Emotional Voters vs. Logical Voters

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

Just being Frank. Independent and Politically Nonbinary.

Homepage:: https://frank.casa

Emotional Voters vs. Logical Voters

2025-03-25 14:14:30

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

I noticed when talking to people that there are two types of voters: emotional and logical. Although it is a spectrum, so people can be in the middle too.

One issue is that emotional voters don't know how to speak to logical voters, and vice versa.

So you have some people yelling "Trump is Hitler" and other people discussing the nuances of specific policies that are harmful and toxic, and what to do about it.

Yelling "Trump is Hitler" will appeal to the emotional voter, but not the logical one. The logical one needs evidence.

This communication barrier causes misunderstandings and missed opportunities.

show all 18 comments

2025-03-25 17:05:38

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Or you ask them why they are voting for person X and they can't give a reason other than "Well, duh, isn't it obvious?"

2025-03-25 17:09:00

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

The (usually unspoken) response being, "yeah, you are obviously brainwashed (by one team or the other)"

2025-03-25 22:54:08

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

The blunt truth is that people who don't think for themselves are easier to manipulate. That's why most politicians don't talk about policies. Instead, they make statements that trigger emotions.

That is also why many politicians keep their constituents poor and undereducated. They keep telling their constituents that they will make things better, but after being in power for decades, conditions have not improved in their district, while the politicians get richer and richer. It's an ongoing grift.

2025-03-25 22:56:01

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

One thing that is important to consider is that swing voters are more likely to be logical voters instead of emotional voters. They are not tied to a particular party, so they have to choose who to vote for. Emotional appeals from the left or right are less likely to work on them.

2025-03-25 22:59:41

Ben Royce 🇺🇦

benroyce@mastodon.social

@frank

on the contrary most voting is emotional

we are in the state we are in with trump because of emotion

to win the left needs an emotional appeal, a real left candidate

because the failure in 2024 was that people just didn't show the fuck up

ideally they would have if they were logical. but people by and large aren't logical

2025-03-26 06:24:41

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

@Ben Royce 🇺🇦 That is probably increasingly true. We used to be taught critical thinking skills in school, and we wound up with voters who would think for themselves and would oppose corrupt politicians and pressure the government to end bad policies. Not surprisingly, the politicians didn't like this, so they erased critical thinking from the curriculum and started rewriting history to be more favorable to their agenda.

It's one of the reasons why you can go on many college campuses today and a percentage of the student's can't even answer basic questions about history or the government.

I would say that is intentional. It is easier to manipulate someone who has no critical thinking skills. It is also easier to implement bad things if voters never learned historical lessons on why it is a bad idea. If you don't understand how government works, you can't make effective change.

So that fact that a lot of voters are purely emotional voters is not a good thing. It is a danger to democracy. That's how authoritarian governments get elected.

2025-03-26 06:38:07

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

@Ben Royce 🇺🇦

because the failure in 2024 was that people just didn't show the fuck up

In most jurisdictions, both the Democrats and Republicans are the minority, and the swing voters decide elections.

Democrats may be the majority in some regions, like California, which is a practically a single party state, but that is not true elsewhere.

In most voting districts, the Democrats and Republicans simply don't have enough voters to win by themselves regardless of their turnout. You have to court swing voters to win.

The Democrats lost in 2024 because they screwed up. I know they tell the public that they did nothing wrong to save face, but if that is what they really think, then the Democrats are doomed, because they lost due to self-inflicted wounds.

And, ironically, the Democrats lost a lot of voters because they refuse to admit that they screwed up. Most people interpret that as being out of touch with voters.

2025-03-26 10:58:50

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

CNN Poll: Democratic Party’s favorability drops to a record low | CNN Politics

2025-03-26 17:40:15

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Here is a great example: The major parties put forward crap candidates who don't motivate people to want to vote and then the losing party blames the voters for their loss.

2025-03-27 21:43:59

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

That is the danger of people labelling anyone that disagrees with them as evil. It does not address the times where they have inaccurate information or are simply wrong. Because no one is perfect.

It is also why it is so easy to manipulate some people. Someone tells them that person X is doing something evil, and they instantly attack, not realizing that they were lied to and that person X is not doing what is claimed, or if they are, it was taken out of context.

Also, you see a lot of blaming others for their own missteps. Because it couldn't have been them that made the mistake.

When you see this happen over and over, you start loosing faith in the leadership and organization engaged in lying. And sadly, it undermines any good that was intended, and worse, creates a backlash.

2025-03-27 23:16:29

Markus

markus@hubzilla.markusgarlichs.de

First semester psychology. The professor draws 5 lines on the blackboard. Four lines are the same length, one is slightly shorter. 9 students are inaugurated and will claim that all lines are the same length. What percentage of those who were not inaugurated do you think agreed with the false assertion?

2025-03-28 01:55:28

Joe

joe@opinion.pub

Yes, the desire to fit in.

2025-03-28 11:19:54

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

"There are two opinions: mine and Nazi!"

2025-03-30 10:27:53

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

or "There are two opinions: mine and Communist!"

2025-03-30 11:24:27

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

"There are two opinions: Nazi and Communist!"

2025-03-30 20:27:04

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

That pretty much sums up today's politics. The authoritarians manipulate the masses to fight the other authoritarians who also manipulate their people to fight back. The followers of each side think they are right, based on the propaganda that they are told, but in reality the power hungry people instigating it all are just using them as pawns to gain extreme power.

2025-03-30 20:32:33

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Neither side must achieve total victory because that would mean losing the boogieman that they use to manipulate their masses. Quite the scam they have going!

2025-03-30 20:50:06

Frank Casa

frank@frank.casa

Maybe for the small time grifters in local politics, or the ones who are in it for the money instead of the power. But that is not the end game for the major players who truly crave power. That is how they bide their time until they take absolute control, like the Bolsheviks did or Hitler. Even the Nazis played politics and participated in elections until they didn't have to anymore. When they have the opportunity to seize power and establish a one party state, they will do it. Why do you think that both parties are so interested in suppressing the vote of the opposing parties? It's all about gaining control so that elections don't matter anymore.