this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2026
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[–] yessikg@fedia.io 1 points 4 days ago

For anybody looking for a good resource: Ballotpedia is pretty good

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 144 points 1 week ago (5 children)

We're seriously fuckin' doomed, as a species. All the morons are outsourcing their decision making to people who've learned to game the system exclusively for profit.

[–] gashead76@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago

It really is nightmarish. I don’t know how else to say it. Something’s gotta give, but I’m afraid it’s not going to.

[–] NoLemurs@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Honestly, this is nothing new.

Listening to ChatGPT is a solid improvement over listening to Tucker Carlson.

Don't get me wrong, it's not good! I don't exactly trust the Sam Altmans of the world. But this is the same circus, different clowns.

[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 4 points 1 week ago

same circus, different clowns.

Or as I heard the other day:

Same shit, different flies

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[–] BurgerBaron@quokk.au 13 points 1 week ago

Looks at religion

Not much different, really.

[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

Profit and cruelty

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[–] joella@lemmy.blahaj.zone 55 points 1 week ago (1 children)

At least they're not asking grok.

ugh. but they probably are, aren't they?

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

gRoK iS tHiS tRuE?

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 43 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I cannot imagine someone not being VERY sure how to vote in this next American election.

[–] yessikg@fedia.io 1 points 4 days ago

I only trust 1/3 of USAmericans to show up, the other 2/3 have disappointed me too many times already to expect anything of them

[–] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Trump isn't on the ballot, and they won't pay enough attention to their Congress critters to know whether they should keep them. People who don't pay a certain minimal amount of attention shouldn't be ~~permitted~~ pushed (word change due to an admittedly poor choice of word, but if you read the entirely of what I've written then it's obvious what problem I'm trying to address) to vote, IMHO, because for them it's purely a popularity of the moment contest rather than the choice of who will actually work towards improving their constituents' lives - an utterly absurd basis for determining the future of us all.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

People who don't pay a certain minimal amount of attention shouldn't be permitted to vote, IMHO

Ironically, you'd have to not be paying a certain minimal amount of attention to checks notes middle school US history to not understand how catastrophic this is in practice. Incidentally, that SPLC quiz isn't even nearly the extent of the questions.

I would bar you from voting for this statement alone on the merits of "paying attention".

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[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

How do they walk around with so little awareness of reality?

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[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

Facebook in one ear and chatgpt in the other. We are doomed.

[–] Prox@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

Ballot language is crafted to be intentionally misleading and political ads are nothing but hyperbole bullshit.

[–] jaamesbaxterr@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's so smart. You don't have to do any thinking. Pretty soon all thought will be eliminated and AI can tell us how to do everything from how to tie our shoes to how to structure our society. That way we just do what we're told and can be ruled by a handful of billionaires. Smart. /S

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

most people don't enjoy thinking. they also don't enjoy running marathons.

because both things are painful. they are also time consuming.

they only becoming enjoyable or worthwhile when you have a sufficient level of practice. for someone who is a couch potato, running a marathon is impossible without months or years of hard work, and they also likely think marathon running is stupid and pointless and there is likely something 'wrong' with people who run marathons.

thinking and using your mental faculties are no different than your physical ones.

[–] Aceofspades@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

Can confirm. Am dumb and lazy.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As a smart person who hates running I'm really struggling with this one

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

if you aren't taking care of your health via exercise, you're not that smart, are you?

your mind can only function as well as your body can. a good diet and exercise increases your mental capacities.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago

One section per day, two sets.

Lower Body Banded front squats 50lb x20 Deadlifts 120lb x20 Lunges x20 Slow Glute Bridges x20

Core/Butt Donkey kicks banded x20 (40/50lb) Clamshells x20 Bicycle Crunches x20 Leg Lift Plank 15sec ea side

Upper Body Push-ups x12 Ring Rows x20 Dip x12 or OH Extension 50lbx10 Bicep curls x12 me 70lb E 50lb bands

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

What could possibly go wrong.

[–] BlindPenguin@piefed.social 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They are also asking AI to do their grocery list. As i had the pleasure of learning just recently on reddit, when this was posted there.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

how does that even work?

like isn't giving it the inputs of your groceries the same thing as making the list yourself?

or is more like they say 'i want to cook tandoori chicken this week' and it just pulls from a generic recipe the ingredients list?

[–] BlindPenguin@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago

I have no idea. I got downvoted and some dude kept accusing me of "trying to win a discussion" and tell me that he "doesn't understand my garbage arguments".

[–] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago

In an ideal world where it still exists it would just give them approved links to the candidates policies and voting history but we all know that's not what's happening.

[–] sbbq@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago

God, these people are not capable of rational thought.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’ll admit I am a little stumped myself. Do I vote against republicans early or wait until voting day? What’s going to be harder for them to steal?

[–] yessikg@fedia.io 2 points 4 days ago

Early in person voting tends to be the safest bet

[–] grapefruittrouble@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Is this not what it was designed for?

[–] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Not with the monied interests in charge of its operation. They want people to depend upon the big AIs for answers to everything so they can subtly guide the populace's "thinking" and control them like the sheep most of them are.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, that’s what the comment was saying.

[–] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Could be interpreted either way, I suppose - it was extremely vague.

[–] grapefruittrouble@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

I did mean it that way haha

[–] Zomg@piefed.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When the companies can adjust the weights and responses to be more soft or critical to topics, you can't exactly trust that it isn't unbias some how.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

you can click through to the source material when it's linked.

but nobody is doing that, and when I admit to doing it people tell me I'm deranged.

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[–] Sandbar_Trekker@piefed.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Some candidates just don't have a lot of public information available about them. Relying on their campaign page alone can tell you which audience they're trying to get votes from, but it doesn't always line up with how they'll actually act.

There are varying degrees of bad to good ways of utilizing LLMs for something like this.

The worst way is to just straight up ask it who to vote for. I doubt this is how it's being used. Most likely people are telling it what kind of political views they hold and then asking which candidate supports those views. Still a terrible way to handle the situation since it's not hard for an LLM to hallucinate information, especially when candidates have similar names to others in its training.

Having a long political chat with a non-local LLM is a quick way to let companies create a political profile on all of their users.

One good way would be to use a locally run LLM, provide a bunch of source material (every bill they've written/sponsored), and ask it to find evidence that a candidate supports particular viewpoints. Ask it to point directly to where in the source material that reinforces/conflicts with those viewpoints. Then double check the flagged source material for accuracy.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, that's true. One thing that drives me nuts about local elections is... there is no useful info on the candidates, not from themselves, not from news papers, not from anyone... it sucks.

almost all the 'info' about my local candidates was... arguments on Facebook about why candidate x or candidate y and an evil demonic force, or an angelic savior of the people.

[–] zebidiah@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

....never stop proving you are the stupidest fucking people in the whole world america

On the last election in my country, I've visited tents set by 10 different political parties that are entering the election just to see how would they try to convince me, if I went to them as an uncertain voter that's warm to their party. It was a genuine eye-opener regarding what these parties do to influence uncertain voters which especially matters in my country because on polls, people that are uncertain make up %12-16, which will tip elections exactly when it matters.

3 parties instantly tried to recruit me as a party member within the first minute, 5 parties we actually had a discussion that 2 of which had a roadmap they could present right there, 2 parties treated it as a gift merch with their names on to boost their visibility operation, on one party the dude there had no idea what their ideology is and just said "trust me man this dude is solid. Vote him", one party just badmouthed an opposing party in the whole discussion and didn't mention a single thing they would improve.

No amount of AI could give that amount of representation I got right there.

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