this bernie situation kinda fuckin blows, huh

fun polling fact did you know people will usually choose the first or closest option when making an arbitrary decision between two identical choices

if we wanted to have fairer ballots, each voter would get the names listed in a randomized order

what we have instead is alphabetical order, which makes it easier for large powerful groups to subtly rig elections by choosing a candidate with a last name that is towards the beginning of the alphabet

there's a cognitive psych phenomenon called loss aversion that describes a pattern of people reacting more strongly to the idea of losing something than the idea of gaining something. that's why large powerful groups use negative campaigning and focus on what people might lose

this is why you're going to hear a lot of "a vote for anybody other than biden is a vote for trump"

because they know the idea of gaining biden isn't persuasive, but the idea of losing and having trump is going to *feel* bigger to people

it's also why they focused so hard on "you can keep your insurance with me but sanders wants to take it away from you and replace it with something that might not be as good"

also another fun fact: people are deeply in denial about how easy we are to manipulate. like all of us. before they ran the milgram study they predicted 10% of people would torture somebody to death, and in reality it was 65% of people. everybody thinks they're the exception

nobody thinks they're being manipulated.

anyway that's my postmortem. go grow some food. build some houses. erect a guillotine in the middle of the town square. get some chickens. fuck it.