Resipiscence

~63 million people is not a fringe group, and that is how many people you will be disenfranchising if the electoral college changes the presidential vote outcome.

If you disagree, and argue that if a different candidate had run the results would be different, and the Russian hacking justify ignoring the vote... Well, you need to establish the Russians and DNC hacking affected the primary. Which I don't think you can.

If you want the least legitimized US President, elect a Republican other than Trump. Then the Russians will send you a big thank you for achieving the most perfect disaster in US politics, a US President not Trump, not Clinton, and not respected by anybody as the legit US President. It's the Birther argument on steroids: Not legit! This also leads directly to a civil war, 2016 style which looks a lot like Middle Eastern terrorism or Syria.

Your other choice is elect Trump. Lots of people hate him, but he has some legitimacy. If you don't like that outcome, demonstrate to enough people his evil and impeach him. We did that with Nixon, and it maintained the legitimacy of the Office while removing a bad president.

Seems like the second outcome is the best. The first is just a gift to Putin. A really great gift.

They think like me. No candidate (to date) has had my priorities, as they are a heady mix of left and right and libertarian. So I've had to prioritize what are my deal breakers and what are not... Because to hold out for everything is to just not vote, ever.

As a result I donate and support and vote and advocate for some real assholes, because they are slightly less assholeish than their opposition.

I don't like it, but if I have to pick from shitty alternatives and Realpolitik for who has a shot at winning, I will.

So the logic applies at $2000 a year just like $2 gazillion a year.

Because this is about anti-Trump wish fulfillment, not reason.

Look, I 100% accept foreign powers try like mad to affect the US government. You'd be stupid not to, because the US is powerful and matters. I accept Russian and Put in acted and don't have our national interests in mind...

But this electoral college shit is exactly what they want. They don't care if Clinton wins or Trump or somebody else. That's one person in a federal government of millions, and a national government of many more. They want to break the system, and this elect somebody nobody voted for instead of somebody half voted for and the other half hate thing is how you break the system.

Know what countries where people no longer believe the have franchise look like? Aleppo. Syria. Iraq. Warring squabbling warlords everywhere because everybody knows the system is corrupt and physical power is the only option for representation and influence.

A bad president is one thing. It's survivable. Breaking the democratic system is not reversible and leads to blood in the streets. If you dislike Sovereign Citizens and militias and vigilantes gunning down cops and all that... Don't further legitimize them by proving them right and failing to elect Trump.

To what degree (in retrospect) can you say your queries to find inauthentic FB activity were politically agnostic or politically aligned?

I believe a good deal of fear/difficulty around this kind of work is belief it is biased... you call out Turning Point, but you don't call out a liberal example. That could be because they don't exist, because they are better at hiding, or because the people looking didn't look as hard for politically aligned or acceptable activity as politically unaligned, unacceptable activity.

Not trying to suggest your work was any of those... asking how you went looking and if your personal biases (we all have them) affected your work... because when I think about asking FB or other large tech company to do the same, I wonder if it is really possible for them to do it with minimal bias.