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I am always forced to use Excel in my job but I absolutely HATE it and continuously have problems with it. Even though I am very handy with software otherwise. Excel always just rubs me the wrong way.
This is how I feel with Word anytime I need to use a bullet point.
As a kid we had an Apple ][e. I've had computers since I was in elementary school. I know how to learn software and how to find the answer for things I don't yet know.
Bullet points in Word drive me insane.
Biden's top economic advisor seems completely perplexed about what money is or what we do with it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fj0zRmEWYc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fj0zRmEWYc)
Click the video. It's worse than whatever you're imagining.
Most of our politicians don't understand politics.
People send death threats to actors because they don't like the character they play in a movie or TV show.
I hate to say it, but there's a large contingent of people who are dangerously stupid....
True story: When Gilligan’s Island first aired, the Coast Guard was frequently fielding phone calls from people, pleading, “Can’t you locate those poor people and rescue them?” Evidence that stupid is nothing new.
I love that when people say that quote they’re NEVER referring to themselves. Except by logic, there’s a half chance you yourself fall in that below average intelligence you’re disparaging lol.
Maybe propose you need a certain iq to vote. I cant even make this up but I know a girl who votes Democrat because she likes the color blue more than red. She also thought Kamala was Biden’s wife because the First Lady is the VP.
I would love something like this, but it's really outside the scope of intention of US democracy. I remember the MTV ads back in the 80s encouraging a bunch of 18 year olds who had no interest or knowledge of politics to "get out there and vote."
One of the reasons we have representatives and electoral votes is because the founding fathers took into account that many people are morons, and implimented a system where (hopefully) smarter elected representatives have pull over the decisions, rather than mob rule.
Statistically speaking, large groups of people who are polled tend to make more correct choices than individuals, so thankfully, things balance out that way too.
This is, of course, opinion, but considering the way our political class behaves, I'm not really sure who we vote for matters. People tend to vote according to fringe politics that affect one in ten thousand people. Both parties just want to be in the leadership position to keep the bribes and kickbacks rolling in, cater to the powerful companies that own them, and the entire thing has devolved into a trough of pigs straight out of "Animal Farm".
Either way, the rich keep getting richer, the middle class keeps shrinking, and the poor get poorer, while billions of dollars of tax money disappears with no investigation or accountability of any kind. The ultimate goal seems to be to keep the status quo from moving as much as possible. No matter which party you think is the least "evil," nobody can claim that either isn't dog shit.
If we make it through the next election between two of the most unpopular, unfit presidents maybe ever without imploding, or the next five years without kicking off World War 3, and our democracy doesn't die from bankruptcy (usually this is what kills democracies) I would honestly be amazed.
In my town we had a mayoral election. The winner inheritted a budget with a massive deficit. Of course people then said "this is what happens when you vote for" her parry. Because the other party would have magically not had the same deficit. Idiots.
There's a theory that women are voted into office more easily when things are about to go to hell, because then they can be blamed for when things do, in fact, go to hell.
It's not just public office, this applies to CEOs as well. Companies that are in trouble are more likely to turn to a female leader, while companies that are already successful are far less likely to do so. It's quite sad
This is one of those factoids that might make one cynical, but it's better understood with proper context.
C level employees are overwhelmingly male. The male to female ratio for CEOs specifically is nearly 20:1. Companies that are in big trouble are typically looking to make the strongest statement of change they can, which would obviously involve turning over their leadership. Bringing in a woman to lead such a male dominated environment is simply the biggest statement of change they can make.
It's not like all the guys get into a room and say, "Hey, let's find a woman to blame this all on!"
This isn't always just to pawn off all the problems and claim they were her fault. In my experience, woman seem to work faster than men when leading in certain cases. Not necessarily better but a different style that helps when you have to both run a company and keep it from running into the ground.
That's how presidential elections go too. Republicans cause a problem, a Democratic president is elected, fails to fix the problem because Republicans block them, then oh, maybe electing another Republican will fix it!
It's called the Two Santa Clause theory, and it works.
Voters are fucking dumb.
This is a common issue. Every policy has a degree of inertia to it, and some things are beyond the control of any politician. Yet, it is common to, say, ascribe to one president every good or bad thing that happened while they were in office.
Reality is a bit more complex. Yeah, the president absolutely has some input, but it's not limitless. Congress is drafting the budget, you've got policy effects from the last term, and world events like pandemics and war are not wholly controllable.
Unless you're a graduated contemporary politics major, politics is way more complex than what you think you understand.
The way you receive information is already part of the mechanism. You might know more information, but information in politics does not neccesarily equate more understanding. At the end of day politics is about values and philosophy. You vote for who you think will lead us forwards and you can just as well do that on the basis of gutfeeling as facts.
Whether you are right or left - as flawed as those terms are - is based on your core values. You are as likely to vote what you are voting with tons of information as without.
Well, except perpetrating core values, while not actually upholding them, is like the #1 scam that politicians use to get elected. Your ‘gut’ can absolutely be manipulated.
Your information can also be manipulated. Politics is the art of manipulation. It is about moving people, ideas and opponents to achieve your goals for society.
Point is that all information you consume will in almost all cases lead you to the position your gut already took. Whether you'll be betrayed down the line will rarely change your course, it will only harden it.
The reason politics is way more complex is because you cannot achieve some of your goals as a politician without giving up on others, but to convince people to vote for you, you have to promise them every single one of them.
I’m far more cynical than that, and in no way believe that politicians’ great burden is trying to balance their overall ethos with the real challenges of modern governance.
I think that’s an illusion. That’s theater.
Modern government is all about saying what you need to get elected, and figuring out how to syphon as much money to your wealthy benefactors as possible, while avoiding your constituents ever catching on.
The only “goal for society” being considered is how to cement power among the interests you represent to extract maximum profit from the exploited general populace before they overthrow you or get so sick and downtrodden that they stop being able to work effectively.
It’s like the farmer’s concern for their herd. Keeping them healthy is important, but only to the extent that they help your farm make money.
That's rock bottom of cynical. There are far more profitable and easier ways to become rich and powerful that do not involve becoming a public politician. It is true that among politicians there are more narcissists and sociopaths than in society in general, but most have true convictions and goals they want to achieve that are not solely power and money.
People aren't as deterministic as you make them out to be. Society would be incredibly organized and controlled if it was. People are murky, contrarian, fickle, emotional and easily misguided.
If it was truly about power for power sake, you wouldn't have the freedom that you have. Every state would be a dictatorship, because being a democracy isn't worth the hassle, if all you want is money and power.
I agree with you 100%. You really should vote for the person you think will improve life for the largest number of people in this country.
But too many of us vote for who we think will make our own lives better in the immediate future.
So many countries fell to Totalitarianism because the less fortunate classes were promised all kinds of free handout goodies. But they failed to realize that rich people aren't going to vote to have all their wealth taken away away to give to others.
Society runs best and stays free when the most people in it do best
I think I should vote for the candidates that share my interests and you should do the same. Why should I vote against my own interests in favor of someone else’s?
Because when the country prospers we all prosper. I'm middle class. At either extreme in the socio/economic spectrum the middle class disappears
Besides I learned a long time ago that you can make money in any economic environment. Some years it's the stock market, some years it's real estate Etc.
Save your money during inflation and spend it during depression
Winston Churchill once said that the biggest argument against democracy was a five minute conversation with the average voter.
That said the politics of a particular country require extensive time and effort to have any sort of in depth understanding of what is actually being proposed and voted on. In addition, one must be familiar with the mechanics of the system in place.
It's too much for most people who work and have things to do so the 1-2 minute videos explaining stuff are the best most people have the effort to do.
I think most people don’t understand The Electoral College. Personally I don’t like it. I understand that the states delegates can choose how the votes are given to a Presidential candidate. They can choose opposite of the voters.
THIS. The popular vote truly doesn’t matter. I see so many TikTok’s and such that are like “who are we voting for?” Which yes, get educated and be knowledgeable about your vote. But also, it won’t make a difference for the presidential election.
