[fareesh]

I am not a fan of any of our political parties because they are all crooks.

Having said that, I don't consider The Wire to be a dispassionate source when it involves he who you don't want to name.

I'm not interested in who wins the election because I can count on any government to negatively impact my life by eroding my ability to support myself and my family through taxation, corruption and government ineptitude. Our currency will be devalued with each passing year, and most of our savings will not keep up.

Having further clarified this, I fully expect the current ruling party to engage in technology fuelled surveillance and other privacy related invasions because the megalomania is clear and apparent from their rhetoric and overall positioning.

I also know that they are probably amongst the most popular leaders in the world, enjoying above 75% popularity in the general population. I have zero respect for the competence of the opposition because they lack pragmatism, skill or political instincts to change this. What we have instead is an embarrassing coalition of clowns.

Government will only continue to disappoint, and partisans are part of the problem. I only take seriously issues that are framed in the manner of citizen vs government.

Having qualified all of this - this story is unsurprising and entirely believable.

[intended]

The story is unbelievable- in that this is the way tech is being employed. It’s a combination of the most sinister and banal at the same time.

It’s having an auto complete feature for creating better hate speech.

The politics is one thing the tech is another.

[8note]

Politics is how power is distributed, and technology enables power.

They're intrinsically linked

[unmole]

> enjoying above 75% popularity in the general population.

What is that number based on? Their vote share in the 2019 general elections was ~37%.

[fareesh]

The 37% number is based on political dynamics like the popularity of regional political parties and whether or not the political machinery is contesting in all parts of the country.

If you look at polling organizations that do "approval ratings" type of poll, they have been 50-70% for years. The recent West Bengal incursion is probably a good example, they went from no presence to becoming the primary opposition.

[unmole]

In a country where even exit polls are hilariously inaccurate, I am not going to pay any attention to what approval ratings say.