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this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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Ah yes, our oh-so-accurate polls.
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2021/07/19/pre-election-polls-in-2020-had-the-largest-errors-in-40-years/
A couple of things.
First, your link is outdated: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/2022-election-polling-accuracy/
Yes, 2020 was a bad year, but last year was actually a very good year. Basically what you are saying is that "4 years ago polls were bad, so that allows me to just believe whatever I want."
Second, if you believe you have no metric by which to measure something, the correct thought is "I'm not sure what the answer is" not "what I think is true must be true."
Plus, don't believe it was missed that you just outright ignored the whole part of your post that this is some conspiracy, of course thrown out there with zero evidence.
How on Earth am I saying that?
Have you met the average Fox viewer?
Conservative media not giving a shit about the truth isn't a conspiracy theory, it's a fact. Hence Fox having to pay a billion dollars to Dominion.
Sorry I got it wrong. What exactly are you saying with that point?
What does the average Fox viewer have to do with you and your point?
Wait, now we are just talking about conservative media? I thought we were talking about the media wanting you to think there was actually a race?
Yes, I was just talking about conservative media. The media as a whole loves a horse race, but they aren't generally willing to lie to get it.
That said, polls right now are all over the place, which does put the media in general in a good place because a contentious election means more viewers.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/
But that's not a conspiracy, that's just capitalism- an exciting election equals more news viewers equals higher advertising rates. Would, say, CBS news lie about the polls to achieve that? I doubt it. Would Fox? Absolutely.
So how does this tie into your original point that it's hard for you to believe that anyone isn't decided? The whole point of bringing up polls in general was to show that this shouldn't be hard to believe at all. The claim that you were always just talking about the conservative media seems like a massive non-sequitur.
It is impossible to escape political propaganda in modern America. It's on your internet, it's on your radio, it's on your cable TV, it's on your streaming TV, it's on your super bowl ads, it's on your gas station pumps, it's on your news sources, it's on your social media. "Oh I don't pay attention to politics" is no longer a reasonable excuse because that is impossible, it's shoved down the throat of every citizen nonstop from every angle. The two candidates, in this case Trump and Biden, are such polar opposites of each other in every single possible regard that the only way someone can be undecided between the two is if their multiple personalities are arguing over it.
So what are you saying, exactly? That the polls are made up and there is some conspiracy to mislead? What you are saying sounds potentially reasonable, but at the same time the numbers don't support it.
Personally, I've never been polled. Not once. And neither has anyone else I've ever met in my life. I'm not saying they're made up wholesale, because frankly, I have no idea. But I am saying that, at the very least, they're not likely to be an accurate representation of the American citizenry as a whole. If nothing else, the percentage of "undecided" voters raises some eyebrows for me for the reasons I just stated. If you've lived in America the last 8-16 years and are somehow still a fence sitter, you've managed to ignore a veritable deluge of information being sprayed directly into your eyeballs with all the delicacy and care of a fire hose.
I understand the average person is probably pretty dumb, but I have faith in humanity that a significant percentage of us aren't that dumb. Being on the bell curve means you're plenty intelligent enough to understand whether you want to vote for red or for blue and for what reasons. I refuse to believe that there are people in America legitimately weighing if they would rather vote for protected freedoms for American citizens or vote for banning books that speak about protected freedoms for American citizens. The two choices are so wildly opposed to each other in structure and in intent that there isn't a choice to be made, all people will land on one side or the other of this argument and there is no center ground to waffle around.
Twenty years ago, I understood undecided voters, because there still remained some small amount of nuance in the way American politics were carried out. We have now lost that. Our political landscape is now Blue Team vs Anti-Blue Team and the fence that the undecided voters were previously sitting on is now uninhabitable rubble, because there is now no component of our government that can come to a sensible cross-aisle decision. The independent, moderate voter is now a relic of the past in our supercharged, hyper-partisan pre-civil-war violence mockery of a civilized government.
I feel like this was a whole lot of words to dodge the actual question. I get that you don't believe that people can be still undecided, and I full understand the sentiment (although, I also recognize that I am a lot more in tune with politics than other people, this isn't calling them stupid, but simply focused on other things).
But the numbers tell a different story. So what are you saying about those numbers? That they're faked?
Yes, when polls are all over the place, it's hard to believe them. I gave you the link to see for yourself.