This tracks with my little microcosm of experience. Not a lot of signs for Harris or Trump here, that I've seen. People in general are more hush, not nearly as "in your face" or even passive aggressive, on the ground, as a person outside the U.S. would think. It's possible that this could be because some don't want to show their hand. (Another reason why polling could fail to size up the situation, as it assumes everyone is responding in good faith and a given sample size accurately represents a much larger whole; even mashing together or cross-referencing polls won't make up for this.)zorg wrote: The atmosphere is totally weird. A presidential election and my kids high school refuses to discuss it in class. I remember we use to do mock elections and stuff.
Hell, outside of regional enclaves, people are scared to put bumper stickers on theirs cars anymore
But there's something else at play. Can't quite put my finger on it. If there's an interesting takeaway about the current social moment, it would have something to do with this, the tendency of moving away from demonstrativeness. Maybe displaying one's political leanings just has less social currency now, in day to day life. It could simply be more tiresome than anything else. Or maybe some people, as you suggest, have come to the conclusion that it would make them easy marks. A general malaise or weariness outside of politics might be at play too. Our society has been aging, we've gone through some things, and most people--whether they'll admit it--aren't exempt from feeling fatigued by it all. Or, hell, maybe some people just don't want to head into the holiday season courting contention, conjuring bad vibes.
This will be happening two weeks from today. Probably some interesting hot takes before and after, but I don't know if there will be a lot of teachable moments. It feels like a lot of what could be said, has been said. The outcome will be rationalized or rebuked but it will be a fact of life. One way or another we'll all have to live with it.