That time again
This is around the time of year that I start obsessively following fivethirtyeight.com, poring over polls and agonizing over approval ratings. (Though honestly, for the last four years I never really stopped. I'd love to be able to not care about politics again, but I don't think that's going to happen.) Fivethirtyeight is a place where it's generally safe to read the comments without fear of your head exploding; they do have resident trolls, but you can mostly roll your eyes and ignore them. The number of regular posters is comparatively small, and you can figure out pretty quickly who's worth listening to, and who isn't, and what personal biases you have to take into account.
The people who post in the comments can be grouped into several political buckets:
1) Alt right whackos. There are only a handful, but they make up for it by commenting on every post to complain about how unfair the site (and the media, and the world in general) is to Trump, how evil Democrats are, and to promulgate the latest Breitbart-approved deep state COVID-is-a-hoax conspiracy theory.
2) Libertarian whackos. Also small in number, and functionally indistinguishable from the alt right crowd, save when they get snappy at you for not realizing that they're a libertarian (and therefore forced to vote for Trump, Because Reasons.)
3) One (1) hard right dude who's mad at Trump because he hasn't been as horrible to people who aren't white immigrants as he promised to be, and is urging his fellow Republicans to vote him out for that reason. (He claims to be from Arizona. Sadly, I believe it.)
4) Disillusioned center right Never-Trumpers. Some of them have become independents, others have seen the light and registered as Democrats. There are probably more of them than of the whackos, but because they're reasonable, they don't make as big an impression.
5) Center-to-middle left types. Their first pick may have been anyone from Buttegeig to Sanders, but they'll vote for a literal yaller dog if it'll keep Trump from appointing another Supreme Court judge. Probably the largest group on the site.
6) Hard left people who may not like the mainstream Dems, but realize they're still better than Trump. In other words, unicorns. There may be such people but if so, they're under deep cover.
7. Alt left whackos. Often functionally indistinguishable from the alt right whackos, because they hate center left voters and candidates even more than the alt right peeps do. They, too, are often compelled to vote for Trump, or not vote at all, because "They're all equally bad." (I gotta say Group 7 annoys me more than any of the right-leaning whackos.)
Rants Talk to me
The people who post in the comments can be grouped into several political buckets:
1) Alt right whackos. There are only a handful, but they make up for it by commenting on every post to complain about how unfair the site (and the media, and the world in general) is to Trump, how evil Democrats are, and to promulgate the latest Breitbart-approved deep state COVID-is-a-hoax conspiracy theory.
2) Libertarian whackos. Also small in number, and functionally indistinguishable from the alt right crowd, save when they get snappy at you for not realizing that they're a libertarian (and therefore forced to vote for Trump, Because Reasons.)
3) One (1) hard right dude who's mad at Trump because he hasn't been as horrible to people who aren't white immigrants as he promised to be, and is urging his fellow Republicans to vote him out for that reason. (He claims to be from Arizona. Sadly, I believe it.)
4) Disillusioned center right Never-Trumpers. Some of them have become independents, others have seen the light and registered as Democrats. There are probably more of them than of the whackos, but because they're reasonable, they don't make as big an impression.
5) Center-to-middle left types. Their first pick may have been anyone from Buttegeig to Sanders, but they'll vote for a literal yaller dog if it'll keep Trump from appointing another Supreme Court judge. Probably the largest group on the site.
6) Hard left people who may not like the mainstream Dems, but realize they're still better than Trump. In other words, unicorns. There may be such people but if so, they're under deep cover.
7. Alt left whackos. Often functionally indistinguishable from the alt right whackos, because they hate center left voters and candidates even more than the alt right peeps do. They, too, are often compelled to vote for Trump, or not vote at all, because "They're all equally bad." (I gotta say Group 7 annoys me more than any of the right-leaning whackos.)
Rants Talk to me