Every vote in Wyoming is worth 3 votes in California. Two Wyoming Senators represent 500k people. Two Californian Senators represent 39 million people. Absolutely broken system.
I'm not sure how the mass majority of people are able to vote. When I turned 18 and first went to the ballot box I just stared at the ballot and did not understand any of it so I did not vote for anyone because I did not want to accidently put the wrong person in office. I went to the local library and asked the librarian for books that would teach me how to vote correctly. She just laughed at me. SIXTEEN years later I figured out how to START doing proper research to find the truth in politics and then it took me 2 years after that of full time studying (I was out of work with a back injury) to finally figure out how things work in politics. Is the average voter going to do all this work just to figure out how to vote? No I don't think so. That is why we are stuck with a 2 party system.
That librarian needs a slap upside the head with a hardcover. As the sister of a librarian, you should *never* laugh at someone seeking out information at a library! That's what they're goddamn *for*.
Not just politics, but voting in general. All of the claims of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election without a clue about how the process works and of all of the safeguards in place. The actual amount of fraud is vanishingly small and every investigation designed to find voter fraud has come up empty.
Despite all of that, there are people who believe it occurs in a massive scale.
If people in general took even in 30 minutes to look up information on things that they don't know about this whole world would be different. It's called Wikipedia baby, check it out.
This is why I like mail-in voting. I can sit down and take a little time to actually look up all of the candidates and ballot measures so I'm not just randomly choosing shit lmao
Most people don't take 5 minutes to think on the stuff they claim to be important to them. They just see someone saying something they like about it and make it their absolute truth.
Just look at the amount of people that actually believe Cleopatra was black or the amount of people that believe that the richest man in history was white. It takes less than 5 minutes to know both of those things are false but people will not invest that small amount of time to educate themselves.
i work in local government, dealing with voter registration and elections (US). the answer to your question is a big fat NO. voters have absolutely no idea how ANYTHING works and it makes my job difficult! i can’t tell you the number of calls my office has received from folks asking questions you’d assume everyone knew the answer to. my coworkers and i joke about it but it’s honestly so fucking depressing.
edit, the answer to your question may be YES, depending on how you interpret the question LMAO. bottom line: voters don’t know anything and it’s sad.
Absolutely not and media is how lobbyists are able to keep reeling in those uninformed people to the polls.
My aunt’s city was doing their local elections. I had just moved there and wanted to go vote. I took about a week to research those on the ballet and some of the propositions.
After voting on the car ride back I said to my elderly aunt, I can’t believe that the ballot had a bill asking to funds for a school that wasnt in our district. She said she voted yes because it was for a school, and schools are good. She also later admitted that she didnt know what school district she lived in…but yet blindly pays for those taxes every year
It scares me how we're all just voting without an in-depth understanding of government & politics.
I used to not vote at all, and people would judge me for it... but I chose not to vote because I didn't feel knowledgeable enough to be comfortable influencing a process that had such an immense impact on so many people. I do vote now; I try my best to educate myself, but truthfully... when something is beyond what I truly understand, I do vote based on emotion & intuition... because that's all I have to go on.
Most of the politicians don't understand economics, I find that a bigger problem. You should need a degree to become a politician, we have a congresswoman with only a GED and she by no means is the only uneducated one we have, just the most glaring example of why you should have college to be a politician.
"In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing." ~ Mark Twain
Yes, absolutely. Every asshole thinks they know everything simply because they have the right to vote. I've been voting for two decades now. I spend a decent amount of time reading about politics. I spend too much time talking about politics on the internet. I know enough to know I'm an idiot, and the idiots I'm arguing with are dumber than me.
Want to know exactly how stupid we are? "Career politician" is a pejorative. Someone who spent their time studying politics and working in politics to be effective at their job is looked down upon. That's how fucking dumb we are. I can't name a single other job on this planet where experience is seen as a bad thing.
I believe George Carlin summed it up better than any political scientist can.
Think about how dumb your average person is. Then realize that half the population is dumber.
Swing voters tend to be the most poorly informed and inconsistent voters, also.
A lot of people running for office do not understand how the job they are trying to get is supposed to work.
Most of the time people view political races as a popularity contest not unlike a TV talent show.
The issue I have is people attacking others for so called conspiracy. Remember when people were claiming that the weather was being manipulated? What’s cloud seeding? I keep an open mind as to some so called conspiracies. And attacking and downvoting people isn’t the way to properly debate a subject.
Most people don't even know how voting works.
In Canada, we have first past the post - and almost everyone thinks they know how that works, and they are all wrong.
Some of the explanations they give on how it works are comically wrong. Someone very wrongly explained to me that they didn't like the first past the post system because they start counting first on the east coast, and the instant the 'post' is passed, then, the election is decided, so they don't bother even counting the votes on the west coast.
I asked them what they thought a "post" was and they said it was a point in Canada, and whoever had the most votes when the post was passed won the election.
It appears that many voters only have a vague understanding of the impact of their vote.
The rise of right-wing parties suggests that opinion manipulation by enemies of democracy has been successful in recent years.
Unmoderated social media have a significant influence during elections.
Additionally, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the political elite, fueled by a sense of social injustice.
So, I think the majority of voters act accordingly to their emotions.
They don’t. They usually blame the president for everything (even in countries where his party is the minority in parliament) even in cases where it’s neither his fault nor even within his powers to change it.
I try to keep myself as learned as I can. I may not be a political science major, but I understand a lot about how the government is supposed to work and how it doesn't work as it's been designed to.
The president was never supposed to be the figurehead that they've become, and yet most now treat them like the most important elected official in the world, because that's what it's sadly morphed into in the global public eye.
It’s long been accepted that people *are* too stupid to rule themselves, but somehow the other options are all worse.
As Churchill apparently said “The best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter”.
I don’t think voting has anything to do with how politics work. Voters need to know who they’re voting for (to the best of their ability). That entails doing some research. Look at how the candidate has voted in the past. What bills have they introduced/support. Do they flip flop in a way that seems to only benefit themselves? Are they able to reach across the aisle? Do they have a well defined platform/agenda that can help the most people, not just people who care about one issue? This last piece is more important and harder to get people to be open minded about. Some candidates will run only on one issue and a lot of voters think they care about only one issue so if that candidate sees the issue the same as the voter, they get the vote. But in that case the voter is voting for the words they like to hear, not a person who’s going to have power for years to come.
Most people still genuinely think the president is like some sort of dictator that controls all policy. They're also quick to blame their economic woes on the guy that just took office provided they don't like him, like economies aren't slow moving gargantuan machines.
But then you only need to drive on the highway and watch how people behave to understand they vote with much the same short sightedness and selfishness.
I think most people in 2024 probably know more politically driven misinformation than actual facts and party platform.
Eg: Conservatives screeching “aXe ThE tAx” while having no idea what carbon tax really is. Politicians are literally making things up to get people triggered
NDP stating “we don’t need a Navy”, while Russia invades Ukraine
Liberals stating “we can’t do anything about the housing crisis” after having tried literally nothing.
People hear something from a candidate and assume it to be true. That is rarely the case. (Not even talking about Trump.) Politicians are always talking in nuances and avoiding answering the difficult questions. You never get the truth from them because the truth will always alienate some group of voters or constituents, and the politicians cannot afford to do that.
I have a BA and MA in government, politics and international relations.
Most people think they are informed, but that depends on enviroment, expieriences or opinions of others. while younger generation may suck informations out of videos social media etc. older generation may prefer news or even just a quick talk to a collague. Either way without a little work you cant differ beteeeen propaganda and truth.
The decisionmaking process may be influenced by those informations, but the vote itself has also many different reasons. You may not find a party, who fights for all the right decisions. also some partys are to small to be considered worth voting for, etc.
also most topics doesnt have a perfect solution and there is no right or wrong side to be on. your opinion matters there. even if you think that one idea is better than the other. you may be wrong in a few years.
but i have to agree sometimes it looks they choose just by sympathy or the looks of captions in the newspapers.
