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ParagonProtege comments on Open Thread, October 1-15, 2012 - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: David_Gerard 01 October 2012 05:54AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 06 October 2012 03:09:57PM *  -1 points [-]

I've been playing around with the poll on isidewith.com. It's a questionnaire on political issues that matches your views up against those of the US 2012 presidential candidates. It's supposed to give you an idea of who you should vote for. I have a few criticisms of the way the poll is designed, but I still think the concept itself is interesting.

Could a well designed poll like this help raise the sanity waterline? Here's what I'm thinking:

  • Most people don't have the time, energy, or incentive to independently research candidates and compare their positions.
  • A well researched, automated poll makes the above information effortless to get, and maybe even fun.
  • Getting accurate feedback on politicians positions can help us make more rational decisions on who to vote for.
  • Politics is the mind-killer, so there is a lot of potential progress to make.

What do you think?

Comment author: TheOtherDave 06 October 2012 03:52:51PM 1 point [-]

Mostly, I think that any tool of this sort that somehow becomes sufficiently popular and effective to actually make a measurable difference to US presidential election results, relative to the effects of advertising and blogs and newspaper articles and so forth, will be co-opted by a raft of deliberately biased competitors long before that point.

That said, I do think something similar would be useful for local elections. Of course, it would be a lot more work to develop and maintain at that level. Those two facts are not unrelated.

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