4 ms·

Would this be the same population polled in 2010 when 41% of them could not name the vice president of the United States in an open-ended (not multiple choice)

by derf_ 11y ago

Would this be the same population polled in 2010 when 41% of them could not name the vice president of the United States in an open-ended (not multiple choice) question? [0] Or last September when 64% of them could not name the three branches of government? [1] (35% could not name a single one) My favorite poll is this one: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/03/16/americans-privacy-strategies-post-snowden/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/03/16/americans-privacy-stra... Buried near the bottom is, "60% believe it is acceptable to monitor the communications of American leaders." Raise your hand if you think it's good for a healthy democracy for the executive branch to monitor the private communications of congresspeople, senators, and federal judges? [0] http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey-who-knows-what-about-religion/#Nonreligious http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-s... [1] http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-know-surprisingly-little-about-their-government-survey-finds/ http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-know-su...

spacehome 11y ago
Eh, to be fair, the vice president has very little power and doesn't seem to be of any great consequence.
dimino 11y ago
Hah, I don't think anyone would disagree with you if your thesis here is "most people are generally uninformed". That being said, technically speaking yes, it probably was a different set of people polled, just considering how the nature of polling works! What you're not understanding though is that people actually seem to separate the content of the leak with the act of the leak. All it takes is a quick Google of "NSA spying program polling" to see polls affirming that hypothesis (folks disapprove of Snowden, but also heavily disapprove of the NSA spying program). Snowden himself has been known to beg folks during his interviews to stop caring about him or what he did, and focus on the content of the information he released, and I'd agree. So what if folks don't like Snowden?

by derf_ 11y ago

spacehome 11y ago

Eh, to be fair, the vice president has very little power and doesn't seem to be of any great consequence.

dimino 11y ago

Hah, I don't think anyone would disagree with you if your thesis here is "most people are generally uninformed". That being said, technically speaking yes, it probably was a different set of people polled, just considering how the nature of polling works! What you're not understanding though is that people actually seem to separate the content of the leak with the act of the leak. All it takes is a quick Google of "NSA spying program polling" to see polls affirming that hypothesis (folks disapprove of Snowden, but also heavily disapprove of the NSA spying program). Snowden himself has been known to beg folks during his interviews to stop caring about him or what he did, and focus on the content of the information he released, and I'd agree. So what if folks don't like Snowden?