Opinion poll
 Opinion poll    | |
|---|---|
 An opinion poll from December 2021 which suddenly disappeared without explanation, following a program about mandating jabs for COVID-19. | |
| Interest of | • Chris Curtis • Renate Köcher • Julián Santamaría Ossorio • YouGov |
| A useful survey method but most often used for propaganda purposes | |
An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a poll or a survey, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. While in principle a useful survey method, it is most often used for propaganda purposes.
Contents
Use in deep politics
The business of deep politics often involves psychological operations such as false flags and mendacious claims of plausible deniability. Opinion polls are useful to help plan such complex events, especially long term campaigns such as the strategy of tension.
The Right Questions
| Yes Prime Minister - Sir Humphrey shows poll rigging |
Fake polls
When used sparingly, fake poll results may be used to try to give a false perception of public opinion. This is risky, since any evidence of poll fakery is liable to cause blowback.
Influence tool
The UK journalist Peter Hitchens observed that "Opinion polls are a device for influencing public opinion, not a device for measuring it. Crack that, and it all makes sense." The overall purpose is to "bring about the thing it claims is already happening". [1]
Casting doubt on genuine poll results
In countries targeted for regime change, US intelligence routinely manufactures fake polls intended to cast doubt on official election results, creating a pretext for protests that are organized and leveraged by US-sponsored opposition groups.[2]
Unintentionally revealing fraud
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Bernd Hamm | “Opinion polls are now part of the everyday tools of politicians. Just as TV research at the market research institute GfK now maps the preferences of the TV audience to the second and thus influences the supposedly advertising-free editorial program, opinion polls help politicians to align their statements as closely as possible to the taste of the majority. This is what the election manifestos of the "people's parties" look like - the same formulas everywhere, the same contradictions everywhere, the same claim to represent the center. The real political mission of the Enlightenment was precisely the opposite: to protect the weak from exploitation by the strong. That doesn't happen in the media anymore.” | Bernd Hamm |
