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Undermining Democracy

19 points| Fnoord | 5 years ago |schneier.com | reply

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[+] bobcallme|5 years ago|reply
People need to STFU about politics at this point. Both the Republicans and Democrats have flawed arguments in regards to both the 2016 & 2020 elections; I've had it with both sides and those who posture themselves with a "only my side is correct" attitude. For the last 4 years, arguments in regards to foreign influence (for as little as $50k), the issues with voting machines and updated voter registration rolls were on the table and not a single thing was done to address these issues in the last 4 years. Now that election integrity is in question, whether or not there is merit in these claims, the left seems to be quite quick to be dismissive about any such claims. As someone who does not subscribe to either ideology, there was a lot of F*ckery going on that calls into question some flipped results and the razor thin margins in quite a few areas.

At his point, I'm done. Politics, label mindedness and posturing does not have any business in a professional setting. People seemed to have chosen their Kool-Aid and doubled down and it does not look like there is a way off this ride in the foreseeable future. I've sadly watched a number of people that I've had a lot of respect for in various communities show that they are more closed minded and have shown that they are susceptible to these problematic characteristics.

[+] nojvek|5 years ago|reply
Author isn’t wrong. The US election system leaves a lot of room open for doubt. Trump is exploiting that doubt.

In a way Trump is trying every available avenue to flip the election his way. Even if he fails, he’s created a strong base.

The only way I see out is to improve the voting system such that there is little room for doubt.

[+] lopmotr|5 years ago|reply
It's horrible when a familiar respectable blogger suddenly dumps a pile of partisan talking points all seriously as if it's just as valid as their regular content. Suddenly, it shakes your confidence in their ability to think rationally when they're copying the exact beliefs of a major political group. He's just put a bit of "security" spin on it but still with the exact same conclusions.

He doesn't bother to show evidence of how this "undermining of democracy" would actually be a problem. Where do people stop voting because they don't trust the counting even when it's actually being done honestly? Where do people vote for the "wrong" candidates because they don't know what they want and need his benevolent intelligence to shield them from "bad" ideas? I guess those things have happened in the middle east depending on how you judge "bad" and "wrong", and to what extent you respect people's personal and religious beliefs.

[+] AnonDataSci|5 years ago|reply
Posting this under a throwaway for obvious reasons.

I volunteered to do some analysis on the election data because I'm more interested in finding the truth than being partisan. During the counting process, the relative advantage of a ballot reporting batch toward Biden has strong correlation to certain external regressors that are meta to the counting process itself. These correlations absolutely should not be there, and yet they occur in swing states with p-values in excess of 10^-40. I can't say which external regressors, because this is part of an active legal battle, but suffice it to say, something strange is afoot. It's better to perform an audit and prove no fraud than to be ideological about the impossibility of fraud.

[+] black_puppydog|5 years ago|reply
Frankly I'd disregard this entirely because active legal battles of this sort are either entirely public, or part of the problem.

But hey it's not my country...

[+] crocodiletears|5 years ago|reply
I know you say it's part of an active legal battle, but would you be willing to give more details on this, either in the comment section here (preferably) or via email (contact(at)crocodiletears(dot)cc)?

I've tuned most of this out given how exhausting it's become to sort through all the gaslighting and conspiracy theories being thrown into information space. I'd like some perspective from someone who's actually close to the trenches.

Even if you can't now, would you be willing to after the case resolves?

[+] smitty1e|5 years ago|reply
Hoping the case makes it to SCOTUS and the answer is decisive for all but the deadest dead-enders.