I figured (and betting markets accuracy assumes) people will hesitate to let their prejudices influence bets when *their* money is on the line. Then Elon Musk bought Twitter. Apparently prejudices outweigh common sense to the tune of $25b dollars and counting.

I’m grimly amused by the optimism of the original poster. “Surely no one would vote for Trump if he was more stridently denounced by the mainstream press!” At this point, his supporters know what he stands for and that’s why they will vote for him. Better knowledge of Trump will not change this.

The term thrown around is usually ”rational ignorance”. Except in the upcoming American election, it feels rather less rational. That said, what percentage of the US population lives in a state that could go either way?

The Internet business model is basically to have a horrific business model until a miracle occurs. And miracles keep happening *just* often enough to justify a steady flow of investment. I hate gambling, but I can’t deny that’s the Internet business path to success.

The rage at “he’s going to get away with another lie” ignores the fact that “Trump is awful” is accepted among the persuadable and more attacks (no matter how justified) beyond a certain point just turn them off. It’s maddening, but pro-Democrat messaging is the only thing that seems to win votes.

As a non-American, do people still think that voters only support Trump because the media hasn’t covered his crimes loudly enough. It seems pretty clear to me that US voters *do* know his crimes and most don’t care. Makes me sad. I suspect the media now feels they are only “bouncing the rubble”.

I would say how much people value process, not fairness. Democracy, being made of people, is often going to produce unfair and unjust results. Accepting democracy is deciding to accept injustice in the short term because you believe a better outcome in the long term. Not common.

Reminds me of what my son said to someone attempting to troll him in an online game. “You are so bad at this, I am actively losing rage with every line you type”

“Not again. Stupid cat.”

The Internet is driving us all mad. Humans are designed to pay outsized attention to threats, so the 1 in a 1000 seriously-stupid-idea post emotionally dwarfs the other 999 reasonable posts. In face-to-face most of us are fortunate enough to rarely encounter this. In social media, 10 times a day.