TIME Person of the Year Poll

TIME Magazine's voting for 2015's "Person of the Year" seems to have commenced back on November 17, but I haven't seen it mentioned here on OT yet.

TIME Person of the Year Voting

The site is still taking votes (using a Facebook account or Twitter account as verification), so there's still time for you to exercise your democratic obligation to vote responsibly for President Vladimir Putin so we don't have some undeserving candidate like Bernie Sanders or Malala Yousafzai stealing the title.

Once Time decided not to select Osama Bin Laden in 2001 that title lost any meaning it had, if it ever had any significance in the first place. Here is the criteria for selecting Person of the Year:

the person you think most influenced the news this year for better or worse.

Their editors got no guts.

With that said, here is the winner baby!

I just cast my first and last vote for the Donald. I wasn't going to, but then I saw David and Charles Koch which made me realize he has actually been making those two look like idiots (along with the rest of the GOP candidates) for the better part of a year now. In a way that makes him quality "Person of the year" material.

@Master_Live said:

With that said, here is the winner baby!

Sadly, as vile as he is and as much as he's been poisoning and cheapening the political process, Trump has pretty much been a fixture in the national dialogue for much of the year.

Yeah I'd have to give Time's Person of the Year to Donald Trump.

When the page has loaded properly, you should see one of the candidate's portraits between the video and article text. You can browse through the candidates with "<" and ">" buttons and vote "Yes" or "No" for each.

That said, the site seems to be having some problems at the moment. I had to refresh the page several times before it loaded properly.

:-(

i picked Trump. they will probably pick Bruce Jenner or something

Donald Trump, slightly over Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Putin (I wouldn't give my vote to this commie thug anyway) and Kaitlin Jenner.

But it's the only time I'd vote for him. Hilary for president.

I see the Sanders's cult has struck again.

Also, when will American stop mistaking the U.S for the world?

@GazaAli:

Americans tend to be the most influential in the news, like it or not, the definition of Time's Person of the Year.

By far the most populous country in the Western world, and it's relatively free society promotes a lot of colorful personalities.

So many ugly faces

@alim298: still gettin more grils than us lmao

On-Topic: Didn't even know half of em. My vote would have gone for Abu Bakr al Baghdadi but I'm too lazy to click yes.

Voted for Hillary.

This should be the TIME whatever of the Century. This this this this this this.

Refugees for example has been FAAAAR more influential in the news than trump.

No one in his right mind would deny the U.S's tremendous influence on world's affairs, but that doesn't pertain much to this title, as it's person of the year, not regime of the year. No American public figure remotely deserves the title this year. Putin and his intervention in Syria comes to mind, even Netenyahu, through his warmongering and distortion of history and contortion of reality in an attempt to turn the world against us and alienate whatever allies we have, emerges as a potential candidate.

For instance, Bernie Sanders is currently leading in the poll. Explain to me what influence Sanders exercised on the world at large this year, or throughout his life for that matter.

Also, the personalities that are dominating the sociopolitical scene in the U.S are no color and all blackness. I'm constantly amused by such an anachronistic narrative and mindset, reminiscent of a world that is no more.

Everything I hear about trump and sanders are coming from OT. I almost never see them in the news, for good reason. At the same time I think all over the world there are articles about refugees on a consistent basis. Or about Putin.

Sanders' political movement has been influencing politics and his message has been picking up fast. He went from a senator that barely anyone had heard off to a huge political competitor to Hilary Clinton. This man had no fame or popularity outside of the state of Vermont to becoming a big deal in the entire nation. He's the first openly declared socialist in the US (a nation which has always demonized socialism and communism). He challenged that stereotype and continues to amass popularity everyday. He has every right to be person of the year.

I hear you. That Bernie is leading the poll is a prime example of American self-absorption.

@GazaAli:

I guess you don't get the "influence the NEWS" part, and working up to the election for the highest office of the most powerful country is big news, like it or not. Both Trump and Sanders are colorful personalities, again like them or not. You could make a case for Putin, I just won't be voting for that power-hungry thug.

You can continue your lengthy diatribe as much as you want, but it doesn't change the definition.

But the title relates to the person who influenced the world the most in the past year, not the U.S. I acknowledge Bernie's prominence in the American scene, but since that prominence doesn't extend to world's affairs, I fail to see the logic of his entitlement to the title.

And you can persevere in your obstinacy, but that doesn't change the reality that Bernie is irrelevant to world's affairs, which makes his lead in the poll laughable and indicative of the asininity of his cult-like cheerleaders who conditioned themselves to say BERNIE SANDERS in matters both pertinent and impertinent.

The very fact that Sanders isn't even an international figure of any kind underlines the paradox of his lead in the poll. How can an exclusively national figure be person of the year? I wouldn't have agreed if Obama was leading, but the choice would've made sense at the very least, since Obama is an international figure that has the potential of influencing world's affairs, even if he happened no to this year.

Bingo. A big deal in one nation, not in the entire world. Not yet at least. Maybe if he gets elected.

And he is really only influencing the news in one country. Compared to Putin who is influencing news in every country, including the US. Not to mention refugees.

It underlines American narcissism.

I would also put Merkel over any american presidential candidate.

agreed

Not even if he gets elected!

