Saturday, August 30, 2003
(3:11 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Online polls: Get Over It
I received a strongly-worded e-mail just now urging me to support "my side" on the latest CNN online poll about gay marriage. Here is an exerpt from the e-mail:
Subject: CNN Poll on marriage - we're losing 2-1 CNN is trying to prove the President wrong on his anti-gay-marriage stand, and we are losing. Forward it on to your friends. This poll will be used by CNN to show how "out of date" the President is.
First off, let's learn some basic punctuation skills. Second, let's stop with the idea that CNN is this evil liberal organization bent on destroying the president. (Poor writing and a persecution complex seem to be the hallmarks of the conservative movement.) And finally, who cares? The results of online polls indicate which group was best able to motivate its base to waste their time answering an online poll that is completely unscientific, completely non-reflective of the actual opinion of "the American public" at large, and completely unrelated to real life. I don't think that Atrios' constant attempts to "Torture Wolf Blitzer" are much better, except that he seems to realize how pointless such polls are -- whereas the conservative opinion poll activists seem to think that God will smite our nation if CNN's latest online poll swings a certain way.
This reminds me of back when Time magazine was running its poll for person of the millenium or something, and I got tons of forwards telling me to vote for Jesus. Yeah, that's exactly what Christians need: to look like bigger idiots. That was sent out to Olivet people, so it was reasonable to assume the recipients would take a pro-Jesus stance. This e-mail, however, was sent out to all students at CTS, which is a strongly pro-gay institution. It would appear that this e-mailer, who shall remain nameless, was ultimately hurting her own cause. I would think that was really ironic and cool and all that -- if online polls mattered at all.
