I was a Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter. I’d always liked her. She is a strong, charismatic woman. I began to support her candidacy after I saw her give the commencement speech for the Honors College graduation the year I was a junior in uni. She was a lovely, eloquent speaker. Of course, Eliot Spitzer was the speaker the following year, and he gave an even better speech. We all know what happened to him.

I know the exact point when Clinton lost me and I know the exact reason she did. It’s less to do with politics and more to do with interpersonal relations and an amazing online article.

If anyone hasn’t read the Geek Social Fallacies article, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is almost entirely correct.

I’d add just one more thing.

Geek Social Fallacy #6 - Friends stick by each other, no matter what.

This social fallacy states that if your friend hurts someone, or is a liar, or reaches an incorrect conclusion, they are still your friend. This fallacy gives people 2nd and 3rd and 4th chances after egregious behavior. Sometimes the excuse is that the behavior was done to someone else. Sometimes the excuse is that the perpetrator will not do that again (it was a one time thing, I swear). And sometimes there’s no excuse at all. People who use GSF #6 will never give up on a person. That would be mean and wrong. After all, everyone can be redeemed, just like Anne Rice said. There is no point of no return. There is no mathematical impossibility. You stick by your guns (or friends) or you are weak.

It’s stubbornness, plain and simple. it’s refusing to admit you’re wrong until the last possible moment, as to avoid humiliation in the short term.

But it makes you look dumb.

I think Clinton would make a stronger president than Obama. But she should have dropped out once the math showed that she’d have to win each remaining state by 60-40 or higher to get the right delegate count. That was in.. March?

But she has so much to prove and so much riding on her. To drop out in march would lead to months of being called weak or spineless. But it’d be over by now.

That was HRC’s fatal flaw: wanting to postpone the inevitable. Because just like that shitty friend, the other shoe will eventually drop and you’ll have to deal with the shit no matter what.