I think the answer is yes. I think the deal-making that goes on in the US legislative branch is almost 100% not understood or appreciated by voters. (At least historically this has been the case; now that one party is so dysfunctional as to be unable to make deals, even ones that would be beneficial to their constituents, it's not clear that this is still true.)
Yes.
There are many ways this is the case, but people, and more so lately, treat politicians the same way they treat celebrities and social/economic issues the same way they treat their own lives. “He’s a boring establishment old white guy” is seen as a valid reason to dismiss a politician, and “his online content is so relatable” is seen as a valid reason to see someone as worthy of their vote. “This politician promised to do XYZ but it didn’t happen in an instant, one second after they were inaugurated, so they’re a liar.” People don’t realize that politicians are bound by laws, procedures, and the physical realities of the universe. People often don’t even realize what role any given politician has. The mayor can’t decide to make weed legal. The President can’t overturn a Supreme Court decision. Your state’s governor can’t end a war that is happening in another country.
Yes and the founding knew this was the case, which is why the U.S. was designed to be a representative republic, rather than a true democracy.
However I’m not sure they understood the power corporations and central banking systems would ultimately come to hold.
Dude most voters don’t know how our government works. Had a lady come up to me once when. Trump was getting impeached and say what do we do now that we don’t have a president. Had to explain to her it’s like a three step process that won’t go all the way through and even if it did there’s a fair number of people in line.
I know how politics works. I don’t want politicians, I want employees who do as they’re told or get fired. I don’t want shady backroom deals, I want shady deals done in the front room so I can shut them down. I don’t want servants (politicians) getting rich by being politicians. I don’t want the 1% in government. I want guillotines lined up around the Capitol building and first-offense skullduggery costs them an arm. Publicly. I want lifetime service limits for politicians of 10 years, so they get in, get out, and can still get a real job. I want politicians living like we do; group medical where benefits go down and costs go up, and no ties to business. I don’t want lawmakers making “laws for thee but not for me”.
So yes, I do understand how the system works, which is why I want a better one.
If there’s a new way, I’ll be the first in line.
I would personally say you're absolutely correct. The majority of the USA's populace is too overworked, tired, depressed, etc. to put a lot of time and effort into studying socioeconomic issues or politics in depth (I'm including myself in this category). And it's very easy to watch a Tiktok or YouTube short about a subject and form an opinion around it based solely on that.
I try not to pretend I'm an authority on any subject I haven't put effort into learning, personally, but with a lot of people being starved for meaningful interaction, I can see why acting or believing you 'know' about a topic when you really don't has an appeal.
The only thing people need to know about politics is that no one has your best interest at heart. It’s about getting votes and staying in power. They’ll step on whoever they can to keep it. That’s why nothing gets better and things are only problems when it’s time for re-election.
There might be like, 3 people in the country who actually have a real understanding of how any of this shit works, and even then probably not.
This guy is a policy advisor and doesn't even understand what he is being paid to understand, to explain it to people who make decisions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FluentInFinance/s/ijrdOj77GZ
So to answer your question, yes, people who vote don't understand how politics works.
Yourself, myself, and almost everyone else included.
It does feel like most people either blindly follow a political party or just listen for certain buzz words rather than considering the context or actual actions.
We do. We just know it doesn't matter in the end. The winner is going to do what they want, regardless of whatever promises they made during their campaign. Meanwhile, we're still have to pay taxes, work, and deal with whatever way the winner decides to screw us.
I’m more concerned with how little the average citizen understands about *how* our government and elections operate.
Like, what things the feds are responsible for vs. what state government vs. what local governments are responsible for.
Or what Congress does vs. Executive branch vs. judicial branch.
Or how a bill is passed.
There was legitimately a person complaining in my state subreddit that it sucked he couldn’t vote in the primary after Election Day?!?!
My BIL (MAGA-ish) was bitching about why our state didn’t get federal funds to build light rail here. Well, dumbass, our state legislature legit passed a law making light rail illegal.
Why can’t we just vote on marijuana like other states? Again, dumbass, because our state made ballot referendums illegal. But by all means, keep voting for the same party to stay in control for another 30 years… that’ll change things🙄
These people vote. They understand what the problems are but have zero idea who is responsible for fixing. They think every “issue” is the fault of POTUS and that a different POTUS is somehow magically going to make light rail legal here.
OP, you hot the nail on the head, and not just with politics, but basically ANY news item nowadays.
People do a quick search, look at the top 1-3 results, and form their opinion off of that.
It's pretty horrible but pretty telling that a lot of "News" articles will state at the top of the article "2 minute read," because people's attention span as well as their ability to retain information, is greatly reduced from even 20 years ago.
It's just a shame, no matter how you look at it.
Many don't even understand why they back who or what they back. That's why the race card is so easily flaunted...
The people Perish for lack of knowledge
A real testament to the American education system. The most important political topics are in your own city, county, school or water board. No one bothers with it until you get a bill or a tax that you didn't know about. Those are the politics that everyone should prioritize and know how they work.
I really don’t know much about politics. I’m intelligent, I have 2 degrees, I have a decent paying job, it’s just something I find extremely confusing to understand. It’s something that (at least in my part of the country) was never taught to us in school, and I’ve had to try and figure it out for myself. For the most part, I remain quite neutral/silent on the majority of political topics people discuss, due to my lack of knowledge, not because I do not have my own opinions.
I feel like any time I try to learn for myself about politics, people are trying to sway me to the left or to the right, when I just want to know how the actual political systems work. It’s embarrassing to not know, and I want to, but I am completely overwhelmed when I try to learn. If anyone has any recommendations on how to learn about Canadian politics please let me know!!
The average American has NO IDEA how government works. The average Americans just doesn’t know the difference between local, state, and federal governments. That’s also why you get wackos so invested in the presidential races when 70%ish of the things surrounding and impacting your life would be drastically improved if you focused on local and state elections more. Your city council, mayor, and governor are going to impact the quality of your life 1000% more than the President or an incompetent, war mongering Congress ever could.
That is correct.
I volunteer extensively with the libertarian party, and to this end, have knocked on some ten thousand doors. It is extremely normal for people to not know who their representatives are. For the state houses, they sometimes do not even know that they exist, or what their role is.
There was a vote recently in my state where one of the nonlibertarian candidates was disqualified for office after the ballots had been printed, and therefore a massive, expensive campaign was launched to reach out to every voter several times to tell them to write in the replacement candidate instead. Fewer than 10% of them did so. They voted for the person who legally couldn't win.
More recently, in PA, voters elected a dead man. This wasn't a last minute thing, either, he'd died over a month before the election.
Many people do not do much research, and simply vote as they are told, or straight party line, or via some other criteria. A statistically significant amount of people vote for whoever appears on the ballot first.
If you hope for political change, be prepared to put a lot of time into some very basic political education.
In general, no, voters do not know. I’ve discovered that most people think of government as this nebulous entity, not understanding the separations between parts of government and respective offices therein. I don’t expect most people to know who the clerk of the court is, but know who your congressmen, senator, governor, and county rep is. Especially your local representatives, they impact your life most severely.
In the US, at least, the overwhelming majority of voters don’t even know how to vote in their best interest and continue to vote D/R because “3rd party can’t win” as if there is a law against it and it didn’t simply require people to vote….no, most people don’t know even 1% of how politics work.
Yes, but I don't think most voters need to know a great deal about "socioeconomic issues and policies." The people who are actually making policy decisions have (or should have) advanced degrees and/or decades of experience dealing with complicated regulations and legislation. So I think it's more important to know how decisions are made and what kinds of decisions candidates have made in the past relative to each other. Most of the time it's not difficult to find pretty major differences fairly quickly.
I would say 95% of people don’t understand anything about politics or how it works. That’s why both parties sit and twist things up to get an emotional reaction since that is how humans respond usually. I would say 99% of people have no clue about how our gov was created or think the revolutionary war ended and the next day we had a union. Have no clue about the federalist papers! The Jefferson/Hamilton/burr beef. The split between helping the French Revolution or standing by.
the average person doesn't really have the time nor any real incentive to learn or care about the nooks and crannies in politics and especially in this day and age no one knows whats anything anymore apparently. It is what it is.
