I’m a fan of FiveThirtyEight, a website that looks at policy issues from a data-heavy perspective, but everyone publishes a clunker once in a while.
In February, FiveThirtyEight ran a piece called “Why Democrats Keep Losing Culture Wars.” The core assertion was that Republicans prevail because a lot of Americans are ignorant about issues like abortion and school curriculum, and they believe the lies the right feeds them.
The essay had a very heavy “deplorables are idiots” vibe. Nate Hochman, writing in the conservative National Review, recognized a hanging curve when he saw one and he walloped the piece.
He noted that “all the ‘experts’ that the FiveThirtyEight writers cite in their piece are invested in believing that the progressive worldview is the objective one, and that any deviations from it are the result of irrational or insidious impulses in the electorate.” He added: “All this is a perfect example of why the left’s cultural aggression is alienating to so many voters.