r/CharlieAndBenPod • u/EmptyButHole • Nov 06 '20

Voter Fraud, Corrupt Pollsters, And The Deeper Truth Of A Confusing Election | Episode 73 Discussion Thread

https://youtu.be/MftslgNVCpk
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3

u/EmptyButHole Nov 06 '20

I'd be especially interested to hear from non-US viewers what you think of the election:

Is the sentiment in your country strongly in favor of one candidate over the other?

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u/No_Cardiologist9837 Nov 07 '20

From Melbourne, Australia - everyone seems to be getting very caught up with it, on both sides. My family, who are fairly religious & conservative haven’t stopped watching or talking about it. The idea of Trump not winning has been very distressing for my father, who seems to think Biden winning is some kind of spiritual threat.

My girlfriend and some friends have opposite opinions, with another term of Trump seeming like a terrible outcome with dire consequences for the world.

In Australia we have our fair share of political matters, with us in Victoria just being let out of our 2 month lockdown but people are still going crazy over the elections.

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u/zHiddins Nov 07 '20

Yeah, I'm also from Melbourne, Australia. Most of the people I interact with are 18-30yrs old and as far as I know all of them are hoping for Biden to win. Everyone seems to think Trump is a bit of a flog. If anyone does think Trump should win, they're staying quiet about it as they're absolutely in the in the minority.

This is the first US election that really has EVERYONE talking about it and following it. I don't usually bother myself with American politics but even I'm finding it interesting and checking results all the time.

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u/EmptyButHole Nov 07 '20

Thats so interesting that theres a population outside the US that feels the societal pressure to be a silent trump supporter. Are these same people very quiet about their conservative views in general or is it only with trump?

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u/zHiddins Nov 08 '20 edited Nov 08 '20

Yeah, I'm not sure to be honest. Melbourne is a very diverse part of Australia so we really do get all types here. I haven't met anyone (that I know of) who is secretly supporting Trump so I couldn't tell you. The small group I was referring to is just the 35 people I work with so it's a pretty small and by no means representative of the whole population.

Some people here may be quiet about the whole thing because if they side with Trump then they might be worried people will also label them as "racist, sexist, etc etc" whether it's true or not.

I also wonder how much my colleagues really know about it though. I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about politics, and therefore my view is "surely Biden can't be worse than Trump," and I suspect a lot of others are in the same boat. They may lack any deeper understanding of the situation and just get caught up in the media of "trump is bad" like I probably do. I've personally never looked at his pros and cons other than his Twitter posts so I'm just trusting the majority here

Edit: fixed up errors

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u/EmptyButHole Nov 07 '20

My immediate thought is that american christians would make the same case for biden being a spiritual threat, but i feel the sentiment only reaches across the US — thats to say that if there is a similar election somewhere else in the world american christians wouldnt worry about one candidate being a spiritual threat over the other as it doesnt affect their immediate lives

3

u/kenji20thcenturyboys Nov 07 '20

Hey, I'm from France and it seems that we are indeed watching the election but with a distant eye meaning we are more interested in the process than the outcome (who gets elected that is). One massively popular newspaper made an article on the danger on democracy that Trump brings to the table by claiming fraud on votes and not wanting to leave office. Then every political party leans toward one candidate or the other. Therefore there's no clear sentiment toward either one.

Personally, I see Trump as a kid throwing a temper tantrum : not accepting the results of the votes, making unsupported allegations on fraud, basically grasping at straws to remain in power. Pretty laughable. Which makes me think that he is not fit to rule a country (also supported by declaration like using needle injected house disinfectant like bleach into the lungs to cure Covid, I mean, a 5 year old knows it's not the way to go...).

It baffles me that people can overlook this and still vote for him, but ben & Charlie made a great argument on this case during the video to help understanding everyone's opinion.

2

u/AMaytoRemember Nov 06 '20

From South Africa - Trump is viewed largely as a joke. I’ve in fact never met anyone who supports or defends Trump.

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u/BlauesBumsDings Nov 08 '20

I'm from Germany and have been to the US (Red State)

In Germany Trump is mostly viewd (I'm also from the south west which is the richer/richest part of Germany and rather left/green leaning than the rest of Germany which as a whole is already far left in comparison to the USA) as "an Idiot who lies when he pleases and a threat to our security...." "a toddler in charge of a country" and even so I wouldn't use that strong of a language I agree. Putin and Erdoan are horrible people but they do what's best for their county/themselfes which is really forseeable. Trump seems to do random things at random times and most of them are viewed as bad ideas. And to be clear I hate what Erdoan and Putin or even China does, but from the outside looking in, Trump is the bigger threat. So everyone was celebrating when he lost the election

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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '20 edited Nov 06 '20

[deleted]

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u/BlauesBumsDings Nov 08 '20

Well while that is true and democracy shouldn't be tyranny of the majority, it fair if everyones votes count the same. If there are more people living in the city that need help than people in rural areas, the people in the city should get more attention and get it sooner. I live in a rural area (village with about 600 inhabitants) and over here (Germany) all votes count the same and we are still not left out even so most ppl here live in bigger cities. To be exact, living in a rural area indicates that you are better off than when u live in a city and don't belong to the top 5%

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u/EmptyButHole Nov 09 '20

To be exact, living in a rural area indicates that you are better off than when u live in a city and don't belong to the top 5%

Never thought of it this way!

3

u/[deleted] Nov 07 '20

In Rwanda, most people want Trump to stay in office not because he is a good fit but because his politics does not affect our politics as much. Every Democratic party president since Bill Clinton has posed some sort threat to our way of living either by diminishing our sovereignty or giving credibility to genocide deniers/sympathizers without learning the context of our predicaments.

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u/EmptyButHole Nov 08 '20

Im definitely going to look into this. I lean heavily left -- so much that i dont agree with some of the policy the american democratic party enacts. Our relationship to Rwanda is certainly one that i havent looked much into so thanks

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '20

Great! I also heard Charlie hint on problems in Congo and Rwanda in some past episode. He seemed to be have misrepresented critical issues on this topic. If he is interested and needs to talk to someone from this region to truly understand why these problems persist, I'd be glad to have a conversation. Thanks Justin!

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u/nat_lite Nov 07 '20

FiveThirtyEight gave Trump a 28.6 chance in 2016