Quote:
Originally Posted by Frith
I don't know about the polls. They do seem to be a nuisance factor in many ways and I wonder if they can be trusted as everything is so untrustworthy these days. I think they do sway people's choices, so they could be very harmful in creating false effects. I hate this American idea of polling every Tom, Dick and Harry every time you do anything and then basing your assessments on the views of people you may come across on the Jerry Springer show or Men Behaving Badly. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. I have felt for some time that some polls, especially the ones you mention, are disturbing to the possible outcome.
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Yes, what concerns me - as an English nationalist (and it ought to concern UKIPPERS also) - is that these opinion polls can be another way of disseminating propaganda, a way of inculcating the idea that the outcomes can be narrowed to just two alternatives and that it is a waste of time voting for any others.
Opinion Polls tend to diminish the value of actual election ballots by attempting to make the results predictable and, therefore, that voting is not necessary or, if one expects an unwanted result, futile.
Mugabe has achieved similar results by different, more brutal methods: having opposition speakers beaten up, having opposition leaders detained and beaten up, threatening voters going to polling stations especially those voters known to oppose ZANU FP, withholding food supplies from 'uncooperative' communities etc etc.
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