2024 US Presidential Elections Megathread

[garbon]

I stand with DG with this as well.  If he doesn't know pop-singers, he don't know pop-singers.

It's fine. I get it. I do make an effort to at least know a little about what is going on in culture. Like I know who Taylor Swift and Beyonce are and I am familiar with lots of their songs. But then I will see some end of year video about the #1 huge song and artist of the year that it is invariably somebody and some song I have never heard of.

Somebody named Sabrina Carpenter is big now. Apparently she has been a hit maker and dominating the charts since 2022. I only just heard of her the first time a few days ago and I swear I had zero familiarity with any of her stuff. It is just a different world in pop culture than it used to be. In 2001 I couldn't have escaped Britney Spears and Ludacris if I had tried. Now I make a half assed effort and I miss it all.

No, Sabrina only came to dominate on the charts this year. She's been bubbling up overtime but not dominant in any real way.

[Sophie Scholl]

She's part of the Disney star to pop star pipeline.

[Gups]

Some of you are very ill informed, really big pop stars have regularly been front page news in major outlets like the New York Times, WSJ, Washington Post etc. I can get not being into pop music, but do you also not even scan the major news journals of our time?

I agree. You would have to have deliberately avoided all news media for more than a decade not to have heard of Taylor Swift. It's not plausible.

[Josquius]

I must say if I had to guess of the best seller amongst rappers Jay Z would not have been top of the list for me.

Wonder who he is voting for (hint about off topic drifting )

[The Brain]

The analytical mind sometimes declines to absorb information it deems of only peripheral interest.

[DGuller]

The analytical mind sometimes declines to absorb information it deems of only peripheral interest.

I think this is spot on.  It's been my belief for a while that one of the keys to being open-minded to good ideas to be close-minded to bad ones (of course, the trick is having a good judgment about which is which).  In this case, it's not a matter of good or bad, but matter of relevant or not.  There is a limited amount of attention to go around, so you have to prioritize.

One other thing I noticed is that I was watching some YouTube video last night, and I hear Taylor Swift mentioned along with a couple of other performerss (not in relation to her endorsement).  Now I registered a hit in my mind "oh I know who that is", and I'm sure I'll be registering such hits frequently from now on.  I'm sure I was exposed to such mentions at the same frequency before, but it just went below my radar, because you can't research every single thing you don't know of in every single piece of communication. 

I think a lot of people here have known who Swift was for a long time, so they've been registering hits on her name for a long time, and they can't conceive how someone else can't be exposed to that.  Well, maybe someone else has been, but it was background noise to him.

[HVC]

We all bow down to your superior Vulcan logic

[DGuller]

About time.   

[Valmy]

About time.   

 

[The Minsky Moment]

Among the theories circulating in RW media are that Kamala used secret microphone earrings during the debate (where was Michael Spicer on debate night?) or that the Democrats used a body double. The level of insanity is off the charts. People on RW media have been so completely brainwashed into believing that KH is a gibbering fool incapable of verbal communication other than cackling that they were genuinely shocked when they got to view her speaking live on an unaltered video feed, as opposed to manipulated clips.

[crazy canuck]

The analytical mind sometimes declines to absorb information it deems of only peripheral interest.

I think this is spot on.  It's been my belief for a while that one of the keys to being open-minded to good ideas to be close-minded to bad ones (of course, the trick is having a good judgment about which is which).  In this case, it's not a matter of good or bad, but matter of relevant or not.  There is a limited amount of attention to go around, so you have to prioritize.

One other thing I noticed is that I was watching some YouTube video last night, and I hear Taylor Swift mentioned along with a couple of other performerss (not in relation to her endorsement).  Now I registered a hit in my mind "oh I know who that is", and I'm sure I'll be registering such hits frequently from now on.  I'm sure I was exposed to such mentions at the same frequency before, but it just went below my radar, because you can't research every single thing you don't know of in every single piece of communication. 

I think a lot of people here have known who Swift was for a long time, so they've been registering hits on her name for a long time, and they can't conceive how someone else can't be exposed to that.  Well, maybe someone else has been, but it was background noise to him.

An exceptional justification for being ill-informed. I congratulate you.

[crazy canuck]

Among the theories circulating in RW media are that Kamala used secret microphone earrings during the debate (where was Michael Spicer on debate night?) or that the Democrats used a body double. The level of insanity is off the charts. People on RW media have been so completely brainwashed into believing that KH is a gibbering fool incapable of verbal communication other than cackling that they were genuinely shocked when they got to view her speaking live on an unaltered video feed, as opposed to manipulated clips.

The RW are obviously superior at being able to be closed minded to facts the rest of us waste our energy knowing.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I dunno, I genuinely have never listened to a single TSwift song (at least that I remember deliberately listening to), but just through her various mentions in normal news outlets I know what she looks like and the vague sense that "she is a very big time pop music singer." I don't know tons more than that, but she's famous enough and mentioned enough it remains weird to me if someone doesn't know who she is at all.

Like in the 1980s and early 90s I wasn't a huge Michael Jackson fan, but I would be stunned if someone who came of age in the 80s didn't know who he was.

[Josquius]

I think a "problem" with Taylor Swift, that is key to me not being aware of her existence until she was already doing arena tours and I met a girl who was a mega fan, is that she has a pretty generic name and does pretty generic music.

If I hear a song on the radio and then the announcer says "Yeah, thats Song X by regularname" then that goes in one ear and out the other. I've no need to store that information. So when the next month its Song Y by the same person I don't make the connection that this is the same person.  Its just another song by a singer going by their regular name.

She's doing alright of course, so not advice here, not like I was ever her target audience, but I do think this is where for instance Lady Gaga stuck in my mind far more readily than she did- Funny name that stands out. I can make a connection.

[crazy canuck]

I think a "problem" with Taylor Swift, that is key to me not being aware of her existence until she was already doing arena tours and I met a girl who was a mega fan, is that she has a pretty generic name and does pretty generic music.

If I hear a song on the radio and then the announcer says "Yeah, thats Song X by regularname" then that goes in one ear and out the other. I've no need to store that information. So when the next month its Song Y by the same person I don't make the connection that this is the same person.  Its just another song by a singer going by their regular name.

She's doing alright of course, so not advice here, not like I was ever her target audience, but I do think this is where for instance Lady Gaga stuck in my mind far more readily than she did- Funny name that stands out. I can make a connection.

I think that is true for a lot of people that don't actually listen to her music.  But people who don't listen to her music still know who she is because of well who she is and what she does.