I don't think it was irrational for people to support him at a time when his social media made him seem like he could be a genuine contender, coming out as autistic despite the ridicule he knew he would get
everybody realized after the Destiny video that he had no idea what he was talking about and couldn't defend anything, barely anybody really supported him after that and his attempt to create a new party was a move so dumb I don't see how he could have any supporters left by that point
his candidacy wasn't ruined by his positions or anything like that, it was ruined by him being a shit candidate that was able to pretend to be decent when the spotlight wasn't really on him
his social media following could have really benefitted him had he ran a smart campaign, knew what he was talking about and stayed with the Democratic Party, so it's nonsense to make fun of that tbh
Joshua Collins is something to learn from if we're going to throw in on some electoralism
- know your positions
- know what you're talking about
- know your audience and what speaks to them
- network in real life, not just online (harder with COVID)
- run a real ground campaign (harder with COVID)
- don't depend on anything but honest to god hard work
- practice those debate skills
the next AOC could be here right now, it's just a matter of playing your campaign the right way
Look, think about how often the ruling class eats shit even when they spend unthinkable sums of cash.
It's just a numbers game. Every now and then, you will get burned in an election.
The question is whether the resources you expended is worth a roll of the dice, whether you have a real shot to take a seat and, hopefully, a tiny bit of power.
People gave, what, 20 bucks per? What did it really cost you?
Not that there's no lesson to be learned about grifters and morons. But you will be grifted sometimes no matter how skeptical you are.
So just make some notes for the future, and move on. There's not much soul searching to be done here.
it's a lot more than just a numbers game tbh