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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Author: albaby1 ✶❂🐝 GOLD
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Number: of 86277 
Subject: Re: If RFK gets confirmed ,
Date: 12/12/24 3:02 PM
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Nobody in 1860 existed in an 'echo chamber,' bombarded with the same message from multiple sources multiple times a day, every day, with precision coordination. It couldn't be done. The technology simply didn't exist. It's a moot point.

It's not a moot point. That voter in 1860 was just as ill-informed - probably more ill-informed - than voters today.

You didn't need to bombard them with the same message multiple times a day. The typical voter would have a head filled with misinformation to begin with - by 1860, you had near-universal white male suffrage, so your typical voter would certainly have materially less than a high school education (though by then, there's a better than even chance that they might be literate). Their knowledge of the world and the facts relating to public policy issues would have been miniscule at best. The typical modern voter - yes, even the typical modern Fox-watchin' and Facebook-usin' voter - would have a more accurate understanding of the world and how it works and the issues of the day than your typical 1860's voter.

The 'echo chamber' and technology just makes the ignorance and misinformation different. It doesn't mean that there wasn't just as much, if not more, ignorance and misinformation among the 1860 electorate as there is today.
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This community has written 86,214 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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