Celebrities say my vote matters, are wrong about everything

In what is essentially an in-kind donation to the Trump campaign, a group of Hollywood celebrities made one of those obnoxious videos where each person is featured individually in front of a blank white background, and they each repeat the same phrase ad nauseam, before finally moving on to another phrase they each repeat ad nauseam, and then to another, before finally forming one complete and coherent thought. The ad doesn't tell you for whom you should vote, just that you should vote (although it's pretty obvious who their preference is). The ad comes from Avengers' director Joss Whedon's new Super Pac, "Save the Day."

A few things stick out.

First, it's clear the celebrities did not take Public Choice. One tearful celebrity I don't recognize implores me to vote because "we can't say one vote doesn't matter." Don Cheadle points at me, and tells me "your vote matters." The tearful, unrecognized then says: "your vote matters." (I warned you they repeat things) Scarlett Johansson tells me my vote "affects everything." This is doubtful. Living in Virginia, I suppose it's possible my vote matters slightly more than a voter in Oregon, but I still wouldn't say a 1 in 10 million chance of casting the deciding vote means my vote matters, or "affects everything." Plus, Virginia is quickly losing its swing state status, so my vote likely matters even less than normal.

Second, the celebrities don't ask me to educate myself -- they just want me to vote. You'd think in the 3 minutes they spend repeating each other they could spare a sentence to ask my to learn about the issues. Is Hillary Clinton's stance on immigration good for the country? How about Trump's plan to increase tariffs? Does Jill Stein's suggestion that Wi-Fi is giving our kid's cancer have merit, and what are the implications if true? These policy proposals actually do matter, and while they probably are unable to "affect everything", their implementation will certainly affect more things than my vote will. A drive to increase voter education, rather than one that simply tries to increase turnout, would be much more beneficial to society. But perhaps Whedon is aware of at least one lesson from Public Choice: remaining ignorant of these issues is rational for most voters, so asking them to educate themselves would likely be fruitless. A Super Pac simply aiming to increase voter turnout will enjoy a much greater return on investment.