This is how I see polling. Your results may vary.

1. For 90% of the time the pollsters can just make shit up within reason
2. They have to at least be in the realm of reality to be believed.
3. Sometimes their desire to push a particular point even outweighs this and

3. (cont) they push really fake polls that all the media report as God's honest truth like 90% of Americans believe in masks 🙄🙄 or that Biden is up by +14pts nationally while He is still fighting in PA🙄🙄.
4. But for the most part they stay within the realm of reality
5. The only "check" on pollsters is an election, where reality is actually measured not polled.

6. It is then extremely important that the pollsters get those last couple of polls before an election as close to reality as possible.

7. They need to get those final polls right.
8. Once the election is held and those final polls are compared to reality, the pollsters will loudly proclaim "See, the polls are right all the time because we got the election right"

9. Then the day after the election they can go back to fudging reality.
10. Many people fall for it, every time. Then it's simply a matter of rinse and repeat as the pollsters are paid to form public opinion not measure it until the next election.

11. Granted there are some pollsters that don't do this and strive to get it "right" every time.
12. And the ability of most pollsters to get it "mostly right" (within the Margin of error at least) before the election tells you that polls can be "accurate" if they want them to be. So, it's an easy tool to use to shape public opinion when you need it.
13. Due to all of this ability of the pollsters to make shit up and not be called on it, I've found that polls are pretty useless as a way to measure anything for the vast majority of time.

14. Sure they are fun to use when they "confirm" your opinion or belief but that doesn't
14. (Cont) mean the poll is "true". Polls, at the best of times, should, IMO, be viewed as suspect because there is absolutely no why to check that they are correct accept for that one day when all the people that want to vote actually vote and are actually measured.
15. Even on election day, polls can be used negatively as they give an opportunity for voter fraud as people counting the votes can use fraud to bring reality inline with the polls.

16. However, polls tend to pick up trends because they use the same procedures over and over.
17. So, there is some value to them even if the final result/number is complete bullshit. As long as you view polls with all of this in mind, they can be a week tool in your toolbox, but you should not allow polls to become your only tool or even your main tool.

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