Fantastic article. Reminds me of a letter that Gandhi wrote to German jews, saying that if they simply were respectable to their oppressors, if they simply were always kind, that the Germans would naturally feel bad for them and stop being so antisemitic. It’s all bullshit. My family insists on respectability politics, and a lot of people in my area do too, although that’s not surprising since I live in a red state. Even have had people at pride say that we shouldn’t pay attention or counterprotest the bigots that yell slurs at us and call us pedophiles. I’ve done away with respectability politics in my own life but I hate having to have family lecture me on why me being disrespectful will simply make the Nazis stick around longer, that really all we need to do is ignore them and they’ll go away or stop being so Nazi. It didn’t work for Jews in the 20s and 30s in Germany, and it won’t work now. Again, great article, I’m gonna share it with my family even if they end up still disagreeing.
Silver’s model will only actually matter once voting starts. Until then he may as well be a poll aggregator. Which, if the polls are flawed, then his aggregation and model will be flawed.