are saying that there was in fact no evidence of widespread election fraud. So ...