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.”
I don’t see the point of saving one days’ effort and earnings to let trump into office and now have to pay more on so many goods and services because of his actions and policies.
the rich elitist hypocrite may not make it into office without your support, but they’ll survive fine without it. Your own quality of life will actively worsen if you just stop voting, so I hope you’ve found ways to offset that (like a more local community and/or support network).
I’ll be dead in 3-5 months. What are they going to do? Ressurect me and give me something they can take away again just to torture me? I don’t think this is going to happen. They could try to kill me earlier but then they would have to fight with progressives and especially their allies (“We saw him first!”), with the latter being way ahead in the game.
And no, there is no such thing as a local community or support network for people like me. There was decades ago but it’s all gone now. Can’t be brought back. Both conservatives and progressives make sure it can’t be brought back.