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NY Review of Books tends to hit from the left, but this very long and thorough piece feels much more cut-and-dry in its approach, going into incredible detail on the flaws and problems of this industry that's essentially become the entire focus of the media.
My favorite demonstrating how utterly reliable polls can be:
In an experiment conducted in 1980, people were asked whether they thought “the 1975 Public Affairs Act” should be repealed: a third gave an opinion, even though the act does not exist. In 1995 The Washington Post replicated the study with similar results, but found that another tenth could be goaded into an opinion with a follow-up question. (“Which [stance] comes closest to the way you feel?”) When people were told that either President Clinton or the Republicans wanted to repeal the act, more than half of respondents had a view. More recently, a UK poll found that nearly half of respondents claimed an opinion on a nonexistent politician, who actually proved relatively popular. (Anyone who has knowingly nodded along to a name they’ve never heard, hoping to avoid embarrassment, can relate to this.)
Anyway, it's a long piece -- probably a ten or fifteen minute read -- but well worth it.
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This reminds me of John Taylor Gatto's work as a public school teacher. He has a very hands on approach for teaching kids initiative so he had them go out and canvas NYC regarding the mayoral election. He correctly predicted a very unexpected outcome in the election that year. They're dog shit. I swear they use it as a propaganda tool.
Side note: He is a NYC public school teacher (voted best in the city), prolific writer, war vet, Columbia graduate. His books explore the totally depraved nature of public schooling, its history and how it's antithetical to a free & productive society. He would do really cool stuff like cover for a kid that wanted to get an apprenticeship during school hours or make a business around rating the best indoor swimming pools in NYC.
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I think something like Presidential polling should be more straight forward that polling people about something they know nothing about. That being said, it takes no effort and there is not cost to lying to a pollster and even those that tell the truth it is unknown how many of them will actually get out and vote.
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Yeah, and even with straightforward questions and luckily honest respondents, there's the whole issue of the sample of a thousand people actually being representative.
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Yes, we have to factor in the incentives that drive pollsters as well. If you are up against a deadline and you need a sampling of x y and z demographic but you are short some of z you may be inclined to assume some y's suddenly qualify as z's.
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