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by TheOtherHobbes
1702 days ago
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I would assume this is pure politics. He knows perfectly well who is to blame, but he's using the situation opportunistically to further his own career. The issue isn't just that he's objectively and morally wrong, it's that most voters don't see through the grandstanding. All they see - and all they want to see - is a rich old white dude punching down at some college-educated kid who thinks he's clever enough to have an opinion. It's not obvious a jury will parse this any differently. Although I'd hope someone like the EFF would turn up with some heavy hitter experts to add some friction to the self-serving bad take. This is why it's hard to do politics. While everyone is fact-checking and getting outraged about the reality the political game is being played on a different level with different rules - by people who are often quite good at winning it. |
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I think having "fact checkers" and "experts" debunk his claims will ultimately gain him support among his constituents. There's a sharp trend towards anti-expert, anti-intellectual sentiment that has assisted him throughout the pandemic, and there's no reason that I can see to believe that it won't serve him equally as well on this issue. We'll see, but I think this movement isn't something that will die out with the pandemic, but something that we will see permeate other areas of discourse.