• ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Who is this guy and how serious should we take this information? This is by far the highest number I’ve seen for Trump so far.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Okay. That’s not in dispute. But partial ownership of a company doesn’t make its employees your slaves. Especially when the company has nothing to do with ideological stuff.

    • IAmTheZeke@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Polling guru Nate Silver and his election prediction model gave Donald Trump a 63.8% chance of winning the electoral college in an update to his latest election forecast on Sunday, after a NYT-Siena College poll found Donald Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris by 1 percentage point.

      He’s just a guy analizing the polls. The source is Fox News. He mentions in the article that tomorrow’s debate could make that poll not matter.

      Should you trust Nate or polls? They’re fun but… Who is answering these polls? Who wants to answer them before even October?

      So yeah take it seriously that a poll found that a lot of support for Trump exists. But it’s just a moment of time for whoever they polled. Tomorrow’s response will be a much better indication of any momentum.

      • ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        It just seems strange because I don’t think that many people are on the fence. Perhaps I’m crazy, but I feel most people know exactly who they’re voting for already. Makes me wonder how valid this cross-section was that was used as the sample set. If it accurately represents the US, including undecided voters, then… 😮

        • randon31415@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          but I feel most people know exactly who they’re voting for already

          The cross-section of people you know are more politically off the fence than the entire nation. Those that aren’t online at all are also more undecided and less likely to interact with you.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I listen to those news things that interview people on the street and I’m amazed at how many are uninformed and can go either way.

        • bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          The issue isn’t really people on the fence for Trump or Harris but mainly with generating turnout. After Biden’s poor debate performance, people didn’t change their mind and decide to vote for Trump, they became apathetic and maybe wouldn’t show up to vote.

          Harris doesn’t need to persuade people to abandon Trump, she needs to get people excited to show up to vote.

      • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        He’s not polling, he is aggregating all of the polls into a prediction model. Either way it is just a snapshot in time.

      • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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        2 months ago

        The key to doing statistics well is to make sure you aren’t changing the results with any bias. This means enough samples, a good selection of samples, and weighing the outcome correctly. Even honest polling in pre-election is hard to get right, and because of that it’s easy to make things lean towards results if you want to get certain results, or or getting paid to get those results.

        There’s only one poll that matters, and that poll should include as large of a sample as possible, and be counted correctly. Even though some will try to prevent that from happening.

    • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      It’s a chance of winning, not a poll, so 64% is high but not insane. Silver is serious and it’s a decent model. Knowing the model there’s a pretty good chance this is a high point for Trump but it’s not like he’s pulling this out of nowhere, he has had similar models every election cycle since like 2008.

      If it’s overstaying Trump it’s because his model is interpreting the data incorrectly because of the weirdness of this election cycle. I personally think that is likely the case here.

      • expr@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        That used to be true, but in recent years he has gotten a lot more conservative, so I personally take his predictions with a huge grain of salt.

        • muzzle@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Yes, I kinda agree. Let’s see his model’s brier score in November :)

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This isn’t a poll. That’s why the number is so high. His model is also automatically depressing Harris’ numbers because of the convention right now. (It did the same thing to Trump after his convention)

      Nate has been upfront in his newsletters about the factor dropping off the model after today, but then it’s also the debate. Things are likely to be far more clear going into the weekend because we’ll have post debate polling being published and no more convention adjustments.

      • Bubs12@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Nate is not with 538 anymore. Disney didn’t renew his contract. However, he got to keep the model that he developed and publishes it for his newsletter subscribers. 538 had to rebuild their model from scratch this year with G Elliot Morris.

        Now Nate hosts the podcast Risky Business with Maria Konnikova. The psychologist who became a professional poker player while researching a book. It’s pretty good.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      You shouldn’t take it seriously. The 24-hour news cycle depends on data like this. It just doesn’t tell us anything.

    • irreticent@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Who is this guy and how serious should we take this information?

      Well, he did predict Clinton would win in 2016 so there’s that.

      • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        All prediction models only give you odds, not flawless accuracy. He has been closer in every election than most everyone else in the prediction market.

      • IAmTheZeke@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Hey man there is a mountain of people who don’t know things and are scared to ask. learning is always a good thing

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          2 months ago

          Social media isn’t a search engine. If an article is referring to someone by name in the title, they almost certainly have a Wikipedia page the questioner could read rather than requesting random strangers on a message board provide answers for them (in the form of multiple answers of varying bias and accuracy).

          Wanting to learn isn’t the problem, it’s not spending the tiniest bit of personal effort before requesting service from other people.

          • IAmTheZeke@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Yeah. I think we take our easy navigation for granted sometimes. Like… I can get most information pretty quickly and not have a lot of trouble discerning what I need to do to get that information.

            But not everyone is as “natural” at surfing. Maybe they have trouble putting things in perspective, they don’t know how to use a tool like Wikipedia, or even - maybe they just don’t like researching.