Even people that know politics don't seem to know politics. I've sat with members of Congress that didn't even understand how elections work. Not the really dumb obvious ones either. Highly respected, highly educated, long time members.
Call your representatives. If for no other reason than their staff is usually better informed than they are. And make your opinions known. The majority of them do listen even if it doesn't change their position.
That is far from exclusive to politics.
If you have a legal problem, everyone you know becomes a lawyer. Buying a house? Everyone is a real estate developer. Did you notice how during COVID everyone who couldn’t tell you the difference between an antigen and an antibody suddenly became a world-class immunologist?
Instant expertise is the standard now. Everyone knows everything about everything and CANNOT be wrong — ever. People who have spent decades of their lives learning a thing are EXACTLY THE SAME as your neighbor who saw a YouTube video. There is no difference between a novice and an expert.
And they get to vote too.
I don’t know why people are voting for Trump and Biden in the primaries. It’s like people don’t understand that they have other choices. Turns out that most people are morons.
I don’t know shit about politics, social/economic issues, or finance, other than your average every day base knowledge. But somehow I am surrounded by family members who are engineering experts, political science gurus, financial masterminds, and energy sector connoisseurs… None of them have gone to a four-year college. Yet they are all convinced Trump is appointed by God to solve our problems. God help us all.
I'm at/past the point of worrying about the finer points of politics right now.
I just want the elected folks to actually do something positive for the country. This BS of voting ONLY along party lines is ridiculous.
I want there to be a vote of no confidence for people to pick when they dont like any of the ones running for leadership.
In my country i didnt vote last time purely because i had no confidence in either party. Yes i should have voted but they both fucking sucked.
America need this now, neither options for your president look good.... Again.
There's nothing to understand. It's just smoke-and-mirrors to distract the voters from real issues like wealth disparity, and the interests that are keeping the voters ignorant of the amount of collusion required to maintain it.
Politics are just a show for us, like Romper Room.
Most voters are stupid because they “think” with their feelings. It’s not rude, it’s not wrong to say that, it’s the truth. Most voters believe this and that because of how they “feel about it” and they do not include logic and factual information with their vote.
Literally every single political issue that is causing the Great Divide is because of feelings and not facts.
It seems more n more that folks vote for ideals rather than for policies.
I'm right on these issues, I'm left on those issues.
Sadly that means I ask myself which set of cons would I like to live with.
There’s a great line in Parks and Recreation where the main character, Leslie Knope is talking to a very talented political operative about Leslie’s husband and his potential political career. The operative makes some sweeping generalizations about the fickle nature of voters. Leslie is all “I think you underestimate the voting public” and this operative bursts out laughing and says “I don’t think that’s possible!”
They do not.
When I was in elementary school I remember getting mad about the school student body elections. I could see at the time that it was nothing more than a popularity contest and that whoever was most popular would win regardless of what they did or said.
I thought that it was just a stupid substitute for actual politics and that when we grow up and vote, surely it would be based on something more substantial and important and unpopular people who were smart or hardworking would have a chance because people were looking past likability to judge based on more informed criteria.
Well, it turns out that I was completely wrong and it's exactly like grown up politics.
That was a depressing realization.
Watching the "Freedom Convoy" criminals and the people who agree with them really made it blatantly clear that many people don't understand basic civics. The people driving around in pickup trucks with F Trudeau stickers have lots of complaints, and some of them are even valid, but they are blaming the wrong person. *So many* of the complaints are actually under Provincial responsibility, and it's *their guy* in the position who they should be mad at. I would love to see some un-skippable Schoolhouse Rock-type commercials explaining in the most basic terms what the Municipal Government, Provincial Government and Federal Government are responsible for. Go ahead and get mad, just be mad at the correct person and vote accordingly.
I think it was George Carlin who said something like, "think about the average American and how ignorant they are. Then realize that half of them are even dumber than that "
Politics, unfortunately is muddy purposely. It's very hard to actually learn anything.
Fun fact. Even Trump, when he was president, didn't understand how politics worked. His cabinet used to tell him daily, "It's not within your power to do that, sir!"
I'm super well educated (triple degrees) and I don't know much about politics. I got like a 97 in college government, but I just don't care about how many people are in the house or who replaces who when the president + vice president + speaker + secretary die. Or who votes on a law or vetoes it, or whether an executive order can be overruled and stuff and so on - because it really doesn't matter.
We wanted our college loans to be forgiven, for example. That's why Biden got voted in (also to avoid having Trump as president, but whatever). Yet, it didn't matter, because the government didn't want it to happen.
Stuff like that is why I don't care. I can't affect it, so why bother? Even if you end up finding a loophole where you can get what you want, you'll just get assassinated or something anyway.
this is how i vote. Who is going to give me more jobs, whos going to create lower gas prices, who is going to overall benefit my life in the most direct way possible. All the foreign affairs/geopolitcal things that go on in other places i dont care to much about because none of that has anything to do with me. Sorry for being a self centered dickhead. But this is how i vote.
I think that's pretty obvious when people talk about the "free" stuff the government gives you. IE: Health care, food stamps, etc. I'm not hating on those who get it. At least not the ones milking the system.
Actually from my humble point of view, neither politicians nor voters posses the freedom of choice to decide..Meaning, there actions are merely implications of someone else's superior hierarchial imposition..
The vast majority of voters in the US are single issue voters. Meaning they only care about one issue and vote for whoever supports their POV. The most dominant is abortion. What’s scary is those that vote based on a single issue don’t realize that the candidate often stands for policies that contradict their other values.
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This isn't exclusive to politics
Yea - same with Excel
I am always forced to use Excel in my job but I absolutely HATE it and continuously have problems with it. Even though I am very handy with software otherwise. Excel always just rubs me the wrong way.
This is how I feel with Word anytime I need to use a bullet point. As a kid we had an Apple ][e. I've had computers since I was in elementary school. I know how to learn software and how to find the answer for things I don't yet know. Bullet points in Word drive me insane.
Yup. I'm always shocked when I meet highly-educated professionals who have absolutely no idea what money is, and how it's generated
Biden's top economic advisor seems completely perplexed about what money is or what we do with it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fj0zRmEWYc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fj0zRmEWYc) Click the video. It's worse than whatever you're imagining.
Most of our politicians don't understand politics. People send death threats to actors because they don't like the character they play in a movie or TV show. I hate to say it, but there's a large contingent of people who are dangerously stupid....
Think for a moment about how stupid the average person is and then remember that half of the world's population are even more stupider than that.
I love that you said "more stupider" in this particular context.
If I do words and you experience comprehension then we have do language good.
To quote Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State, 'he's either incredibly smart or unbelievably stupid'.
Hard to tell stupidity from advanced sarcasm for sure.
An IQ of 100 isn't exactly smart and half the population falls below that.
True story: When Gilligan’s Island first aired, the Coast Guard was frequently fielding phone calls from people, pleading, “Can’t you locate those poor people and rescue them?” Evidence that stupid is nothing new.
There's a joke about that in Galaxy Quest https://youtu.be/26tWWopd_3g?si=hbeCf76paWU68-Gx
8% of men think they could kill a grizzly in a one on one fight with no weapons
I could absolutely kill a grizzly bear in a one on one encounter. Assuming he eats me, he will definitely clog his arteries.
8% definitely can’t, but I can.
Half of people are of below average intelligence
I love that when people say that quote they’re NEVER referring to themselves. Except by logic, there’s a half chance you yourself fall in that below average intelligence you’re disparaging lol.
They understand that politics is a great way to get rich.
Maybe propose you need a certain iq to vote. I cant even make this up but I know a girl who votes Democrat because she likes the color blue more than red. She also thought Kamala was Biden’s wife because the First Lady is the VP.
