this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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It's amazing how many big obviously consequential decisions around the world come down to a 50/50 vote lately. Have they perfected propaganda techniques that 49% of people are genetically susceptible to? Or is just that nobody knows what the hell is going on so we all decide completely at random what to believe?
There’s probably some truth in “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
Like when people use "average" incorrectly? (You're talking median here.)
Let's hope the upvote/downvote ratio on that comment doesn't stay 50:50.
It would be different without massive Russian interference
One of the things I read about that, is that people tend to take an "average position" between all the opinions they hear. It used to be that the opinions you'd hear would be based on serious media, and your close circles. But much of the media has gone to shit, and social media amplify crazy people because it's good for engagement. So you end up hearing about the crazy position of lore as much as about the rational one. And that does influence a lot of people.
Simulation.