            I’m so glad we have people that are great at keeping up with everything. But we have to remember that presenting and teaching information accurately and helpfully is a skill that we need desperately.

  • Jo Miran
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    2 months ago

    Ignore headlines

    JUST VOTE

  • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    His older model at 538 has things tighter with the coin toss slightly weighted toward Harris.

    https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-harris-2024-election-map/

    Whether it’s 55/45 or 65/35, we’re still basically talking about the same thing. This race is neck and neck, and whoever gets the turnout edge will win. We’re talking about fractions of percents that are at play, which is why these odd are a coin toss.

    Edit: it looks like 538’s model is new, and Silver doesn’t like it or the guy behind it.

    https://www.natesilver.net/p/why-i-dont-buy-538s-new-election

    • bss03@infosec.pub
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      2 months ago

      He’s not an idiot. He is funded by Thiel. He has been politically captured by authoritarian capitalism, so I’d be wary of any models he produced that aren’t independently audited for bias.

      I think polls are useful, and the monte carlo simulation approach for turning them into a electorial vote probability is good, but there “too much” magic sauce left over for me to trust the outputs from Silver or 538.

      • brianary@startrek.website
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        2 months ago

        I doubt even the usefulness of polls. Who answers polls anymore? We’ve been polled and surveyed to death. Nobody has time for it anymore.

        • bss03@infosec.pub
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          2 months ago

          I do or at least I have in the past. If the caller will answer my Google call screening, I’ll answer or call back.

          There’s always been a issue of sample not matching population, and a variety of methods to correct for that. But, I will admit there is some limitations to that, and I don’t quite understand where the limitations are. (I love math, but I failed statistics once, and barely passed the second time. I prefer symbols and proofs and closed forms…)

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Important to note, these forecasts are absolutely subject to change. This is not Nostradamus. It is merely reading the polls and factors as they stand. If Harris obliterates Trump tomorrow then this flips. If everyone donates enough money this week and the DNC gets more ground network for their get out the vote efforts, then this flips

    All the model guys are very clear about this.

    What’s driving this current Trump run in the models is the lack of a convention bump for Harris. Models automatically tune a candidate’s chances down by about 10 percent after their convention because it’s usually a bit of a honeymoon period. It’s been pointed out though that she may have had her honeymoon period after taking over from Biden. In which case the odds are more like 46/54.

    The takeaway from this is that this election is incredibly close right now. Even at 36/64 it is very close. Both candidates need to run near perfect campaigns to have a chance of winning.

    • Eximius@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      What the fuck? How can this “race” even be close? How brain-dead emotional are the voters? There are two candidates, you choose the person who’s ideals and directions you believe in? How is the election process surprisingly similar to an ADHD kindegarten with a nominated side whose campaign is metaphorical shit slinging??

      • bss03@infosec.pub
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        2 months ago

        There are still people that distrust government as a general principle AND still believe the GOP is the party of “small government” so they will vote for whatever name is next to the R.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        There’s a lot of Gen X and Millennials who were raised to automatically sit between the parties and ignore all the noise about each party being evil. To try and make an active decision, rather than just being a fan. From 1960 to 2000, that wasn’t horrible advice for the average person. But now it’s led them into considering Trump and Harris as equals because they’ve ignored all “the noise” about Trump.

        That’s my opinion anyways. It’s what I’ve encountered in many places.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I suspect Harris got her “convention bounce” (as defined by the model) right when she became the nominee, this made the model think she was overperforming pre-convention and now the bounce is fading “early” when the model thinks she should still have it so it seems like she’s underperformed.

    If this is the theory, knowing how close the swing states are and thus how swingy it can be, most likely this number goes back to maybe 55/45 Trump.

    • HandBash@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah and maybe trump can suck putins dick in another press conference to try and get more of the anti democracy vote.

      • ravhall@discuss.online
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        2 months ago

        The misinformation team from Russia just wants to destroy us from the inside. Gaza is not going to be in the debate at all. Trump will certainly do whatever it is that makes him more followers or money. And I’m betting that letting Muslims die is pretty high on the MAGA wish list.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This is going to sound bad but as much as I empathize with Palestine we have massive problems here too that need to be solved

      • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Harris’s lack of action on Gaza is the reason she’s sinking in the forecasts.

        She should help Gaza to help herself, if for no other reason.

        • ravhall@discuss.online
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          2 months ago

          I doubt that. Most people outside of here don’t care, or don’t care about it enough to allow a Trump win—because that effects them more and we all know Americans are selfish.

          • HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The forecast isn’t a poll. 538 analyzes data from polls to create their forecast.

            If you don’t want to read the article, you could at least read the headline, which is also the title of this lemmy post that you’re commenting on right now. Look at the top of your screen. It says “forecast”.