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Comment by triceratops | Hacker News Reader

> There's no truths or untruths here. Just preferences and values. Some people care more about some things than others

This is easily disprovable. People care about gas prices. They were unhappy with gas prices under Biden and said so loudly. They voted for the candidate that increased them even more.

Reason: ignorance and misinformation.

Outcome: voting against one's own declared interests.

I'm not denying preferences exist. But preferences are shaped by lies. They easily lead to outcomes contrary to those preferences.

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What you're saying is just factually incorrect. They had a Biden presidency and a Trump presidency. Prices went up much faster and more painfully under Biden than under Trump.

So they voted for the candidate who had a track record of lower inflation.

Turns out things didn't happen that way but that's a different criticism. You're assuming a forward-looking omniscience of some kind or prediction skill that just doesn't exist.

> So they voted for the candidate who had a track record of lower inflation.

So they made the ignorant choice at choosing the candidate who teed up the highly inflationary environment and enacted policies which driectly drove the inflation. Like, the $450B in cash handouts and the near trillion dollars in forgiven PPP loans with zero enforcement. Loans which his family directly abused.

> You're assuming a forward-looking omniscience of some kind or prediction skill that just doesn't exist.

No, I'd expect people to not make stupid choices. Anyone actually paying attention would understand Trump is bad for the economy long term. But here we are.

Wars and pandemics that begin on the other side of the world cause inflation.

When "smug asshole Democrats" explained why this wasn't Biden's fault, given that it happened on the other side of the world, they got called "smug assholes".

Enacting tariffs and waging war also causes inflation. Tariffs were a campaign promise - zero omniscience required.

And gas wasn't this expensive in 2022. So you're wrong about that.

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