The World is a Ghetto

Read on regarding "Lesser"of the evils

At 67 I probably have no hope. Grinding stupidity each election wears one down. Actually existing governance wears one down. I did my time in politics. My interest non-partisan. My interest human beings just like me, being butchered by U.S. military aid. First though was nuclear war as a top concern under Ronnie Rayguns and the MX missile. Like some other pointy heded individuals I was influenced by Fromm who in 1964 made the case for UNILATERAL disarmament one weapons system at a time. Announce to the world peace was the priority. State one major weapons system would be decommissioned. Ask other nations to reciprocate. So here in 2024 we know this road was ignored. Voters did not care. And of course they still do not. Arguably the myth of Deterrence was thought intelligent. Them evil ones over there are stopped by our arsenal of H-bombs. The proposed Fiscal Year 2024 Budget request for the Department of Defense is $842 billion, which is an increase of $26 billion over FY 2023 levels and $100 billion more than FY 2022¹. This budget is driven by strategic competition with China.

Perplexing possibly that Hopium floats all boats. Possibly not. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_emotions_that_make_you_decide_to_vote

Political psychology researchers have been studying what encourages voting behavior, hoping to create interventions that might increase voting in the general public. “Because voting is a prosocial behavior, the kinds of things that should stimulate other types of prosocial behavior should have similar impacts on voting,” says Costas Panagopoulos of Northeastern University.

Studies by Panagopoulos and others suggest that appealing to our altruistic, “prosocial” natures—our concern for other people and our desire to contribute toward the greater good of society—could drive more democratic participation.

How gratitude impacts voting

In one study, Panagopoulos sent postcards to a subset of random voters before a special election in New York and before a gubernatorial election in New Jersey. The postcards contained either a message encouraging people to vote or a message thanking them for having voted in a recent election. Then, he compared voting percentages for those two groups to a control group who received no postcards.

His findings showed that voters receiving the gratitude postcard voted significantly more—two to three percentage points more—than those not receiving postcards. Those receiving reminders were somewhere in the middle, voting only slightly more often than the control group. This held true whether or not the recipients tended to vote regularly or only sparingly, including voters from groups who tend to vote less frequently, in general—like Latinos and single women.

Why would this be?

“Making people feel good by reinforcing the notion that society is grateful for their participation in the political process reminds people that they have a role to play and reinforces their willingness to be responsive,” says Panagopoulos.

Though the increase might seem inconsequential, says Panagopoulos, elections are won and lost within that margin. Even going door-to-door to get out the vote—a typical, resource-intensive strategy for increasing voter turnout—rarely increases voting by more than 8-10 percentage points, making a gratitude postcard a good investment.

“The fact that you can achieve almost a third of that with a single postcard mailing is pretty huge—it’s roughly five times the effect of a generic postcard mailer reminding someone to vote,” he says. “So, the expression of gratitude must be a pretty powerful way to raise turnout.”

Still, even with these results, Panagopoulos wanted to make sure that receiving thanks was the active ingredient—after all, the postcards implied that someone was paying attention to people’s voting behavior, and public scrutiny could have been a factor.

So, in another experiment, he sent postcards thanking people for political participation, in general—without reference to past voting—while others received either the thanks for voting or the reminder postcards used in the other experiments.

In the Georgia primary election that followed, Panagopoulos found that people who received the generic thank-you postcard were more likely to vote—as much or more so than people being specifically thanked for voting, and much more than those who got the simple reminders. To Panagopoulos, this confirms the idea that gratitude was key.

“The fact that the generic gratitude message was as effective, if not more effective, than the gratitude message with social pressure elements in it, suggests that what was really doing the work was the expression of gratitude and not any perceptions of surveillance or social pressure,” he says.

Other emotions that affect voting

Guilt, shame, and social pressure can certainly increase voting, studies find.

In one study, people who received information about their own voting behavior in the past seemed to increase their propensity to vote in an upcoming election. Another study found that people will vote more in an election when they see that people they are close to are voting, and that this behavior can spread through social networks.

These kinds of studies add to a body of research showing that our social relationships and emotions play a significant role in how we vote. For example, one study found that when people are told that they might be recognized for voting in a local newspaper or put on an honor roll of voters—to induce feelings of pride—they vote in higher numbers.

And HOPIUM is addictive.

Today voters are lining up for their favorite rock star. Absolutely convinced they choose a lesser evil. Impaired by HOPIUM they forget it doesn’t matter anyway. https://substack.com/home/post/p-147663813