Laura said:
I think that this election has been a good trial run for all of us to learn how to SEE the unseen and get our perception meters tuned - from several angles. So, no need to do the "I told you so" routine, though certainly pointing out that there were tendencies one way or another is a valid autopsy of the event we have been covering here. Learning how to collect data and observations in the midst of a heated propaganda is difficult at best, impossible for MOST people as all of us see in the news reports and behavior of many of social media.
So yes, let's analyze where we went off-track, but be excellent to each other!
Personally I thought there was no point for Americans to vote, because one way or the other, it would be fixed by someone to their advantage. However, this was on the condition that all variables can be controlled. The Brexit and this election probably too, but not the Scottish referendum, indicate that this is not always possible. If there is too much fixing, it becomes easier to discover, thus the balance between risk and gain.
Maybe this mental voting apathy is due to the thinking that my one vote would not matter, and in a way it does not, it matters very little. If I as a voter is one of 600,000 voters who decides which of two candidates is going to win, then in a popular vote, the power I hold, is 1/600,000, or if we consider that 300,001 is what is needed for picking the winner, I hold 1/300,001, if the person I picked wins. The closer the race between two candidates the more important would it be to vote. In real life, this number can not be easily calculated, as one does not know beforehand, how many people actually show up to vote, or how many adjustments, if any, are carried out later.
There is also the question, if one should vote according to conviction or vote according to strategy. If I vote for a candidate that has absolutely no chance, then I leave it to the people who voted for the winning candidate, because I did not challenge their decision, for example by voting for the lesser evil. If now, I don't vote for the candidate that I really like, they will not get encouragement to continue. But of course, counting on them perservering, a donation could solve that issue.
No matter what we vote for, taxes are paid every year and significant amounts go to finance projects we absolutely do not agree with, so is voting a really big deal? How many bases in foreign countries were closed with Obama as the front figure of the US Government and US taxpayers paid af few % of every $ to these projects.
Another concern for me is evaluating whether a politician is qualified to be called a fascist or a psychopath, I think I need to add more arguments to the words, when and if I use them. Fx, instead of "Trump is a fascist", I could say that "Trump garners support from ultra right wing people" or that "his talking reminds one of the expression of former well known fascists" or step back and say, "When he speaks like that, he invites this and that group to vote for him, but will he actually deliver on the promises he makes to these people, because then....".
About Hillary being a psychopath? Well, she has acted in ways that can back up that claim to quite an extent, there are videos, data? But how would I know for sure she is not just ambitious of STS4, as hurting somebody else, does not necessarily mean there is no soul as we are living in a STS world.
Yesterday, I was trying to find out if Trump had a history of violation of minors. I dug up a claimed case, but the more I looked into it, even though it was well done, it lost credibility. The case was filed in June, taken down in September due to the arrival of another witness, (which also by the way resulted in the extension of the court hearing, very clever), finally it was folded on November 4th. Some of the media outlets went with the story after they had, in all probability based on the available evidence, realized it was, or could not be supported. Thus it amounted to a smear campaign, at least for now.
Politicians and newspapers have something in common. Many politicians are quite ready to say what it takes to gain voters, and many newspapers don't hestitate to run with stories that also promise them income and sponsor support, as long as they can express it in ways that keep them out of court. The problem for the listeners and readers is that, it may take quite a bit of research to try to verify the probability of the pronouncements and claims. This situation poses the problem about which cases that worth investigating and which not.