POLLS ARE BULLSHIT. Pollsters are bullshitters. Reporters who report polls report bullshit. The only polls that matter are the ones that come on election day. Anything else preempts democracy.
Raven-Symoné, said something similar when she was co-host on ABC's The View (smart woman, too).
She pointed out that she and no one she has ever known has ever been part of any so-called poll. Even going so far as asking the audience if anyone had or knew someone who was polled. Not surprising, no one did, nor do I
If you watch the clip, someone clearly wanted her to "zip it" cause she got quiet and remained so. Shortly after, ABC looked for a new co-host
@jeffjarvis Hmm, I disagree. Asking people what they think and then publishing the results is a basic freedom, like voting. And, typically, when we say that polling in some way undermines elections it's because we're overstating the value of elections. In the West we continue to fetishise electoral politics even while it's thinned-out, radically diminished, captured by corporations and diluted by technocrats and oligarchs. More polls please!
@jeffjarvis they are crying in their soup today: bbbut the NYT poll!! I’ve seen it mentioned it more today than when it was released. And in a very “clutch for your life” manner. Red wave!🥴
@jeffjarvis
It does not matter if 35, 45 or 55% of the people want to vote for Trump. Any % is too much. The impact of even Trump returning to the White House is far beyond the borders of the US.
I've never been one for conspiracy theories, but when the polls are always wrong in the same direction you have to accept what's right in front of your face.
@billyjoebowers@jeffjarvis It doesn't really need a lot of shenanigans to explain, really. Most political polls are cold-call phone polls; younger (defined broadly!) voters generally ignore or reject calls from strange numbers on the usually-correct assumption that they're scams. Older voters with landlines are much more likely to answer, and have been increasingly overrepresented in polls for years as a result.
(Now, pollsters just rolling with the bad data anyway, on the other hand...)
@jeffjarvis Turned on CNN because HBO sent me an email saying they had election coverage and they were discussing a Biden favorability poll and was immediately reminded why I don’t have/watch cable news. One panelist finally said, you know, there are real life elections going on RIGHT NOW. 🙄
@jeffjarvis If elections brought "democracy", I would agree with you. The problem is that many elections are as useless as polls in representing the "people". The purpose of elections is to placate the peasants while the plutocrats who control society get on with enriching themselves as best they can, utilising their managers, the politicians they have bought .
The royal we needs to stop pretending that 45% of this country is probably close to, if not actually, so mentally defective they are a threat to democracy.
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