I intended to imply causation. I deeply enjoyed your not-at-all condescending lecture about how gullible, biased, and imprecise I am, though. In return, I will advise you not to be presumptuous about internet strangers' intelligence.
> something no one is able to know
Untrue. What if you just asked voters, "Why did you vote for Trump?" Or what if you asked them, "What issues are important to you?"
Some of the best predictors of Trump support were:
- support for building a wall to prevent undocumented immigration from Mexico[1][2]
- anxiety about immigration in general[1]
- a belief that the US is, was, and must remain a white, Christian nation[3]
In fact, a majority of Republicans see immigrants (legal or not) in general as being a net-negative on society[4].
There is a reason Trump's rallying cry was "build the wall". There is a reason he is the candidate of choicee for white nationalists (which is not to say that I'm claiming that all of his supporters are white nationalists). Most Americans agree with me, though[5].
Oh, ok. Would you mind then explaining in detail how it is you came to know(!) what was and was not the comprehensive, multivariate motivation of all the people who voted in Republican primary polls, and how you managed to measure/calculate accurate values for each variable (or at least this one single variable, for each person, or even the aggregate for the overall group)? I mean this question literally, not rhetorically.
> I deeply enjoyed your not-at-all condescending lecture about how gullible, biased, and imprecise I am, though. In return, I will advise you not to be presumptuous about internet strangers' intelligence.
I made no personal criticisms of you, or and presumptions about internet strangers intelligence. Rather, this is just a manifestation of the very things I was referring to.
>> something no one is able to know
> Untrue. What if you just asked voters, "Why did you vote for Trump?" Or what if you asked them, "What issues are important to you?"
a) no one has done that, at scale, and in a form where very specific conclusions (like yours) can be formed
b) even when people answer a question "truthfully", it does not necessarily reflect true cause and effect, which are largely determined by neurological processes in the subconscious mind, that even the very best neurologists/psychologists barely understand, and that even the person in possession of the mind is not privy to. As an example, does it seem you know, absolutely, that the specific things you write here are True(!), absolutely? And yet, if I ask for epistemically sound, confirmable quantitative evidence, are you able to provide any, that does not consist of, or rely heavily upon, a narrative?
> Some of the best predictors of Trump support were...
These are all attempts to measure and understand reality (based in part on some discrete "measurements", assembled into a persuasive narrative form). They are not reality itself. But, this is not to say these these measurements are not accurate - perhaps they are even very accurate - I am simply stating that it is unknown how accurate they are.
I intended to imply causation. I deeply enjoyed your not-at-all condescending lecture about how gullible, biased, and imprecise I am, though. In return, I will advise you not to be presumptuous about internet strangers' intelligence.
> something no one is able to know
Untrue. What if you just asked voters, "Why did you vote for Trump?" Or what if you asked them, "What issues are important to you?"
Some of the best predictors of Trump support were:
- support for building a wall to prevent undocumented immigration from Mexico[1][2]
- anxiety about immigration in general[1]
- a belief that the US is, was, and must remain a white, Christian nation[3]
In fact, a majority of Republicans see immigrants (legal or not) in general as being a net-negative on society[4].
There is a reason Trump's rallying cry was "build the wall". There is a reason he is the candidate of choicee for white nationalists (which is not to say that I'm claiming that all of his supporters are white nationalists). Most Americans agree with me, though[5].
1. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/25/5-facts-abo...
2. https://news.virginia.edu/content/center-politics-poll-takes...
3. https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-...
4. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2015/09/28/chapter-4-u-...
5. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/05/most-amer...