All the US presidential candidates are ineligible, for the same reason that Obama is ineligible: US presidents are merely figureheads. They're little more than spokespeople for the unelected corporatocracy.

@themajormayor: Sander's cult's logic goes like this: I like Bernie, Bernie miraculously landed in that list, therefore I must vote for Bernie.

Feel the burn, hurrr durrr

basically what gazaali and themajormayor said

So would you vote for the freemasons, NWO, Illuminati or the Rotschilds?

This is well in line with: "You could make a case for Putin, I just won't be voting for that power-hungry thug."

Yeah lol

@themajormayor:

The 2 statements have nothing to do with each other. But you are consumed with your special hate for all things American, so I take what you say with that bias in mind.

Well its more goal-oriented than that. There's a goal in mind when voting him to be Person of the Year. The goal is to promote Bernie Sanders and to make as much effort possible to get him elected. Considering that he's not receiving superPACS(large sums of corporate money) it makes sense. His people like him so much because of his purity as a politician and his ideas to stand up for the middle class.

I reckon it's not as illogical as I made it out to be, but it's still dishonest as far as the title is concerned.

lol get real. Too many times on this forum you have users accusing others of being "anti-American" or like you said "special hate for all things American". Stop with the insecurity and persecution crap and understand for once that not being completely blindly in love with America like some of you are doesn't make you "anti-America".

@Aljosa23: You're old enough of a member to remember the heydays of rebuking everything Islamic and Middle Eastern in this forum. It certainly still happens, but it's on the wane; it's been sucked dry, not to mention how the deterioration of the American sociopolitical scene has weakened that sense of entitlement to disdainful superiority. But the point is whenever someone whines to me and accuses me of being an "American hater" for being objectively and rightfully critical of the U.S, I recall those days and the heinous things that have been said about me and everything I relate to. I find myself amused by the insecurity of those who're supposed to be exceptional and so cynical and thick-skinned that they allegedly make a religion of cynicism.

Same logic.

I don't hate all things American. I simply don't like the disproportionate amount of attention it receives, especially considering its completely bland history, politics and culture.

It was like, if there was anything happening in the Middle East, some people were calling for nuking the entire region, among other things. And no one really cared.

But if I was like saying that America doesn't have the best Pizza or something the whole forum went ballistic.

@Aljosa23:

It's one thing to not be in love with America, that's fine, but there are certainly times when some of you guys go to great lengths to bash everything about America. There's no "insecurity and persecution", it's annoying.

The country isn't perfect by any means, and I have even said before that I thought it has been in decline since the turn of the century.

Here's a thought: why don't you guys state your answer and talk about why you support that person or people rather than whine and bi*ch about an American winning. There are more people in America than the top 5 most populous countries in Europe combined, so sure there's a good chance an American will win.

This post applies to GazaAli and major mayor as well

And mayor, if you don't like our pizza, that's fine, but why not say something constructive, like a better place to get pizza, do you see where I'm coming from? Constructive criticism is fine, bashing is not. You won't see me bashing other countries, I try to be respectful of them. Specific people maybe, but whole countries of people, no.

And GazaAli I take everything you say (however well-constructed) with a grain of salt, because somewhere down the line I believe I read that you were Palestinian, so I expect an anti-American bias. Fine, despite that, I have always supported a 2 state solution there.

Anyways, my vote went to Trump, who is somehow winning the GOP race with smoke and mirrors. Who the hell thought this would be happening a year ago. I can't stand the guy!

@Master_Live said:

With that said, here is the winner baby!

Well, it's only fair. Afterall, Hitler was Time Magazine's person of the year too.

I'd vote for Malala Yousafzai. She has been a supporter for education (while in Pakistan and with the Taliban harassing women going to schools like throwing acid in their faces), helped build schools, and got shot in the face by a gunman because of her popularity in supporting education for women. And she did all this before she was 18. She has bigger balls (figuratively speaking) than most people on that list.

Second would be refugees because braving Syrian Civil War and escaping, either through the dangerous seas or ISIL controlled areas, is something that many wouldn't want nor have gone through. Also, because **** the Nativist GOP shitstains.

And maybe Bernie Sanders for third, mostly because his progressive views have somewhat shaped the Democratic Party in supporting certain causes such as a higher minimum wage.

You should also take into consideration that these awards major audience is American audience (considering also that this is an American magazine) and it makes sense when year after year a figure is picked, they appealed a lot to American audience. I don't think people from other countries care as much as to who Time picks to put them on cover, same as I don't care as to which diet Vogue decides to put on cover this month. If you were talking about something of international standpoint of view such as Nobel awards, in that case makes sense to pick person who impact the social structure most globally. You can draw whatever logic you guys want but this title always has and always will have somewhat more of an American standpoint. Bests example, I can give is Catilyn Jenner. Half the internet never stops making jokes about how she has been woman for only half a year and her shady hit and run case, and she still is the woman of the year over other good choices such as Malala. And the main reason for this is that because Caitlyn breathed fire into LGBT movement and also considering supreme court gay marriage stance this year, its a huge social movement which has touched many American's lives, while Malala on other hand has not created such dynamics locally as far as average American is concerned.

Also my pick would be Elon Musk. He serves as inspiration to best of us