One of the best things Fox News is good at is spinning a poll. Not only can they throw around poll numbers that are completely different from other news organizations–numbers that are always in favor of their message–they can also craft a damn good biased poll. They recently did a poll called Does the ‘Reconciliation’ Gambit Make You Angry?.

The three options they included (there were actually four, but the “Other” option is just there to filter out trolls) would have been fine if they were expressed without their tacked on opinions. In its simple form–without opinions–it was Yes, Not Sure, and No. Simple enough. However, the opinions that came after each option were cynical, biased, and designed to fuel the moronic angst of the type of people who actually go to Fox News to get their news.

1. Yes. This is outrageous! They’re using rules to bypass the clear voice of the people – payback in November, guys.
2. Not sure, but if they have to resort to rules loopholes to pass a law, doesn’t that indicate that a lot of people oppose it?
3. No. Look, we need health care reform and we need it now. Let’s get started, even if it means using a rules loophole.

The “Not Sure” and “No” options were sabotaged with dickishness.

“…doesn’t that indicate that a lot of people oppose it?”

“Let’s get started, even if it means using a rules loophole.”

I mean, really? Not surprisingly, most people chose yes If you preach to a choir, can a tree in a forest hear the preaching?

Fox News Teaches Us How to Make Super Biased Opinion Polls is a post from: Freethinker

Referring to “these small towns in Pennsylvania,” Obama told his wealthy audience that the views of these voters on a variety of subjects should be understood as responses to decades of economic distress. “It’s not surprising,” he said, “then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

From The rubes and the elites

The Truth Hurts is a post from: Freethinker

After years of being constantly annoyed and often angry about the historical denial built into Thanksgiving Day, I published an essay in November 2005 suggesting we replace the feasting with fasting and create a National Day of Atonement to acknowledge the genocide of indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States.

The sentiment of Thanksgiving Day is certainly an honorable one. We gather once a year to remember and show gratitude to the many things we’re thankful for. However, as Jensen implies, it may be a shameful exercise if we make the main focus of Thanksgiving Day based on our revisionist, white-washed history of how our country was founded and how we treated Native Americans.

Should Thanksgiving Day Be Atonement Day? is a post from: Freethinker