For Arendt, facts and opinions, “though they must be kept apart, are not antagonistic to each other; they belong to the same realm.” A fact (her example is Germany’s invasion of Belgium in August 1914) “acquires political implications only by being put in an interpretative context.” Whoever reports what happened, she wrote, “always tells a story, and in this story the particular facts lose their contingency and acquire some humanly comprehensible meaning.”

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That is what Arendt meant when she argued that organizing people together to change the world—that is to say, doing politics—requires an approach that rejects outright lying while also avoiding a complacent expectation that “the truth” will reveal itself for voters to follow. The narrative wars have begun. If Democrats are smart, they’ll opt for storytelling instead.

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[–] 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I disagree with your assessment reading the topline data.

It was the economy. Republicans and Indepentens make up 85% of that concern.

That is what got people to either stay home or vote blue.

For the blue side though, yes specifically the state of the democracy. But that is more "trump motivated me to go out and vote" and less "my parties platform made me go out and vote."

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

    First, you can't just add the percentages from two groups without knowing the raw numbers and call it the total percentage. That's not how percentages work.

    Second, my point isn't that corruption was the thing that was driving the vote, it's that it is also a major concern for the Independent voters too. You're looking at the whole group of polled Independent voters who answered 44% said economy, so yes, we agree that the major driver is the economy, no argument here. You also had 28% of them say democracy/corruption was their major driver.

    That's not a insignificant percentage.

    Source if you want to look at the breakdowns yourself.

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  • [–] 0 points 14 hours ago*

    Exactly. One thing we have learned from the USA in the last 2 years is not only do some people profit from the corruption, but others, MANY MANY MANY MORE others actively chose to ignore the corruption if it does not personally affect them.

    This is why Cypher is the true enemy in the Matrix, not Smith or even the machines. Cypher knows is in a position where he can help millions of people, but he STILL chooses ignorance, just like the avg 'murican. ITS BLISS

    Panem et circenses.

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