- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- politics@beehaw.org
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/20071879
OK, so that is in the running for clickbait hed of the year, but it’s actually apt for the column.
It may seem paradoxical to write this in an opinion piece. But it needs saying: arguments alone have no meaningful effect on people’s beliefs. And the implicit societal acceptance that they do is getting in the way of other, more effective forms of political thinking and doing.
I’m a researcher who studies the intersection of psychology and politics, and my work has increasingly led me to believe that our culture’s understanding of how political persuasion works is wrong. In the age of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the rise of the far right, commentators have endlessly opined on the problems of fake news, polarisation and more. But they’ve mostly been looking in the wrong places – and have focused too much on words.
Take “debates”. They’re a central part of most election campaigns around the world, seen as so influential that they’re often governed by strict rules around media coverage and balance. Yet evidence suggests that watching debates has no impact on opinions whatsoever. In 2019 researchers analysed 56 TV debates in 22 elections in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Europe from 1952 to 2016. The study tracked nearly 100,000 respondents to see whether debates helped undecided or decided voters to make up or change their minds. They found no evidence that they did. In 2012, a reporter ran another analysis about whether debates influenced election outcomes. As he put it: “The effects of debates on eventual votes are likely mild, and, in most cases, effectively nil.”
Something tells me “progressives only care about minorities” isnt coming from someone with any actual beliefs
Go on, put me in the MAGA box. You’re only proving my point by doing so. I’m one of those who don’t vote for any political party because it doesn’t make a difference, the result is the same.
For what it’s worth, I put you in the “enlightened centrist” box. Someone who is heavily influenced by the far right and genuinely doesn’t realize it. You may not be MAGA, but you are most definitely being manipulated into doing their work. Your own words admit as much to us all, even if you haven’t realized it.
If it makes it easier for you, sure, go on. Just like it makes it easier for me not to vote. It all doesn’t matter anymore anyway.
I hope you mean that you vote for third party candidates, rather than not voting. Voting does matter - you’re sending a message by who you do or don’t vote for. Not voting sends the message that you aren’t engaged with politics and therefore your opinions don’t matter. Voting for a third party sends the message that you aren’t happy with the current status quo.
Of couse I’m not voting for anyone. Why should I vote for a political party which only makes my life worse, ultimately killing me? I never voted for a conservative party (I’m actually moderate left) because they obviously never had anything to offer. And now the progressives have reached the same level. There is no difference. I’ll be gone in a few months (thanks to both progressive and conservative politics), anything that happens afterwards is not my problem anymore, only the problem of people much more privileged than I am and who refused to share those privileges with me for once. It’s not like anyone would need my vote anyway. If there really was such a political party or movement, then they would have offered me something. Conclusion: Everything is exactly how it’s supposed to be.
No, they wouldn’t, because you’ve shown them through voter apathy that they can safely ignore you. Doing things you want politically won’t benefit them and ignoring you won’t harm them. If you aren’t going to engage with them, why would they engage with you?
You’ve presented an opinion as fact and don’t have anything to back it up. The issue you’re having here is completely self inflicted.
Sure buddy.
I’m not your buddy, pal.
If you do not vote, you are participating in the agenda of the authoritarians who want to take the right to vote away from everyone (e.g. Donald Trump saying “you won’t have to vote anymore”). “Voting doesn’t matter” is their propaganda. If you repeat his message, you have been fooled by the propaganda and are now helping to spread it.
DO NOT BUY THIS CRAP.
If you encourage others not to vote, you are complicit with the authoritarians.
I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, but fucking VOTE. People fought wars over that, demanded changes in law for that, marched on Washington for that, got assassinated for speaking about that. Anyone who tells you it doesn’t matter is a fool, ignorant of the lessons of history.
No, I’m not participating in any agenda. That’s the point. I’m basically anti-political now. I reject everything that’s available because everything available rejects me. It wasn’t like that in the past, but now it is and I can’t do anything about it, therefore I have to accept it. I learned to accept a lot in the last few years.
I don’t encourage anybody regarding anything, it’s their business who they vote for or if they vote at all. It’s their world, not mine. Both conservatives and progressives made sure that I understood this lesson. It was a surprise regarding progressives because I thought they were the good guys. Well, live and learn.
But hey. I make it easier for you. Let’s just say I don’t exist. Cases like mine would make the progressives look just as bad as the conservatives and you don’t want that, right? And because I don’t exist, my potential vote doesn’t exist either. Simple sophism. Maybe I’m just a MAGA who votes for Trump anyway. Maybe I’m just a Russian troll who isn’t allowed to vote. Maybe I’m just an AI which isn’t allowed to vote either (yet). Maybe I’m just a fever dream, it’s up to you. You can choose freely to make sure that the progressives will never look bad by denying my whole existence. Wouldn’t that make everything so much easier? No need for self-criticism and reformation - just like the conservatives. Neat! And so convenient. Yeah, let’s do it that way.
And if we’re at this stage, why not pretend that Trump’s second presidency is a fever dream as well? I mean, the progressives are perfect, right? Because they must be. Therefore they must have won the election and now we’re actually living in a progressive Utopia instead of the Fourth Reich in the making. No ICE, no self-proclaimed health experts with brainworms and fear of vaccines and of course no orange guy who likes little girls a little bit too much. It’s all just a nightmare caused by too much pizza before bed. Isn’t the easiest solution always the best?