Comments on: How Polls ruin democracy http://www.daveho.com/2008/11/05/how-polls-ruin-democracy/ DaveHo's home on the web. Sat, 05 Jun 2010 02:49:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: DaveHo http://www.daveho.com/2008/11/05/how-polls-ruin-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-26 DaveHo Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:41:35 +0000 http://www.daveho.com/?p=105#comment-26 For relantel: Normally I don't delve into politics, or other "hot button" things for the blog, but this was just something rattling around the ol' noggin. While the target was polls, the idea I was really going after was that this kind of thing may be causing a sort of "groupthink" approach to elections: That the herd kind of drifts to where the trend goes. The optimist in me hopes that this drift is due to individuals setting their minds due to their own reflection and values, while the pessimist in me seems to believe that people are too distracted or uncaring to bother having a considered opinion, and that they tend to follow the herd, which trails the carrot of media-projected winners (oh, and the kid in me thinks its crunchy and delicious! To borrow a Berke Breathed line: "See, we're back to the crapola!") For relantel: Normally I don’t delve into politics, or other “hot button” things for the blog, but this was just something rattling around the ol’ noggin. While the target was polls, the idea I was really going after was that this kind of thing may be causing a sort of “groupthink” approach to elections: That the herd kind of drifts to where the trend goes. The optimist in me hopes that this drift is due to individuals setting their minds due to their own reflection and values, while the pessimist in me seems to believe that people are too distracted or uncaring to bother having a considered opinion, and that they tend to follow the herd, which trails the carrot of media-projected winners (oh, and the kid in me thinks its crunchy and delicious! To borrow a Berke Breathed line: “See, we’re back to the crapola!”)

]]> By: relantel http://www.daveho.com/2008/11/05/how-polls-ruin-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-25 relantel Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:50:51 +0000 http://www.daveho.com/?p=105#comment-25 What a refreshing change it would be without polls - though given the actual result, perhaps a part of me is relieved that I did not have a lot more invested in the losing campaign since it looked like the end result was what was going to happen. I may not like the result, but at least I was mentally prepared for it. I am one of those out there that was public about whom I supported, at least on Buried Planet (hence the pingback since I felt it deserved comment) - what I was not prepared for, though, was the complete shift in Virginia. What a refreshing change it would be without polls – though given the actual result, perhaps a part of me is relieved that I did not have a lot more invested in the losing campaign since it looked like the end result was what was going to happen. I may not like the result, but at least I was mentally prepared for it.

I am one of those out there that was public about whom I supported, at least on Buried Planet (hence the pingback since I felt it deserved comment) – what I was not prepared for, though, was the complete shift in Virginia.

]]> By: “How Polls Ruin Democracy” at Buried Planet http://www.daveho.com/2008/11/05/how-polls-ruin-democracy/comment-page-1/#comment-24 “How Polls Ruin Democracy” at Buried Planet Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:34:41 +0000 http://www.daveho.com/?p=105#comment-24 [...] have to give a shout out to this thoughtful post from a friend of mine, on “how polls ruin democracy“. It had been a while since I had visited his site, hence my week delay on noticing [...] [...] have to give a shout out to this thoughtful post from a friend of mine, on “how polls ruin democracy“. It had been a while since I had visited his site, hence my week delay on noticing [...]

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