
One-Third Don’t Know Obamacare and Affordable Care Act Are the Same - DiabloD3
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/upshot/one-third-dont-know-obamacare-and-affordable-care-act-are-the-same.html
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Synaesthesia
The Republicans labeling the affordable health care act "Obamacare" and
attacking it from day one was a significant propaganda victory, as we can see.
In fact the law is very pro-corporate and could have been written by a
moderate Republican - was very similar to the Massachusetts health care
program instituted by Mitt Romney.

Another very significant propaganda victory, about half of people in the US
who think global warming is not caused by humans, or not happening.

~~~
grondilu
Isn't it a common practice to find nicknames for pieces of legislation? In
that case, the Republican found one that stuck. The name "Obamacare" is
nothing more than a portmanteau of "Obama" and "Health care", and as such it
does not entail any political message _per se_ , except that it's supposed to
name an health care legislation in which Barack Obama was particularly
involved.

So, calling the use of this word "propaganda" seems highly incorrect.

In fact, IIRC Barack Obama himself appropriated the name and said something
like "I don't mind this to be called Obamacare, because I do care" (I'm
paraphrasing).

~~~
soneil
It seems to be increasingly common to make the name of the legislation
propaganda in itself. Naming the ACA 'affordable' would be an immediate
example - a less contentious example would be "USA PATRIOT" (Uniting and
Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism Act), as attacking PATRIOT immediately sounds politically
worse than attacking state surveillance.

Countering 'Affordable' with 'Obamacare' was a very successful propaganda win.
Affordable sounds good, Obama sounds bad (to the intended audiences). That you
can realistically ask people to take sides between the two (whether they
prefer Obamacare or ACA) illustrates this perfectly (if Kimmel is a source,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6m7pWEMPlA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6m7pWEMPlA))

------
m52go
"Americans Think Cloud Computing Comes From Actual Clouds"

[http://www.webpronews.com/americans-think-cloud-computing-
co...](http://www.webpronews.com/americans-think-cloud-computing-comes-from-
actual-clouds-2012-08/)

Personally I think people are most ignorant when they're most comfortable. The
number of people reading & talking about politics right now, at least in my
circles, is higher than it's ever been.

Much of what they're saying it led by FUD and isn't balanced at all, in my
opinion, but that's a different issue.

~~~
DrScump
I can't find another source that says literally that of this poll[0], but
Slate's article[1] resonates similarly:

"Wakefield developed a questionnaire that delved into Americans’
misunderstandings of “the cloud.” By releasing a less B2B-focused survey,
Citrix was able to, for the first time, connect the brand to “the cloud” for
the wider consumer population – not just in B2B circles. Stats such as, “51%
think inclement weather interferes with cloud computing,”

[0]
[http://www.wakefieldresearch.com/works/citrix](http://www.wakefieldresearch.com/works/citrix)

[1]
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/08/30/cloud_computi...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/08/30/cloud_computing_a_survey_says_most_americans_think_it_has_to_do_with_literal_clouds.html)

------
illuminati1911
Another example of why democracy does not work at least in its current form.
So is democracy really something that countries and people should be pursuing?

Example: US presidential election. I'm not the worst enemy of Trump and I'm
not his supporter either, but I still can easily understand why many people
voted for him. He was direct and gave simple answers to (seemingly) simple
problems and what's more, he actually has kept his promises so far. I can't
say I remember any politician ever doing what they promised during the
elections, but Trump has done it.

Still person like Trump with his ideas is not fit to be the president of
United States or any other country either really for the obvious reasons that
have been discussed here as well many times. However, as long as we live in
democracy things like Trump can and will keep on happening. I hate to sound
arrogant, but if you give equal rights to vote for all people despite their
level of education, understanding of the world, politics, environment and many
other things there will be more Trumps and other kinds of problems. I'm not
trying to support dictatorship, but instead maybe there could be some kind of
limited/modified democracy or something which is somewhere in the middle of
dictatorship and democracy.

Considering the current events, I don't think there will be much choice soon.

~~~
jeffdavis
That's what the Constitution is for in a democratic republic, like the U.S. It
limits the damage a single populist can cause to our lasting institutions.

Unfortunately, it's eroded over time. When we want big government policies, we
don't care if it's truly regulating commerce "among the several states", and
we don't bother to amend the Constitution to add the powers we feel are
appropriate.

Out of all the people that want gun control, none advocate for an amendment to
revoke the second. They all seem to conveniently believe that it's
constitutional. I understand why some people feel that way, but surely a
reading of the second amendment would lead some of them to want to revoke it,
but it doesn't, because nobody cares what the second amendment or any other
part of the Constitution says.

~~~
maxerickson
None?

How about a former Justice of the Supreme Court?

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-five-extra-
words...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-five-extra-words-that-
can-fix-the-second-
amendment/2014/04/11/f8a19578-b8fa-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html)

~~~
jeffdavis
I exaggerated. But very few people bother to say it should be revoked/amended
compared to the number that just don't care.

Edit: interesting article, but he is not claiming that his preferred policies
are unconstitutional, and that we should change the Constitution to allow
them. He is saying that they are already constitutional, and we should update
the amendment to more closely match his interpretation.

That doesn't require any courage. It's just another way of saying "I'm right;
let's update the text to say so."

~~~
maxerickson
Why does it have to be courageous?

It's an acknowledgement of where the law needs to be fixed. That's advocating
for gun control in the constitution.

~~~
jeffdavis
No, because he's also saying that it's already constitutional, and he just
wants to add the text to end arguments against him.

It doesn't have to be courageous. But it's not a counterexample to my point
that people don't care what the Constitution says -- they only care about
their policies and conveniently find that the Constitution allows them.

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w1ntermute
This is such a pernicious problem because (1) people are very susceptible to
wishful thinking and (2) there's no mechanism for self-correction when the
misinformed don't know (or refuse to accept) that they're misinformed.

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nickthemagicman
Lol. Are the majority of people as dumb as they seem?

I'm continually amazed at how well propaganda works on people and how easily
they'll go against their best interests.

Voting seems to be just a battle of propoganda to sway dumb people instead of
two sides presenting scientific evidence to back their views and people
actively working to make things better with rigorous scientific method.

Maybe I'm naieve but it seems humanity will keep repeating the same mistakes
over and over again until we run government scientifically with peer review.

~~~
DrScump

      Are the majority of people as dumb as they seem?
    

In fact, almost half of them have below-average intelligence.

But seriously, media-managed perceptions have a lot of effect. Most Americans
have low approval ratings of Congress in general but much higher approval of
their individual Congressmember.

~~~
nickthemagicman
Yeah but isn't insane how politics and government is just a media managed
propoganda battle?

These people running our entire society have absolutely no scientific
methodology for determining their policies. It's all just propaganda and some
politician on a commercial making a bunch of promises.

It's so insane to me.

I wouldn't go to a doctor who had really good commercials, I would want to see
their success results,and I want to know and what is going on with my
treatment at all times, and see how successful the treatment is, etc.etc..

Yet this is how we elect people to run the entire country??

------
jeffdavis
Then why are we trying to "get out the vote" to send these people to the
polls?

Let's encourage people to inform themselves, and participation will come
naturally in time. Encouraging participation puts the cart before the horse.

