cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15071058
The ABC News/Ipsos poll found that economy and inflation were among the top issues for Americans in this upcoming presidential election, with more Americans saying they trust Trump on the issues than Biden. Eighty-eight percent of Americans in the survey said the economy was important when deciding whom to vote for, and 85 percent said the same for inflation.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted online among 2,260 adults April 25-30 and has a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points.
When I was in the military, there was this saying that I thought was so, so stupid: “Perception is reality.” They said it over and over like it was the most insightful advice they were giving us. Me, being a rational person, was like…that’s fuckin’ dumb. No, it isn’t.
Turns out, being rational is a waste of time. If enough people believe something, it’s functionally true in many cases. (To be clear, not believing in covid killed people, but believing that the medical industrial complex is full of “anti-democratic” technocrats didn’t). It seems that having beliefs completely divorced from reality only matters if reality as a way of reinforcing itself, often forcefully. Otherwise, it’s elephants and turtles all the way down.
Interesting. I mostly said it in a sense that economics is primarily a social science. The way people think something is more or less makes it self fulfilling. Like a recession is in part characterized by lower demand. People that think we are in one might start to save to get a head of the pain; saving lowers demand.