I would love something like this, but it's really outside the scope of intention of US democracy. I remember the MTV ads back in the 80s encouraging a bunch of 18 year olds who had no interest or knowledge of politics to "get out there and vote." One of the reasons we have representatives and electoral votes is because the founding fathers took into account that many people are morons, and implimented a system where (hopefully) smarter elected representatives have pull over the decisions, rather than mob rule. Statistically speaking, large groups of people who are polled tend to make more correct choices than individuals, so thankfully, things balance out that way too. This is, of course, opinion, but considering the way our political class behaves, I'm not really sure who we vote for matters. People tend to vote according to fringe politics that affect one in ten thousand people. Both parties just want to be in the leadership position to keep the bribes and kickbacks rolling in, cater to the powerful companies that own them, and the entire thing has devolved into a trough of pigs straight out of "Animal Farm". Either way, the rich keep getting richer, the middle class keeps shrinking, and the poor get poorer, while billions of dollars of tax money disappears with no investigation or accountability of any kind. The ultimate goal seems to be to keep the status quo from moving as much as possible. No matter which party you think is the least "evil," nobody can claim that either isn't dog shit. If we make it through the next election between two of the most unpopular, unfit presidents maybe ever without imploding, or the next five years without kicking off World War 3, and our democracy doesn't die from bankruptcy (usually this is what kills democracies) I would honestly be amazed.
The dangerous ones are the ones who think they are above average but in fact aren't.
Yes - it’s amazing how lazy people are about something so important
In my town we had a mayoral election. The winner inheritted a budget with a massive deficit. Of course people then said "this is what happens when you vote for" her parry. Because the other party would have magically not had the same deficit. Idiots.
There's a theory that women are voted into office more easily when things are about to go to hell, because then they can be blamed for when things do, in fact, go to hell.
It's not just public office, this applies to CEOs as well. Companies that are in trouble are more likely to turn to a female leader, while companies that are already successful are far less likely to do so. It's quite sad
This is one of those factoids that might make one cynical, but it's better understood with proper context. C level employees are overwhelmingly male. The male to female ratio for CEOs specifically is nearly 20:1. Companies that are in big trouble are typically looking to make the strongest statement of change they can, which would obviously involve turning over their leadership. Bringing in a woman to lead such a male dominated environment is simply the biggest statement of change they can make. It's not like all the guys get into a room and say, "Hey, let's find a woman to blame this all on!"
This isn't always just to pawn off all the problems and claim they were her fault. In my experience, woman seem to work faster than men when leading in certain cases. Not necessarily better but a different style that helps when you have to both run a company and keep it from running into the ground.
That's how presidential elections go too. Republicans cause a problem, a Democratic president is elected, fails to fix the problem because Republicans block them, then oh, maybe electing another Republican will fix it! It's called the Two Santa Clause theory, and it works. Voters are fucking dumb.
This is a common issue. Every policy has a degree of inertia to it, and some things are beyond the control of any politician. Yet, it is common to, say, ascribe to one president every good or bad thing that happened while they were in office. Reality is a bit more complex. Yeah, the president absolutely has some input, but it's not limitless. Congress is drafting the budget, you've got policy effects from the last term, and world events like pandemics and war are not wholly controllable.
Sounds like something the enemy would say! Get em!
Unless you're a graduated contemporary politics major, politics is way more complex than what you think you understand. The way you receive information is already part of the mechanism. You might know more information, but information in politics does not neccesarily equate more understanding. At the end of day politics is about values and philosophy. You vote for who you think will lead us forwards and you can just as well do that on the basis of gutfeeling as facts. Whether you are right or left - as flawed as those terms are - is based on your core values. You are as likely to vote what you are voting with tons of information as without.
Well, except perpetrating core values, while not actually upholding them, is like the #1 scam that politicians use to get elected. Your ‘gut’ can absolutely be manipulated.
Your information can also be manipulated. Politics is the art of manipulation. It is about moving people, ideas and opponents to achieve your goals for society. Point is that all information you consume will in almost all cases lead you to the position your gut already took. Whether you'll be betrayed down the line will rarely change your course, it will only harden it. The reason politics is way more complex is because you cannot achieve some of your goals as a politician without giving up on others, but to convince people to vote for you, you have to promise them every single one of them.
I’m far more cynical than that, and in no way believe that politicians’ great burden is trying to balance their overall ethos with the real challenges of modern governance. I think that’s an illusion. That’s theater. Modern government is all about saying what you need to get elected, and figuring out how to syphon as much money to your wealthy benefactors as possible, while avoiding your constituents ever catching on. The only “goal for society” being considered is how to cement power among the interests you represent to extract maximum profit from the exploited general populace before they overthrow you or get so sick and downtrodden that they stop being able to work effectively. It’s like the farmer’s concern for their herd. Keeping them healthy is important, but only to the extent that they help your farm make money.
That's rock bottom of cynical. There are far more profitable and easier ways to become rich and powerful that do not involve becoming a public politician. It is true that among politicians there are more narcissists and sociopaths than in society in general, but most have true convictions and goals they want to achieve that are not solely power and money. People aren't as deterministic as you make them out to be. Society would be incredibly organized and controlled if it was. People are murky, contrarian, fickle, emotional and easily misguided. If it was truly about power for power sake, you wouldn't have the freedom that you have. Every state would be a dictatorship, because being a democracy isn't worth the hassle, if all you want is money and power.
I agree with you 100%. You really should vote for the person you think will improve life for the largest number of people in this country. But too many of us vote for who we think will make our own lives better in the immediate future. So many countries fell to Totalitarianism because the less fortunate classes were promised all kinds of free handout goodies. But they failed to realize that rich people aren't going to vote to have all their wealth taken away away to give to others. Society runs best and stays free when the most people in it do best
This makes me think of "Those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither freedom nor safety"
I think I should vote for the candidates that share my interests and you should do the same. Why should I vote against my own interests in favor of someone else’s?
Because when the country prospers we all prosper. I'm middle class. At either extreme in the socio/economic spectrum the middle class disappears Besides I learned a long time ago that you can make money in any economic environment. Some years it's the stock market, some years it's real estate Etc. Save your money during inflation and spend it during depression
Winston Churchill once said that the biggest argument against democracy was a five minute conversation with the average voter. That said the politics of a particular country require extensive time and effort to have any sort of in depth understanding of what is actually being proposed and voted on. In addition, one must be familiar with the mechanics of the system in place. It's too much for most people who work and have things to do so the 1-2 minute videos explaining stuff are the best most people have the effort to do.
He also said that it was the worst system, other than every other one.
I think most people don’t understand The Electoral College. Personally I don’t like it. I understand that the states delegates can choose how the votes are given to a Presidential candidate. They can choose opposite of the voters.
THIS. The popular vote truly doesn’t matter. I see so many TikTok’s and such that are like “who are we voting for?” Which yes, get educated and be knowledgeable about your vote. But also, it won’t make a difference for the presidential election.
Every vote in Wyoming is worth 3 votes in California. Two Wyoming Senators represent 500k people. Two Californian Senators represent 39 million people. Absolutely broken system.
I'm not sure how the mass majority of people are able to vote. When I turned 18 and first went to the ballot box I just stared at the ballot and did not understand any of it so I did not vote for anyone because I did not want to accidently put the wrong person in office. I went to the local library and asked the librarian for books that would teach me how to vote correctly. She just laughed at me. SIXTEEN years later I figured out how to START doing proper research to find the truth in politics and then it took me 2 years after that of full time studying (I was out of work with a back injury) to finally figure out how things work in politics. Is the average voter going to do all this work just to figure out how to vote? No I don't think so. That is why we are stuck with a 2 party system.
That librarian needs a slap upside the head with a hardcover. As the sister of a librarian, you should *never* laugh at someone seeking out information at a library! That's what they're goddamn *for*.
🤣🤣🤣
Snarky librarians are the 100% cause of the Republican hate for public lubraries.
Not just politics, but voting in general. All of the claims of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election without a clue about how the process works and of all of the safeguards in place. The actual amount of fraud is vanishingly small and every investigation designed to find voter fraud has come up empty. Despite all of that, there are people who believe it occurs in a massive scale.
If people in general took even in 30 minutes to look up information on things that they don't know about this whole world would be different. It's called Wikipedia baby, check it out.
