What Trump’s Election Does and Does Not Mean

by | Dec 5, 2016 | Benjamin Radford, News | 0 comments

“We seek evidence that confirms our pre-existing psychological biases and ignore or downplay evidence that does not. It’s undeniable that many racists and sexists supported Trump, but the fact that Trump was elected does not logically imply that many or most Americans share his views, and decrying that “The racists won” or “Misogyny won” is misguided, inaccurate, divisive, and perhaps most of all, unhelpful in moving forward.”

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“We can shake our heads and wonder why so many Americans fell for it this election, but in fact there’s little mystery. This implicit idea that America is somehow better or more enlightened than other countries is not only historically wrong but feeds on and fuels the same sentiment that Trump tapped into. If you harbor some jingoistic notion of American voter superiority, then you not only have a poor grasp of psychology and political history, but you also share more in common with Trump than you realize.”

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“As Steven Pinker noted in his book The Better Angels of Our Nature, overall things are getting better for the world, not worse, by many measures including poverty, crime, warfare, education, and sexism. Michael Shermer, in his book The Moral Arc, extends that argument and discusses moral progress as well; if he’s right then Trump is on the losing side of history anyway.”

You can read the rest HERE. 

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