It's Idiotic that Presidential Debates have a Live Audience

Most people I know get 0% of their election information from researching the candidates. It's usually from Facebook articles making statements that have been re/mis/de-contextualized so many times that they have nothing to do with the original claims. Those articles don't address real issues, they just take a stance on something and then pad it out with other stuff that's logistically unrelated. But you're supposed to care since members of your club all take the same stances on that set of unrelated issues.

Don't read a book on economics, reflect on it, then vote for a candidate that aligns with those views. Just click an article by someone who also didn't do that. Oh and it isn't actually about economic policy, Trump just said something idiotic so you're voting against whatever economic policy he wants.

It's become a cliche that social media is shortening everyone's attention spans, so I'm not gonna talk about that even though it's 100% true. But instant access to a million pandering pieces of media have turned legitimately world-changing issues into entertainment. And we take that philosophy with us to the debates when we watch them. It doesn't matter what happens at tonight's debate, which I won't watch. I'm just excited at all the memes that will be on my wall tomorrow.

The live studio audience is absolute idiocy. A debate is supposed to be a series of arguments between two people, with the winner decided by panel based on the strength of their argument alone. In real debates, people get thrown out for making noise. At the presidential debates, people can boo and cheer and make faces on camera, all of which sways public opinion and none of which has anything to do with the strength of the arguments. My favorite moment in all non-fictional TV this year was when Bernie Sanders made some comment that caused a raucous cheer, and Anderson Cooper said "I know that plays well with this crowd, but you didn't answer the question."

There are real articles in the world that say a given candidate "won" a debate, and base part of that opinion on how the crowd cheered for them. Then that gets passed around the internet until it eventually reaches you, helping to add to the vague mush in your mind that tells you the candidate is superior. They won the debate because they are better, which I know because it's all over the internet, in articles written in response to something other than the candidate's argument.

The only reason Trump has gotten this far is that he's been practicing this longer than Hillary and has way more experience. Oh no no no... not in politics, no. In entertainment. He's been practicing every day for years, so he's great at entertainment now and no one cares that he will literally contradict his stance on major issues mid-paragraph. And hey, whether you're talking about Gwyneth Paltrow or Kim Kardashian or Trump or Rush Limbaugh or whatever, there is no law of man or of nature saying that only good, skilled, competent people are allowed to succeed.

Much like Trump himself, these articles (and the people posting them) can make any moronic claims they want to with zero fear of repercussion, and people pay attention. And if those claims get soundly debunked and revealed as being moronic, does the author write a retraction? Does the FB poster do any clean up? No. They don't post a status saying "Hey I apologize, I've recently learned the status I posted on 10/23/2016 was based on a lie and I retract the whole thing, I highly suggest anyone influenced by that status reconsider their position, as I have done." That will never happen.

Not in a world where a debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has a live audience. Where the studio invited (non-debating) women allegedly harassed by Bill Clinton (also not in the debate), and gave them closeups, purposely to influence public perception (not a deciding factor in declaring a winner) of the debate.

Anyways my wife and I are gonna go run a 5k and then do homework and drink beer. My personal favorite beer, Xocoveza (made by Stone) has come back on the market after previously being declared a seasonal one-off and retired. It's an imperial stout that tastes like Mexican hot chocolate.