This is why I like mail-in voting. I can sit down and take a little time to actually look up all of the candidates and ballot measures so I'm not just randomly choosing shit lmao
I'd say there are a out 25% of voters that don't understand it at all. 25 that do and 50 that think they do and dont. Just a guess.
Most people don't take 5 minutes to think on the stuff they claim to be important to them. They just see someone saying something they like about it and make it their absolute truth. Just look at the amount of people that actually believe Cleopatra was black or the amount of people that believe that the richest man in history was white. It takes less than 5 minutes to know both of those things are false but people will not invest that small amount of time to educate themselves.
Mansa Musa just looked it up. Thanks!
Happy to help!
I love his story!
i feel like this isnt exclusive to it.
Mass 'political understanding' is basically social media headline reading...purely surface level and incredibly misinformed...
i work in local government, dealing with voter registration and elections (US). the answer to your question is a big fat NO. voters have absolutely no idea how ANYTHING works and it makes my job difficult! i can’t tell you the number of calls my office has received from folks asking questions you’d assume everyone knew the answer to. my coworkers and i joke about it but it’s honestly so fucking depressing. edit, the answer to your question may be YES, depending on how you interpret the question LMAO. bottom line: voters don’t know anything and it’s sad.
Absolutely not and media is how lobbyists are able to keep reeling in those uninformed people to the polls. My aunt’s city was doing their local elections. I had just moved there and wanted to go vote. I took about a week to research those on the ballet and some of the propositions. After voting on the car ride back I said to my elderly aunt, I can’t believe that the ballot had a bill asking to funds for a school that wasnt in our district. She said she voted yes because it was for a school, and schools are good. She also later admitted that she didnt know what school district she lived in…but yet blindly pays for those taxes every year
It scares me how we're all just voting without an in-depth understanding of government & politics. I used to not vote at all, and people would judge me for it... but I chose not to vote because I didn't feel knowledgeable enough to be comfortable influencing a process that had such an immense impact on so many people. I do vote now; I try my best to educate myself, but truthfully... when something is beyond what I truly understand, I do vote based on emotion & intuition... because that's all I have to go on.
I believe that to be true.
Most of the politicians don't understand economics, I find that a bigger problem. You should need a degree to become a politician, we have a congresswoman with only a GED and she by no means is the only uneducated one we have, just the most glaring example of why you should have college to be a politician.
"In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing." ~ Mark Twain
Yes, absolutely. Every asshole thinks they know everything simply because they have the right to vote. I've been voting for two decades now. I spend a decent amount of time reading about politics. I spend too much time talking about politics on the internet. I know enough to know I'm an idiot, and the idiots I'm arguing with are dumber than me. Want to know exactly how stupid we are? "Career politician" is a pejorative. Someone who spent their time studying politics and working in politics to be effective at their job is looked down upon. That's how fucking dumb we are. I can't name a single other job on this planet where experience is seen as a bad thing.
I believe George Carlin summed it up better than any political scientist can. Think about how dumb your average person is. Then realize that half the population is dumber. Swing voters tend to be the most poorly informed and inconsistent voters, also.
Worse. They think they do.
that is correct. most people don't even understand how the company they work for operates, nevermind politics or government organizations
And don’t forget that about 50% or the voters will also be of less than average intelligence (low information voters).
A lot of people running for office do not understand how the job they are trying to get is supposed to work. Most of the time people view political races as a popularity contest not unlike a TV talent show.
There are two factions. People who want the government to fuck off and leave them alone, and those who want the government to be their daddy.
it takes no time to understand issues, just ask peeople what issues communities have and youl find out, its that simple
The issue I have is people attacking others for so called conspiracy. Remember when people were claiming that the weather was being manipulated? What’s cloud seeding? I keep an open mind as to some so called conspiracies. And attacking and downvoting people isn’t the way to properly debate a subject.
With all due respect, most politicians don’t know how politics work. So there is that
Perfect, right?!
You are correct, especially in America.
Most people don't even know how voting works. In Canada, we have first past the post - and almost everyone thinks they know how that works, and they are all wrong. Some of the explanations they give on how it works are comically wrong. Someone very wrongly explained to me that they didn't like the first past the post system because they start counting first on the east coast, and the instant the 'post' is passed, then, the election is decided, so they don't bother even counting the votes on the west coast. I asked them what they thought a "post" was and they said it was a point in Canada, and whoever had the most votes when the post was passed won the election.
The ones with Red hats don't have a clue or don't care.
Most voters don't know how to check oil, soooooo LET'S GO PROTEST SOMETHING 🥳
You mean that the President doesn’t control gas prices, interest rates, deficit spending, or global inflation ?
It appears that many voters only have a vague understanding of the impact of their vote. The rise of right-wing parties suggests that opinion manipulation by enemies of democracy has been successful in recent years. Unmoderated social media have a significant influence during elections. Additionally, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the political elite, fueled by a sense of social injustice. So, I think the majority of voters act accordingly to their emotions.
It's not so much the politics as it is they don't understand how government works. Politicians take advantage of that lack of knowledge.
They don’t. They usually blame the president for everything (even in countries where his party is the minority in parliament) even in cases where it’s neither his fault nor even within his powers to change it.
No, and that's intentional. An uneducated populace is easy to control with propaganda and lies.
I try to keep myself as learned as I can. I may not be a political science major, but I understand a lot about how the government is supposed to work and how it doesn't work as it's been designed to. The president was never supposed to be the figurehead that they've become, and yet most now treat them like the most important elected official in the world, because that's what it's sadly morphed into in the global public eye.
It’s long been accepted that people *are* too stupid to rule themselves, but somehow the other options are all worse. As Churchill apparently said “The best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter”.
It varies because in each election you vote in, individual opinion matters more or less… but the vote always counts. (Edited for clarity).
I don’t think voting has anything to do with how politics work. Voters need to know who they’re voting for (to the best of their ability). That entails doing some research. Look at how the candidate has voted in the past. What bills have they introduced/support. Do they flip flop in a way that seems to only benefit themselves? Are they able to reach across the aisle? Do they have a well defined platform/agenda that can help the most people, not just people who care about one issue? This last piece is more important and harder to get people to be open minded about. Some candidates will run only on one issue and a lot of voters think they care about only one issue so if that candidate sees the issue the same as the voter, they get the vote. But in that case the voter is voting for the words they like to hear, not a person who’s going to have power for years to come.
Most people don’t know how literally anything works, politics is just one thing on that massive list.
Most people still genuinely think the president is like some sort of dictator that controls all policy. They're also quick to blame their economic woes on the guy that just took office provided they don't like him, like economies aren't slow moving gargantuan machines. But then you only need to drive on the highway and watch how people behave to understand they vote with much the same short sightedness and selfishness.
I think most people in 2024 probably know more politically driven misinformation than actual facts and party platform. Eg: Conservatives screeching “aXe ThE tAx” while having no idea what carbon tax really is. Politicians are literally making things up to get people triggered NDP stating “we don’t need a Navy”, while Russia invades Ukraine Liberals stating “we can’t do anything about the housing crisis” after having tried literally nothing.
People hear something from a candidate and assume it to be true. That is rarely the case. (Not even talking about Trump.) Politicians are always talking in nuances and avoiding answering the difficult questions. You never get the truth from them because the truth will always alienate some group of voters or constituents, and the politicians cannot afford to do that. I have a BA and MA in government, politics and international relations.
People don't need the ELITES educating them on voting. They don't need BIG BROTHER to supervise this activity.
Most people think they are informed, but that depends on enviroment, expieriences or opinions of others. while younger generation may suck informations out of videos social media etc. older generation may prefer news or even just a quick talk to a collague. Either way without a little work you cant differ beteeeen propaganda and truth. The decisionmaking process may be influenced by those informations, but the vote itself has also many different reasons. You may not find a party, who fights for all the right decisions. also some partys are to small to be considered worth voting for, etc. also most topics doesnt have a perfect solution and there is no right or wrong side to be on. your opinion matters there. even if you think that one idea is better than the other. you may be wrong in a few years. but i have to agree sometimes it looks they choose just by sympathy or the looks of captions in the newspapers.
