# Is the SDMB an echo chamber? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 9, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190 "2016-11-09T13:40:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/1 "2016-11-09T13:40:24Z")
As many of us are surprised by the election result, it got me thinking “why” we are so surprised. Sure, the pollsters got it wrong, and the media certainly made it seem like it was closer than it ended-up being. Sure, some here suggested the unthinkable, but in the end we were collectively wrong - we missed something in all the logic and data and citations. What about our beloved SDMB? Have we chased-off all the dissenting voices such that we have a pure echo chamber here? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/2 "2016-11-09T13:48:01Z")
I don’t think so – somewhat, yes, but not excessively so. The one who wrote about it the most, asahi, was constantly fretting, for example (even if he got a bit confident at the end). ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/3 "2016-11-09T13:49:11Z")
Yes it is. This board is always good for a chuckle. It’s amusing to see incredibly partisan people who live in a media and cultural bubble criticize their opponents for being incredibly partisan people who live in a media and cultural bubble. And the people who will mock this very post are simply in denial. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/4 "2016-11-09T13:52:53Z")
Yes, it is. I said this years ago. There are very few conservative/right of center posters here (John Mace, Bricker and adaher come to mind), so you find they what’s repeated here is pretty much unilaterally with a liberal tilt, from a liberal POV that’s favorable to the liberal worldview. But after eight years of Obama, and after the liberals here told me how little I understood about economics when I said Obamacare was a disaster/stated the economy was and has been stagnant, or how I didn’t understand foreign policy because I cautioned about renewed Russian/Chinese aggression after Obama’s 2012, in reveling in the echo chamberyness. Hopefully this election causes liberals to admit that, maybe, they’re not as right as they think they are, and that everyone who disagrees with them aren’t racists. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/5 "2016-11-09T14:00:18Z")
To a certain extent, but I don’t think this is a good example. Most of the analysts got this wrong, too. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/6 "2016-11-09T14:05:32Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Yes, it is. I said this years ago. > > There are very few conservative/right of center posters here (John Mace, Bricker and adaher come to mind), so you find they what’s repeated here is pretty much unilaterally with a liberal tilt, from a liberal POV that’s favorable to the liberal worldview. > > But after eight years of Obama, and after the liberals here told me how little I understood about economics when I said Obamacare was a disaster/stated the economy was and has been stagnant, or how I didn’t understand foreign policy because I cautioned about renewed Russian/Chinese aggression after Obama’s 2012, in reveling in the echo chamberyness. > > Hopefully this election causes liberals to admit that, maybe, they’re not as right as they think they are, and that everyone who disagrees with them aren’t racists. I don’t disagree. But keep in mind the results of an election don’t affect facts. I think the general feeling is that Trump voters ignored facts in some cases and voted with their hearts. A lot of people here (me included) translated facts and reality into votes - that seems like where we went wrong. I don’t have an answer, but if this place professes to fight ignorance, we need to acknowledge we missed something here. I am not sure if a more inclusive “tilt”, as you say, would have mattered, but something here was missed. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/7 "2016-11-09T14:17:20Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Hopefully this election causes liberals to admit that, maybe, they’re not as right as they think they are … Hubris. When Obama was elected in 2008 did you admit that maybe you weren’t as right as you thought you were? No, we were fed eight years of “we want our country back.” Well guess who’s going to want their country back now? Turnabout is fair play. ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/8 "2016-11-09T14:20:08Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > I don’t disagree. But keep in mind the results of an election don’t affect facts. I agree with the above statement, which is a great argument against democracy. ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/9 "2016-11-09T14:24:33Z")
Yes you have, for example me. I have chosen for some time to no longer contribute here to the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/10 "2016-11-09T14:25:52Z")
Yes, it is. And while I voted Dem Party all the way, I must admit that I have never seen comments on any conservative message board that reached the vitriolic level of the personal attacks on a candidate that have appeared on the SDMB. The remedy for bad speech is good speech, not ad hominem attack. Group think is a dangerous thing. It becomes even more dangerous as participants become more convinced that their opinions are absolutely correct. ---
**Author:** ![inscrutable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e4f/32.png) [@inscrutable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inscrutable)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/11 "2016-11-09T14:26:06Z")
Well, several months ago, I started a thread here asking if PA was turning red, because all my relatives there (and all their friends and all their friends) seemed to have morphed into raving Republicans (even though my father was a strong pro-union Democrat). The possibility was rejected based on the typical assumptions you see here… ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/12 "2016-11-09T14:30:21Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > What about our beloved SDMB? Have we chased-off all the dissenting voices such that we have a pure echo chamber here? Yes. Yes, you have. Trump is 100% right on the biggest issues facing America: Open borders on immigration, Free Trade and Endless Foreign wars. This place is an echo chamber. It wasn’t fun anymore. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/13 "2016-11-09T14:35:02Z")
Yes. And not just on US political issues. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/14 "2016-11-09T14:38:40Z")
