Kamala Harris for President appreciation thread

[Jamiet99uk]

If anyone is voting based on physical attractiveness, that should be very bad news for Trump.

He is a very ugly old man. His head is orange, and enormous.

[Octavious]

Is anyone a little disappointed by how normal most of the election has been?

Yes, granted, the assassination attempts and Biden's fall from his party's favour has added some spice, but these, whilst rare, are not exactly new plots on the political stage.

In previous elections we have been promised that we're on the verge of an exciting technological revolution that would see cunning deep fake videos bamboozle the electorate, that we were in for a show of dirty tricks on a scale we've never seen before... but thus far there's been very little sign of it. I feel cheated

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

There's a lot here to unpack.

This would be an extraordinary election cycle if we had not become inured to a certain type of political craziness in the past decade. I'm struggling to think of a historical precedent for something like the Dems gaslighting the public about Biden's obvious senility or Trump's comments about how "they're eating the pets" (let alone the preemptive election denialism). Someone awaking from a 30 year comma would probably be appalled by, at a minimum, the lack of decorum in US politics.

On deep fakes, there are a few issues at play. The technology to make indistinguishable false video really isn't there yet and seems to only be useful for memes and parody at this point. AI generated text, however, has made various types of propaganda both cheaper and higher quality.

The deeper problem here is that information seems to barely matter to the US voting public. Very few voters are swayable. The internet provides everyone with universe of genuine facts from which they can justify their opinions and preferences, reducing the need for credible falsehoods. And politics is so polarized that when actual "fake news" (i.e., legitimately fabricated stories) gains credence, many people who would otherwise care about the truth are willing to let it slide because they see it as a helpful counterpoint to the other side's fake news and/or because, even if it isn't actually true, it's serves as a story about what they think other side really wants (e.g., they're not actually killing live babies, but an R voter might indulge the falsehood because they think that's where some D voters really want to go with it).

[brainbomb]

Right well im not sure I would describe the Middle East collapsing into all out war with Iran “normal”, but we shall see.

[Octavious]

Right well im not sure I would describe the Middle East collapsing into all out war with Iran “normal”, but we shall see.

Really? Collapsing into war has been a pretty good description of the Middle East for as long as I can remember

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

I suppose it's comforting to take a "no new things under the sun" view of the world, but I'm not sure it's true.

Israel and Iran haven't fought a direct war before and they really might now. Israel has nukes. If the US got involved it would be like Iraq times 10 in terms of the military resistance and the impact on the global economy.