Notices by Whisper of Reason (sensiblequiet@mastodon.social)

For some reason, millions of the US voters decided to stay home this time. Unfortunately, it's a recurring pattern around the globe: sane politicians try to appeal to the insane crowd on the other side. In the process, they start saying things that aren't in line with their own principles and promises. This translates into marginal gains at best, but at the cost of alienating many of the previously faithful followers.

Your core is not a faceless crowd. It's people, and people have their limits.

Then she went on stage in that debate, and she said yeah, we need more fracking. That moment, all the grassroots energy simply died down. There was a very short lag, a few days maybe, when people still tried to convince themselves. Then nothing. Just endless "Trump is bad".

Yes, Trump is really bad. Trump is a catastrophe. But he hasn't gained voters compared to 2020. It would be very easy to beat him by mobilizing the same number of left-leaning people that came out to vote four years ago.

I'm not from the US, which is why I've been carefully considering what to say. In this overheated political landscape, it can be misinterpreted as interference. I will mostly share my observations.

I prefer reading to writing. Sometimes, I notice things others might easily miss. There was a gigantic wave of optimism, a tsunami of hope when Kamala Harris entered the race. I'm not talking about the official statements and the media spin, but about the tone of comments from the regular people.

We need some kind of global "politics 101" class that will explain to every would be national leader that no, you can't gain support from both sides. Those who came before you were not less smart or able than you are. If it were possible to make the other side to change their mind, it would've been done long ago.

@madeindex Brought to you by the department of X efficiency.

Seriously though, Musk making decisions that affect Twitter is a nuisance, but Musk making decisions that will affect peoples' lives and well-being is a disaster.

Here's some background for that absurd €130m of "hope": we ARE in the middle of the sixth mass extinction:
https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/10/28/frightening-statistic-more-than-1-in-3-tree-species-worldwide-at-risk-of-extinction

Some people will be prone to react with "come on, dude, anything is better than nothing." No. Sometimes it's worse than nothing. In politics, nothing (i.e. silence on a glaring issue) indicates the ongoing thought process: consultations, deliberations, think tank repots, etc. This is the outcome, and it reads: Greta was right, we're still not being taken seriously.