• PeggyLouBaldwin@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    the existence of a winner-take-all system does not entail that a non-vote or even a vote for some candidate besides trump or biden helps trump. only a vote for trump helps trump.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      You’re moving the goalposts. What was being discussed is if a vote would have gone to Biden, but becomes a non-vote, then that absolutely helps Trump under plurality voting.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I wasn’t sure either. I was curious how far the script would go. I think I finally go to the end of it with its ad hominem attacks finally arriving.

      • PeggyLouBaldwin@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        it’s unprovable what might happen if a vote, known to have been cast one way, were cast some other way. this is known as a “counterfactual” and they are, tautologically, unprovable.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          it’s unprovable what might happen if a vote, known to have been cast one way, were cast some other way.

          Oh really?

          Scenario 1: Baseline

          • candidate A receives 10 votes
          • candidate B receives 9 votes
          • Outcome: Candidate A wins under plurality

          Scenario 2: Two voters for Candidate A are convinced not to vote (non-vote) or vote for a candidate other than A or B

          • candidate A receives 8 votes
          • candidate B receives 9 votes
          • Outcome: Candidate B wins under plurality

          Proof enough?

            • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              indicates to me that you are detached from reality.

              And finally, after exhausting any logical defense, you arrive at ad hominem attacks! Thanks for playing have a good day!

              • PeggyLouBaldwin@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                it is not ad hominem to insist that someone who refuses basic tenets of reasoning is not dealing with reality.

          • PeggyLouBaldwin@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            under what circumstances can you claim that two voters would vote differently, but nothing else would change? given that the circumstances changed enough for them to make a different decision, we must conclude that we don’t know enough about the fictional alternate reality to guess at the outcome.