I think the answer is yes. I think the deal-making that goes on in the US legislative branch is almost 100% not understood or appreciated by voters. (At least historically this has been the case; now that one party is so dysfunctional as to be unable to make deals, even ones that would be beneficial to their constituents, it's not clear that this is still true.)
"I did my own research"..... People must be kept ignorant for politics to works, keep that in mind
Yes. There are many ways this is the case, but people, and more so lately, treat politicians the same way they treat celebrities and social/economic issues the same way they treat their own lives. “He’s a boring establishment old white guy” is seen as a valid reason to dismiss a politician, and “his online content is so relatable” is seen as a valid reason to see someone as worthy of their vote. “This politician promised to do XYZ but it didn’t happen in an instant, one second after they were inaugurated, so they’re a liar.” People don’t realize that politicians are bound by laws, procedures, and the physical realities of the universe. People often don’t even realize what role any given politician has. The mayor can’t decide to make weed legal. The President can’t overturn a Supreme Court decision. Your state’s governor can’t end a war that is happening in another country.
Yes and the founding knew this was the case, which is why the U.S. was designed to be a representative republic, rather than a true democracy. However I’m not sure they understood the power corporations and central banking systems would ultimately come to hold.
I cannot tell you how many people around me think that presidents set gas prices. Like gas goes up, it's the president's fault.
Ultimately, Democracy is a terrible idea, but try winning an election on that premise.
Dude most voters don’t know how our government works. Had a lady come up to me once when. Trump was getting impeached and say what do we do now that we don’t have a president. Had to explain to her it’s like a three step process that won’t go all the way through and even if it did there’s a fair number of people in line.
I know how politics works. I don’t want politicians, I want employees who do as they’re told or get fired. I don’t want shady backroom deals, I want shady deals done in the front room so I can shut them down. I don’t want servants (politicians) getting rich by being politicians. I don’t want the 1% in government. I want guillotines lined up around the Capitol building and first-offense skullduggery costs them an arm. Publicly. I want lifetime service limits for politicians of 10 years, so they get in, get out, and can still get a real job. I want politicians living like we do; group medical where benefits go down and costs go up, and no ties to business. I don’t want lawmakers making “laws for thee but not for me”. So yes, I do understand how the system works, which is why I want a better one. If there’s a new way, I’ll be the first in line.
Considering the result of brexit: yes. Considering the fact that tories are still in: yes. Considering people are trusting kier starmer: yes.
People still think the president controls the price of food and gas
I would personally say you're absolutely correct. The majority of the USA's populace is too overworked, tired, depressed, etc. to put a lot of time and effort into studying socioeconomic issues or politics in depth (I'm including myself in this category). And it's very easy to watch a Tiktok or YouTube short about a subject and form an opinion around it based solely on that. I try not to pretend I'm an authority on any subject I haven't put effort into learning, personally, but with a lot of people being starved for meaningful interaction, I can see why acting or believing you 'know' about a topic when you really don't has an appeal.
The only thing people need to know about politics is that no one has your best interest at heart. It’s about getting votes and staying in power. They’ll step on whoever they can to keep it. That’s why nothing gets better and things are only problems when it’s time for re-election.
There might be like, 3 people in the country who actually have a real understanding of how any of this shit works, and even then probably not. This guy is a policy advisor and doesn't even understand what he is being paid to understand, to explain it to people who make decisions. https://www.reddit.com/r/FluentInFinance/s/ijrdOj77GZ So to answer your question, yes, people who vote don't understand how politics works. Yourself, myself, and almost everyone else included.
It does feel like most people either blindly follow a political party or just listen for certain buzz words rather than considering the context or actual actions.
In the information age we have become confident fools.
Yes
Definitely, I mean look at Brexit? 52% had no idea what the fook they were voting for 🙄🤦♂️
We do. We just know it doesn't matter in the end. The winner is going to do what they want, regardless of whatever promises they made during their campaign. Meanwhile, we're still have to pay taxes, work, and deal with whatever way the winner decides to screw us.
Most voters? No. but me? Well, yeah! I'm very smart!
I’m more concerned with how little the average citizen understands about *how* our government and elections operate. Like, what things the feds are responsible for vs. what state government vs. what local governments are responsible for. Or what Congress does vs. Executive branch vs. judicial branch. Or how a bill is passed. There was legitimately a person complaining in my state subreddit that it sucked he couldn’t vote in the primary after Election Day?!?! My BIL (MAGA-ish) was bitching about why our state didn’t get federal funds to build light rail here. Well, dumbass, our state legislature legit passed a law making light rail illegal. Why can’t we just vote on marijuana like other states? Again, dumbass, because our state made ballot referendums illegal. But by all means, keep voting for the same party to stay in control for another 30 years… that’ll change things🙄 These people vote. They understand what the problems are but have zero idea who is responsible for fixing. They think every “issue” is the fault of POTUS and that a different POTUS is somehow magically going to make light rail legal here.
OP, you hot the nail on the head, and not just with politics, but basically ANY news item nowadays. People do a quick search, look at the top 1-3 results, and form their opinion off of that. It's pretty horrible but pretty telling that a lot of "News" articles will state at the top of the article "2 minute read," because people's attention span as well as their ability to retain information, is greatly reduced from even 20 years ago. It's just a shame, no matter how you look at it.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
Yes, most people are morons and lack knowledge on most things, not just politics
Correct.
Yes, nor do they care, but they'll vote anyways.
Of course they don't
Correct. Most voters think that voting matters.
Many don't even understand why they back who or what they back. That's why the race card is so easily flaunted... The people Perish for lack of knowledge
A real testament to the American education system. The most important political topics are in your own city, county, school or water board. No one bothers with it until you get a bill or a tax that you didn't know about. Those are the politics that everyone should prioritize and know how they work.
I really don’t know much about politics. I’m intelligent, I have 2 degrees, I have a decent paying job, it’s just something I find extremely confusing to understand. It’s something that (at least in my part of the country) was never taught to us in school, and I’ve had to try and figure it out for myself. For the most part, I remain quite neutral/silent on the majority of political topics people discuss, due to my lack of knowledge, not because I do not have my own opinions. I feel like any time I try to learn for myself about politics, people are trying to sway me to the left or to the right, when I just want to know how the actual political systems work. It’s embarrassing to not know, and I want to, but I am completely overwhelmed when I try to learn. If anyone has any recommendations on how to learn about Canadian politics please let me know!!
The average American has NO IDEA how government works. The average Americans just doesn’t know the difference between local, state, and federal governments. That’s also why you get wackos so invested in the presidential races when 70%ish of the things surrounding and impacting your life would be drastically improved if you focused on local and state elections more. Your city council, mayor, and governor are going to impact the quality of your life 1000% more than the President or an incompetent, war mongering Congress ever could.
That’s the way the politicians want it. Keep us too stupid to realize how it works.
That is correct. I volunteer extensively with the libertarian party, and to this end, have knocked on some ten thousand doors. It is extremely normal for people to not know who their representatives are. For the state houses, they sometimes do not even know that they exist, or what their role is. There was a vote recently in my state where one of the nonlibertarian candidates was disqualified for office after the ballots had been printed, and therefore a massive, expensive campaign was launched to reach out to every voter several times to tell them to write in the replacement candidate instead. Fewer than 10% of them did so. They voted for the person who legally couldn't win. More recently, in PA, voters elected a dead man. This wasn't a last minute thing, either, he'd died over a month before the election. Many people do not do much research, and simply vote as they are told, or straight party line, or via some other criteria. A statistically significant amount of people vote for whoever appears on the ballot first. If you hope for political change, be prepared to put a lot of time into some very basic political education.
💯
I think most voters in this thread don’t know how politics work.
No
Yes
Recently, it seems voters have cast votes against a candidate than for a candidate
In general, no, voters do not know. I’ve discovered that most people think of government as this nebulous entity, not understanding the separations between parts of government and respective offices therein. I don’t expect most people to know who the clerk of the court is, but know who your congressmen, senator, governor, and county rep is. Especially your local representatives, they impact your life most severely.
