Lance wrote:Go ask 100 average people who said "I can see Russia from my house" and I'll bet you 85 of them will answer Sarah Palin. In fact, it was Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live. The truth doesn't matter. Perception becomes reality.
I agree with that, but is the chain of causality,
"Sarah Palin said, 'I can see Russia from my house'" ==> "Sarah Palin is an idiot" ==> "I won't vote for Sarah Palin"
or is it more like
"I don't like Sarah Palin" ==> "I will believe any criticism, however ludicrous, of this person I already have decided I don't like"
So did they not vote for McCain/Palin because Tina Fey mocked her, or did they find Tina Fey's mocking funny because they already didn't like the victim?
Lance wrote:Trump and Co. repeated over and over about Hillary's "illegal mail server" with "10s of thousands of classified emails" that were all "hacked by the bad guys". But the server and her usage of it were not illegal and there were only slightly over a hundred emails that got classified after the fact but weren't at the time. And AT the time there were a grand total of THREE emails that were classified and even those were improperly marked.
That's just one more example, but LOTS of people held that against her even though none of it was true.
Same question - was this belief influential? Did it change people's votes?
There were persistent rumours about Obama being born in Kenya, or some variation thereof. As nearly as I can tell, these rumours do not have the slightest basis in fact, but a lot of people at least
suspected that they were true. I never heard of anyone who was an Obama supporter who believed this. So there are at least two possible causal chains that would explain the absence of "birthers" among Obama supporters:
a) "I find rumours that Barack Obama was born in Kenya credible" ==> "Therefore I will not support Barack Obama"
or
b) "I don't support Barack Obama" ==> "I believe any old crap rumour with no basis in fact, as long as it's critical of Barack Obama"
Which is it?
I find people are incredibly good about extending leniency to those with whom they sympathise, while being very strict with those they don't like. The politician I like said something stupid because he was tired, under stress, his comments were misinterpreted, whatever. The politician I don't like said something stupid because he's an idiot, and so is anyone who votes for him. Ask Americans about the My Lai massacre, a lot of them well say, well, the American soldiers were young people, they were in an incredibly difficult, stressful situation, they made some bad judgements in the heat of battle, you can't judge because you don't know what it's like to be in combat, etc. I haven't yet met the American who will say about 9/11 hijackers, well, some of these people had a lot of problems in their lives, they were under pressure or stress, they were young and impulsive, they fell under the spell of some preacher who misled them, sure they made a mistake, but you can't judge them too harshly without considering all the circumstances, etc. My Lai soldiers get the benefit of the doubt; 9/11 hijackers get none. Maybe in some other parts of the world, it's the other way around.