September 16, 2006

The answer MSNBC did not like - media brainwashing in action? Or production team embarrassment over the number of tinfoil hatters who believe conspiracy theories?

Things to be irritated by: The fact they put up the poll in the first place, & the fact they changed it to play the pander. The fact that online polls are in no way scientific or accurate is not actually the point at issue, here, IMHO. (Devil's advocate: there is no real way to verify that this actually did take place as claimed, although I have read comments by individuals who claim to have actually seen the poll & confirm what appears here.) For me, the most telling point of this is that many Americans distrust their government to such a degree that they are willing to entertain quite extreme alternate views; that the government is capable of outrageously horrific crimes such as an elaborate False Flag operation, an atrocity committed upon their own people. Is this not enough reason in itself to want to tear down the walls and rail at the sky? Perhaps this is the true motivation for alteration of the poll, to keep from revealing to the public at large that there is a consensus desire for a change, in numbers large enough to make it happen. (A Howard Beale effect?) The 'powers that be' (which in this case may just be a bunch of stuffy people in an office who simply cannot accept that others have doubts about their own staunchly held opinions) must maintain the idea that everyone with such questions are conspiracy k00ks & tinfoil hatters, among other put-down terms used to make sure that such people are seen as not being rational. The masses must not understand that a large majority share these doubts. Reality must be managed! The very idea that a 'consensus' view can be questioned is in itself offensive to the conformist mindset.

posted by Chyren 18 years ago
  • Or could it be that they realised the polls were rigged? It happened to me several times, as I often write scripts to vote 1000's of times for one option and completely reverse the original result. More often than not, the poll disappears after a few hours. These polls are totally meaningless - even without scripting, there's such a selection bias at work that it's impossible to infer anything. They're just here to provide a feeling of interactivity. As they say on slashdot, "If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane."
  • Yellow journalism at its best.
  • Amen.
  • *slowly waves hand in front of Chyren's face* This is not the conspiracy you are looking for.
  • MSNBC is not part fnord of the conspiracy.
  • Oh my goodness! What's new? They closed the entire MSNBC bulletin board system in late 2001 after they learned they couldn't use it to promote their social engineering dream. Doggone posters kept ignoring their terms of service which demanded no "hate" speech, continued to post incorrect messages even after being scolded, called "trailer trash", and told they were not making themselves loved, and finally went so far as to began telling one another how to use proxy servers to overcome domain bans.
  • you will believe exactly what we want you to believe or we will shut you down.
  • It's like when I pay with a credit card at the gas pump, and the only two choices for "Do You Want a Receipt" are "Yes" and "No, Thank You." What if I want "No" without the "Thank You?" Or "Yes, Please?"
  • In that case you have to suck the gas back out.
  • I think i've seen polls that have said that 30% or so believe in 9/11 conspiracys in some form or another. I find the whole conspiracy movement fascinating. It does have something to do with the loss in faith in gov't as you say Chyren. Maybe it also has to do with the psychological feeling that big events must have big causes. Another theory is that conspiracies are most popular among the disenfranchised (i.e. those without power). This explanation is used to explain the prevalance of conspiracy theories in the Middle East.
  • Another driver, at least in the US in my opinion, is the number of people who don't want to believe that the US government was so incompetent/stupid/pick your own, and that 9/11 was allowed to happen. Given the choice, they would prefer to think it was a successful false flag operation rather than unsuccessful law and intelligence services.
  • No, now I beat your wife instead.
  • Thanks for that link, genial! Those types of questions are a pet peeve of mine, and it's nice to be able to put a name to 'em.
  • Did you know you loved those questons, TUM?
  • Er... splunge!
  • Have you ALWAYS loved those questions in that way, TUM? *folds arms, taps foot, waits for answer