In 2020, the popular vor difference was slightly over 7 million votes, and it went the same direction as the electoral college.
> It was big news when the 2016 election was decided by as few as 78,000 votes,
It was big news, because the electoral college vote went against the popular vote, which had 2.8 million more voting for Hillary Clinton.
> A bit of dysfunction to cool things (and people) down doesn't seem so bad
Yep!
Heck, I think even some other planets might be affected. Perhaps the very Black Hole in the center of the Milky Way would shed a tear or two.
Yes, but herein lies the issue with any "downvote" mechanic. How it should be used compared to how it actually used is quite different.
The discussion on HN in general does not follow the guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. Edit out swipes.
> Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That tramples curiosity.
> Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that".
And on and on, the amount of comments in this thread alone that don't stick to the guidelines is too high, but I think the moderation team is very small (just dang?)
The problem is "good" is subjective. It was big news when the 2016 election was decided by as few as 78,000 votes, yet the 2020 election was now decided by as few as 45,000 votes [1]. The one thing everybody would agree on is that the country (and world) would look radically different today had the US election in 2020 gone differently.
And so we're living in a boat that keeps getting increasingly violently rocked back and forth, all based on who wins a coin flip. A bit of dysfunction to cool things (and people) down doesn't seem so bad.
[1] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/18/how-2020-...