I've been listening to The Obstacle Is the Way on the way to work, and one of its major themes is turning negative events into opportunities. That is, going through the negative to find the positive silver lining. With regard the the recent US election, we have a great opportunity here to improve the accuracy of our perception of the world. At least, I do, because the results of this election are entirely unexpected to me. Going off of the unofficial Hubski motto, what can be learned from this situation? This post is an attempt to explore and organize what I can observe from the election results, and what it means for the future.
We Live In a Media "Filter Bubble"
I based my perceptions of what would happen in the election based on reading my preferred news sources (FiveThirtyEight, NPR); occasionally glancing at CNN; browsing Reddit, Hacker News, and Hubski; looking at Facebook and seeing what people had to say; and talking to friends and family about the election. I trusted FiveThirtyEight most of all. Based on this information, I felt fairly certain that, despite a general distaste by my peer group for both candidates, the electorate would elect Clinton by a landslide. I was wrong. Dead wrong. And it wasn't just me. . . we were all wrong.
You may have heard about the idea of a filter bubble before. Basically it's the idea that our media sources are tailoring content to be what we would like to see (or, more disturbing, what we would like to not see). I got the idea and saw how it could be bad, but I thought that by understanding filter bubbles exist, I would be immune to their effects. But the vast difference in my supposedly informed expectations vs. the actual outcome shows me that I was mistaken. I looked at news sources that confirmed what I expected. I looked at websites that were filled with people who I could relate to and who had similar worldviews. My Facebook curated the posts that I saw. And even my Google searches were tailored to match my expectations. I knew this was a thing, but I didn't really grasp how it happened to me.
I am forced to conclude that while I looked at social media, searched Google, and looked at news sources with a certain group, there was an entirely separate group almost totally isolated from the first, that was looking at different social media, searching a different Google, and looking at different news sources. How else could I be so blindsided by popular sentiments?
Populism vs Establishment Is the New Right vs Left
It's been moving in this direction for a few years now. I predict that the trend will continue. How else can we reconcile the large amount of Bernie Sanders supporters who voted for Trump? The only thing they had in common was their populist stances. People that feel supported by the status quo vs. people that don't seems to be the new norm to me, rather than differing opinions on policy. I can guarantee many Trump supporters don't agree with a lot of his far right stances, but they voted for him anyway.
Blue Collar Workers Feel Discarded By Both Parties
This is just another aspect of the last section, with profound implications. It's why Trump won. Michael Moore, as it turns out, was right. The Rust Belt gave Trump the presidency, and they did it because he was the only candidate that was willing to do something about their plight. They felt as if he was the only one that cared. It doesn't mean they were right, and I predict they're still fucked. But Trump spoke for them when nobody else would. This is a huge lesson that we need to learn. People are hurting in our changing economy, and nobody in the status quo wants to do anything about it. I think this video sums up an aspect of the election that people like me overlooked. And the voting results prove the sentiment is legit-- that this is how people really feel.
Moralism Is Mostly a Facade
Nuff said. Clearly most people don't care anymore, if they ever did. Seems to me it was just a convenient cover to vote a certain way for different, more unsavory reasons.