> [@inscrutable](#): > > Well, several months ago, I started a thread here asking if PA was turning red, because all my relatives there (and all their friends and all their friends) seemed to have morphed into raving Republicans (even though my father was a strong pro-union Democrat). > > The possibility was rejected based on the typical assumptions you see here… You mean like “the polls aren’t collectively horribly wrong”? Or “data trumps anecdote”? The problem with calling this forum an “echo chamber” is that what we “echo” tends to be the best available evidence and expert opinion. We’re not just picking from OccupyDemocrats and the opinions there. We’re following reliable news sources, expert opinion, and reasonable methodologies. Remember the whole “Trump raped a 13-year-old” allegations? The response there was not “wow, that totally happened”, there was an awful lot of “That… doesn’t sound quite right, I’m not sure I believe it.” Similarly, the reasons we got the information wrong is because _everyone else got it wrong_. The very few people who didn’t were right, but they still didn’t have a good reason to believe what they believed. If “every major media outlet, polling outlet, aggregator, and more” counts as an “echo chamber” akin to FOX News and Breitbart, then the term has lost all meaning and we’re living in the fucking twilight zone. Then again, “President-Elect Donald Trump”… > [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Yes, it is. > > And while I voted Dem Party all the way, I must admit that I have never seen comments on any conservative message board that reached the vitriolic level of the personal attacks on a candidate that have appeared on the SDMB. …you clearly don’t frequent the same forums I do. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/15 "2016-11-09T14:41:43Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Hubris. When Obama was elected in 2008 did you admit that maybe you weren’t as right as you thought you were? No, we were fed eight years of “we want our country back.” > > Well guess who’s going to want their country back now? Turnabout is fair play. 1.) As I’ve said hundreds of times before, I VOTED FOR OBAMA IN 2008. 2.)h ttp://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15670822#post15670822 I was here four years ago when liberals were gloating and I said that if the electorate wanted more of Obama and his policies, that Republicans should stop being “obstructionists” and give them what they wanted, as either his policies would bring us into a new prosperity and Democrats would win forever, or they’d crash and burn, causing people to rethink some of their loyalties to the Democratic party (probable run on sentence). Well, four years later and here we are with a Trump presidency. You guys and gals STILL cannot admit that Obama has been a dismal failure for many and that he’s hurt many middle class and working families. For example, I called Obamacare causing a rise in peelings and fewer choices years ago, but was derided heavily here for it. But liberals here continue to argue Joe great it is (huh, what?). Instead of accepting that people have very real and legitimate concerns, you brush them off and cling to the idea that Trump won because they’re sexist/racist. It’s just how things are around here and Gore they’ve been for years, which is why I stopped posting for a while. Sometimes, this place is almost like HuffPo. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/16 "2016-11-09T14:43:33Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > To a certain extent, but I don’t think this is a good example. Most of the analysts got this wrong, too. I agree with the second part, but it’s every bit as much of an echo chamber for liberal/progressive views as anywhere I’ve heard of. It’s not \*quite \*as absurdly so as some college campuses, but stuff like microaggressions, trigger warnings, and the finer points of transgenderism are discussed in all seriousness here, while in the wider, less educated, less liberal world, if that stuff is mentioned at all, it’s in the context of some dip-shit undergrad college students in a northeastern liberal arts college, and then mocked as idiotic. In a lot of ways, the views and disdain for the common person voiced around here are a microcosm of what got Trump elected, because people don’t like being lectured by one side of the debate about how they should think, which on a lot of social issues, is exactly what the left does. ---
**Author:** ![Pearl\_Clutching\_Provocateur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pearl\_Clutching\_Provocateur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pearl_Clutching_Provocateur)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/17 "2016-11-09T14:46:28Z")
Yes, it is. I was given a warning for making fun of Goldman Sachs and pointing out Chelsea Clinton’s connection to the company. They called it hate speech. The liberal bias here is palpable. They can’t handle differing opinions. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/18 "2016-11-09T14:47:04Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Well, four years later and here we are with a Trump presidency. You guys and gals STILL cannot admit that Obama has been a dismal failure for many and that he’s hurt many middle class and working families. Because it just ain’t true. It isn’t. Wages are up across the board (yes, including for the poor). Unemployment is down. GDP is up. If your family got left behind by the recovery, that’s unfortunate, but to blame this on Obama is insane. Not only did he try to do more (and would of, were it not for constant republican obstructionism), but what he did was, by every metric, the right thing to do. But then again, that’s just what experts in relevant fields think. When have they ever contributed anything to humanity’s understanding, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/19 "2016-11-09T15:11:18Z")
Yes but I think people here still try to be factual. I think what threw people were all the polls showing Trump barely got 40%. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190/20 "2016-11-09T15:20:07Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Yes but I think people here still try to be factual. > > I think what threw people were all the polls showing Trump barely got 40%. Here is the nature of my question - did we here only pay attention to the polls we liked? Did we accept them at face value, without questioning them (like was done for polls originating from sources we don’t like)? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-sdmb-an-echo-chamber/771190.md?page=2)