Michael Kinsley has a short piece in The Atlantic today that so very eloquently puts what has been driving me around the bend for years. Regarding the polls showing a growing number of people believe President Obama is a Muslim, Kinsley says Blame the Pollsters.
But not specifically because they worded their questions in a leading way or any other technicality of polling. No, he blames the Pollsters for creating an atmosphere where
...everything is an opinion, nothing is a fact, everybody is entitled to an opinion, and every opinion is equally valid. The Pew press release about this latest poll is scrupulously neutral. It talks about "the view that Obama is a Muslim," as if it is just like any other view about the president's religion. Not a word in it hints that there might be a right answer and a wrong one.
It is so simple and so very true. In a world where everything is an opinion and all opinions are equally valid, what room is there for facts? And we are polled about everything. Go to CNN.com on any day and you'll find a "Quick Vote" that asks readers to weigh in on some idiotic topic more often than not that doesn't have a yes/no, right/wrong, factual answer. It's all bullshit opinion. That and a couple of dollars will buy you a cup of coffee these days. Pardon my french, but the saying used to go "Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one." Now, in arguments, people point to polls and ratings as evidence of rightness/wrongness. It's a logical fallacy, always has been a logical fallacy, but our news media thrives on it. They'd have no controversies to gin up if they didn't have the "some say..." line to fall back on.
The right wing knows this. This is one of their chief tactics they use in ginning up controversy and creating doubt. It all goes back to the "fair & balanced" journalism idea that has caused the media to bend over backwards to prove they don't have a liberal bias. Well, as we're so fond of saying, facts have a liberal bias. That's why the news is not -- and should not be -- "fair and balanced". On it's face that assumes that everything is an opinion to be polled and does not recognize facts.
Polls may be great for giving you a picture of where the country is in regards to the horse race aspect of elections. But they can't accurately measure truth. Polling has largely become a bit of narcissism. Everyone wants to get their opinion out there, measured, weighed, and counted.
Ordinarily, I admire people who tell pollsters they "don't know" the answer to some poll question. And I'm often amazed by how few of them there are, because for many poll questions, "Don't Know" is the only correct answer. For example, there are questions asking for predictions about the unknowable future: Will newspapers survive? Will there be another terrorist episode in the United States in the next year? Will the Tea Party be a force in the 2012 election?
Then there are questions that require expertise to have even a coherent opinion about them--let alone the correct one. Are we headed for a double-dip recession? Is the hot weather this summer a sign of global warming? This is not meant to be patronizing. Nearly everyone has expertise about something-or-other that even Paul Krugman may not share. But people seem happy to answer pollsters' questions on any subject that is thrown at them.
We need facts, not opinions. It truly doesn't matter what the majority of Americans think or why they think it. In some cases, like this Pew study, all it shows is that a large number of Americans are wrong about something. That's not a poll. They just flunked a test. What we need is the news media to stop treating polls about things that there actually is a right/wrong answer to as flunked tests rather than valid points for discussion. That, in my opinion, is what's killing dumbing our society down. And that actually is an opinion and not a fact, so please do discuss!