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1. Can’t believe I’m having to do this over 3 years after the ref, but there’s still a popular narrative amongst the more extreme Remainers that the ref was only won due to lies and sinister uses of technology by the Leave campaigns. So let’s have a look at the big picture.
2. Since the first ever election or vote, candidates and proponents have used a wide variety of devices to try and win. Bending the truth, propaganda, twisting facts, favourable interpretation of data and putting out dubious forecasts have been widespread.
3. All of these were employed by both sides during the referendum. Whether it was “a vote to leave will result in four quarters of recession” by Remain, or the famous 350m on a bus by Leave.
4. Each claim and counterclaim is repudiated by the opposition and poured over endlessly and analysed by the media.
The public is well aware that promises, warnings, forecasts are not going to be exactly what they are supposed to claim they are.
The public is well aware that promises, warnings, forecasts are not going to be exactly what they are supposed to claim they are.
5. If anything the older Leave voters will have seen several more cycles of elections with endless manifesto promises that are broken or never carried out than the younger Remain voting cohort. Age and experience do count for something.
6. And what of the “fiendish” data harvesting and voter targeting by the campaigners.
Were the Leave campaign the only ones sophisticated enough and on the ball to try using modern techniques? Was the Remain campaign so out of touch that they didn’t?
No and no.
Were the Leave campaign the only ones sophisticated enough and on the ball to try using modern techniques? Was the Remain campaign so out of touch that they didn’t?
No and no.
7. The incredulous conspiracy campaign by the likes of Carol Cadwalladr more than suggests that by using firms such as Cambridge Analytica and AIQ, the Leave campaign was able to identify and target easily persuaded Leave voters.
8. This is laughable. CA were very obviously a bunch of shysters peddling a lie about their techniques. Even Alex Kogan, the academic who “invented” the basic technique of identifying people’s political persuasions through a few other characteristics said it was useless.
9. The myth that Leave successfully targeted and persuaded millions of voters is just that, a myth.
And how were these voters targeted? Through their phones, tablets, computers. Voters who also had access to TV, radio and newspapers. Who spoke to family, friends, & colleagues.
And how were these voters targeted? Through their phones, tablets, computers. Voters who also had access to TV, radio and newspapers. Who spoke to family, friends, & colleagues.
10. These were people who weren’t living in a vacuum of FB ads. They were drawing their information from multiple sources. Seeing the propaganda, the refutations, the analysis. Discussing, arguing, swapping thoughts and ideas.
An electorate; a nation; people.
An electorate; a nation; people.
11. There was no grand conspiracy. There was no mass conning.
There was no evil genius pulling the strings. There was no one-sides propaganda seen exclusively and without context.
There was just a nation of people looking,hearing, reading, thinking, and ultimately voting.
There was no evil genius pulling the strings. There was no one-sides propaganda seen exclusively and without context.
There was just a nation of people looking,hearing, reading, thinking, and ultimately voting.
12. This is how a democracy works. Maybe the binary question was unfair. Maybe one side was more effective than the other. Maybe luck and chance played factors.
But in the end there was a vote. One side won. One side lost.
Democracy need loser’s consent not denial.
But in the end there was a vote. One side won. One side lost.
Democracy need loser’s consent not denial.
