Another Poll Tries to Convince Us Americans Are Worried About What Democrats Are Worried About
“…By now, anyone who doesn’t know that polls are tools for manipulating public opinion, not for discovering what public opinion is, simply hasn’t been paying attention. And when poll results are published under the headline “The Big Lie: Over half of Republicans believe Donald Trump is the actual President of the United States,” it’s clear that we’re not dealing with honest brokers. With the recent news out of Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, it’s clear that to believe that the 2020 presidential election was hardly the freest and fairest in American history is far from falling for a Big Lie. And that’s just the beginning of this poll’s dishonesty.
A research firm called Ipsos conducted the poll on behalf of Thomson Reuters. Ipsos bills itself as “the world’s third largest Insights and Analytics company,” and claims to “provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees.” However, Ipsos was accused of “systematic” and “massive” liberal bias in its polling during the 2016 presidential campaign, and there is no indication that it has mended its ways since then. On the basis of its “Big Lie” poll, instead of ridding itself of its biases, it is doubling down on them…
…But it’s clear that Ipsos isn’t about revealing. It’s about concealing. This poll is designed to conceal the fact that very few Americans are genuinely worried about this phantom menace of white supremacist terror that we hear so much about except in terms of genuine white supremacists committing actual terrorist attacks. It fudges its categories so that people who are concerned about jihad violence, antifa and Black Lives Matter violence, and “white supremacist” violence are all lumped together in a way that gives the impression that “white supremacists” and “gun nuts” are what most Americans are worried about. And those just happen to be the Democrats’ two primary targets today. What a coincidence.”…”