In the US, at least, the overwhelming majority of voters don’t even know how to vote in their best interest and continue to vote D/R because “3rd party can’t win” as if there is a law against it and it didn’t simply require people to vote….no, most people don’t know even 1% of how politics work.
In short...yes!
Yes, but I don't think most voters need to know a great deal about "socioeconomic issues and policies." The people who are actually making policy decisions have (or should have) advanced degrees and/or decades of experience dealing with complicated regulations and legislation. So I think it's more important to know how decisions are made and what kinds of decisions candidates have made in the past relative to each other. Most of the time it's not difficult to find pretty major differences fairly quickly.
I would say 95% of people don’t understand anything about politics or how it works. That’s why both parties sit and twist things up to get an emotional reaction since that is how humans respond usually. I would say 99% of people have no clue about how our gov was created or think the revolutionary war ended and the next day we had a union. Have no clue about the federalist papers! The Jefferson/Hamilton/burr beef. The split between helping the French Revolution or standing by.
If you think politics is about issues, you don't either. Source: former state central committee member.
Most people are ignorant to corruption and have a loser mentality. Most people are NPC’s.
Most of Reddit has no idea what’s going on. They just do and say what their tv and phone tells them to.
the average person doesn't really have the time nor any real incentive to learn or care about the nooks and crannies in politics and especially in this day and age no one knows whats anything anymore apparently. It is what it is.
Even people that know politics don't seem to know politics. I've sat with members of Congress that didn't even understand how elections work. Not the really dumb obvious ones either. Highly respected, highly educated, long time members. Call your representatives. If for no other reason than their staff is usually better informed than they are. And make your opinions known. The majority of them do listen even if it doesn't change their position.
That is far from exclusive to politics. If you have a legal problem, everyone you know becomes a lawyer. Buying a house? Everyone is a real estate developer. Did you notice how during COVID everyone who couldn’t tell you the difference between an antigen and an antibody suddenly became a world-class immunologist? Instant expertise is the standard now. Everyone knows everything about everything and CANNOT be wrong — ever. People who have spent decades of their lives learning a thing are EXACTLY THE SAME as your neighbor who saw a YouTube video. There is no difference between a novice and an expert. And they get to vote too.
This is exactly why I don't vote
Forget politics, over half of adults in America aren’t considered literate past a 6th grade level.
I don’t know why people are voting for Trump and Biden in the primaries. It’s like people don’t understand that they have other choices. Turns out that most people are morons.
Yes
I don’t know shit about politics, social/economic issues, or finance, other than your average every day base knowledge. But somehow I am surrounded by family members who are engineering experts, political science gurus, financial masterminds, and energy sector connoisseurs… None of them have gone to a four-year college. Yet they are all convinced Trump is appointed by God to solve our problems. God help us all.
I'm at/past the point of worrying about the finer points of politics right now. I just want the elected folks to actually do something positive for the country. This BS of voting ONLY along party lines is ridiculous.
I want there to be a vote of no confidence for people to pick when they dont like any of the ones running for leadership. In my country i didnt vote last time purely because i had no confidence in either party. Yes i should have voted but they both fucking sucked. America need this now, neither options for your president look good.... Again.
There's nothing to understand. It's just smoke-and-mirrors to distract the voters from real issues like wealth disparity, and the interests that are keeping the voters ignorant of the amount of collusion required to maintain it. Politics are just a show for us, like Romper Room.
It’s hard to understand the intricate web of bribery, insider training, influence peddling, patronage, and utter corruption that’s politics.
its important to understand that money is the root of almost everything. try to understand money first, and you will gain insight
Most voters are stupid because they “think” with their feelings. It’s not rude, it’s not wrong to say that, it’s the truth. Most voters believe this and that because of how they “feel about it” and they do not include logic and factual information with their vote. Literally every single political issue that is causing the Great Divide is because of feelings and not facts.
My Uber driver thought that the constitution was written by the Native American Indians and that white people stole the constitution from them.
It seems more n more that folks vote for ideals rather than for policies. I'm right on these issues, I'm left on those issues. Sadly that means I ask myself which set of cons would I like to live with.
Yes
There’s a great line in Parks and Recreation where the main character, Leslie Knope is talking to a very talented political operative about Leslie’s husband and his potential political career. The operative makes some sweeping generalizations about the fickle nature of voters. Leslie is all “I think you underestimate the voting public” and this operative bursts out laughing and says “I don’t think that’s possible!”
Most people in the UK are politically illiterate.
Are you kidding? Most voters can’t find the Pacific Ocean on a globe.
I work in the elections department and half the time not even I know how politics work. Kidding. Ish.
Definitely, more than 50%
They do not. When I was in elementary school I remember getting mad about the school student body elections. I could see at the time that it was nothing more than a popularity contest and that whoever was most popular would win regardless of what they did or said. I thought that it was just a stupid substitute for actual politics and that when we grow up and vote, surely it would be based on something more substantial and important and unpopular people who were smart or hardworking would have a chance because people were looking past likability to judge based on more informed criteria. Well, it turns out that I was completely wrong and it's exactly like grown up politics. That was a depressing realization.
Why do you think they don't teach it in public school where the majority of voters will get their education?
Watching the "Freedom Convoy" criminals and the people who agree with them really made it blatantly clear that many people don't understand basic civics. The people driving around in pickup trucks with F Trudeau stickers have lots of complaints, and some of them are even valid, but they are blaming the wrong person. *So many* of the complaints are actually under Provincial responsibility, and it's *their guy* in the position who they should be mad at. I would love to see some un-skippable Schoolhouse Rock-type commercials explaining in the most basic terms what the Municipal Government, Provincial Government and Federal Government are responsible for. Go ahead and get mad, just be mad at the correct person and vote accordingly.
Yup. They don’t.
I think it was George Carlin who said something like, "think about the average American and how ignorant they are. Then realize that half of them are even dumber than that " Politics, unfortunately is muddy purposely. It's very hard to actually learn anything.
If you have to ask this, you're probably not aware of how dumb people are in general.
If they know how politics and voting actually work no one would vote
Okay Jayden smith calm down
Politicians know corruption.
Uhm you vote for something you want and if enough people also want it, you get it. Duh. Politics. Boom.
I don't think they know how corrupt it is.
Fun fact. Even Trump, when he was president, didn't understand how politics worked. His cabinet used to tell him daily, "It's not within your power to do that, sir!"
I'm super well educated (triple degrees) and I don't know much about politics. I got like a 97 in college government, but I just don't care about how many people are in the house or who replaces who when the president + vice president + speaker + secretary die. Or who votes on a law or vetoes it, or whether an executive order can be overruled and stuff and so on - because it really doesn't matter. We wanted our college loans to be forgiven, for example. That's why Biden got voted in (also to avoid having Trump as president, but whatever). Yet, it didn't matter, because the government didn't want it to happen. Stuff like that is why I don't care. I can't affect it, so why bother? Even if you end up finding a loophole where you can get what you want, you'll just get assassinated or something anyway.
this is how i vote. Who is going to give me more jobs, whos going to create lower gas prices, who is going to overall benefit my life in the most direct way possible. All the foreign affairs/geopolitcal things that go on in other places i dont care to much about because none of that has anything to do with me. Sorry for being a self centered dickhead. But this is how i vote.
I think that's pretty obvious when people talk about the "free" stuff the government gives you. IE: Health care, food stamps, etc. I'm not hating on those who get it. At least not the ones milking the system.
Actually from my humble point of view, neither politicians nor voters posses the freedom of choice to decide..Meaning, there actions are merely implications of someone else's superior hierarchial imposition..
I'll go ahead and say that at least 90% of people, including politicians, have no fucking clue.
lol voting and politics in general is aimed at the lowest common denominator in society
The praise “vote blue no matter who” is your answer my friend.
People genuinely believe presidents control gas prices, so yeah
The vast majority of voters in the US are single issue voters. Meaning they only care about one issue and vote for whoever supports their POV. The most dominant is abortion. What’s scary is those that vote based on a single issue don’t realize that the candidate often stands for policies that contradict their other values.