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posted by janrinok on Saturday November 19 2016, @04:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the statistics-or-lies? dept.

Scott Alexander gives a great breakdown of Trump and how the portrayal of him as being "openly white supremacist" is probably (likely) wrong.

I stick to my thesis from October 2015. There is no evidence that Donald Trump is more racist than any past Republican candidate (or any other 70 year old white guy, for that matter). All this stuff about how he's "the candidate of the KKK" and "the vanguard of a new white supremacist movement" is made up. It's a catastrophic distraction from the dozens of other undeniable problems with Trump that could have convinced voters to abandon him. That it came to dominate the election cycle should be considered a horrifying indictment of our political discourse, in the same way that it would be a horrifying indictment of our political discourse if the entire Republican campaign had been based around the theory that Hillary Clinton was a secret Satanist. Yes, calling Romney a racist was crying wolf. But you are still crying wolf.

I avoided pushing this point any more since last October because I didn't want to look like I was supporting Trump, or accidentally convince anyone else to support Trump. But since we're past the point where that matters any more, I want to present my case.

He further states: "I realize that all of this is going to make me sound like a crazy person and put me completely at odds with every respectable thinker in the media, but luckily, being a crazy person at odds with every respectable thinker in the media has been a pretty good ticket to predictive accuracy lately, so whatever."

So do his claims hold up under scrutiny, is he manipulating the figures, or is he just a 'crazy person' ?


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 19 2016, @05:07PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday November 19 2016, @05:07PM (#429469) Homepage

    Everybody has/had racist views.

    Is it only a bad thing when White people do it? One of the bigger problems here is that people in places to influence public perception are picking and choosing which kind of racism is okay and which isn't.

    Racism is racism is bad, whether or not it is against Whites or Blacks or every shade in between -- even those filthy Latinos.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @06:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @06:20PM (#429510)

    Why'd you mod this troll?

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday November 19 2016, @06:39PM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Saturday November 19 2016, @06:39PM (#429532) Journal

      last four words.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @06:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @06:54PM (#429541)

        Heh, ya well I have a memory and on multiple occasions EF has stated he is at least part Latino so those last words are a joke as far as I can tell.