43% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11

Memnoch · 08-10-2006 9:52am #1

Americans never seize to amaze me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/43-of-americans-still-be_b_28877.html

Asked whether former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 52 percent said he was not, but 43 percent said they believe he was. The White House has denied Hussein's 9/11 involvement -- most recently in a news conference August 21, when President Bush said Hussein had "nothing" to do with the attacks.

Okay the guy in the video does seem to be a bit of a psycho but he's funny and makes some valid points.

Here's a link to the original CNN article...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/06/iraq.poll/index.html

Seriously though, how can a democracy function when such a huge portion of the populace is clearly ignorant and clueless? This is the power of and danger from organizations like FOX news that are responsible for spreading this kind of misinformation and propaganda.

philologos · 08-10-2006 10:00am

hahaha!! Thats insane....

constitutionus · 08-10-2006 10:56am

just be glad they havent mixed "iraq" up with "ireland". both begin with "I" and share several letters so they must be connected

edanto · 08-10-2006 11:19am

Dubya wrote:

One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the War on Terror

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEJY6g-Z3nE (about 6 minutes in, after the staying focussed bit)

I'd imagine that is a hard part of his job, especially considering this next clip where Bush answers the question, "What did Iraq have to do with the attack on the WTC?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9VNBmN_HUA

Another stunning stat from that Cenk blog is the Zogby survey saying that 85% of troops in Iraq believe that Hussein was responsible for 9/11. Glibly then, are US soldiers twice as gullible as regular citizens? Or is part of the selection process to look for people that won't question what they're told?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 08-10-2006 11:43am

isn't that why eircom changed their name, didn't want to be getting mixed up with telecom iran in the minds of the americans

08-10-2006 11:50am

constitutionus wrote:

just be glad they havent mixed "iraq" up with "ireland". both begin with "I" and share several letters so they must be connected

http://carcino.gen.nz/images/index.php/0c898237/6af39248

bonkey · 08-10-2006 11:56am

Not to mention that Iraq is scarily similar in shape to county Monaghan.

mike65 · 08-10-2006 12:03pm

This needs putting in context.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0701-05.htm

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040216-113955-2061r.htm

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=146

http://www.randomperspective.com/page.asp?1news/3/022

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/14/us_ghost_survey/

Mike.

Thomas_S_Hunterson · 08-10-2006 12:11pm

Memnoch wrote:

Seriously though, how can a democracy function when such a huge portion of the populace is clearly ignorant and clueless? This is the power of and danger from organizations like FOX news that are responsible for spreading this kind of misinformation and propaganda.

Thats the reason why it functions. The US is simply too large to function as an open democracy. There is too much money involved and too many differing opinions. To maintain any sort of stability, certain human rights have to be controlled, as such the fictional "Licence to Kill", or "Fifth Freedom" exists albeit not officially in writing. This seems to come under the guise of anti-terrorism laws, and anti-treason laws which still legalise torture. The idiot americans are willing to just jump when told to, if there is any mention of terrorism.

Akrasia · 08-10-2006 1:09pm

Americans are so indoctrinated it's really not funny.

Here is part of a conversation i had with an american 'Liberal' a few days ago. This guy is a respected Lawyer and his opinions are still insane.

why did americans vote for bush..

oyaji said:

People:

a) are stupid
b) were afraid
c) didn't like Kerry personally
e) didn't cotton to Kerry politically because he was a god-awful candidate.

Akrasia said:

or, the real reason. more than 3.6 million, mostly democratic votes were not counted.

This is a fact by the way, not a theory.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/15/1334249

his reply

Wah wah wah. There are electorial shenanigans in every presidential election. There are a great number of presidential elections about which we could say that the "real" outcome-determinative reason was such skulduggery (e.g. the 1960 presidential election). But that's not the "real reason."

The real reason is that Kennedy was a better candidate than Nixon and he had a more effective campaign. The real reason that Bush won again was that he was a more appealing candidate than whishy-washy Kerry and Bush's campaign was far more effective and disciplined than Kerry's and Karl Rove has the ground game dominated.

No one wants to hear this tired old saw of the stolen election in 2004. Welcome to American politics; cry me a river.

My response

did you look at my link?
There are shenanigans in most elections, but not all shenanigans are equal. What happened in 2004 was classic Election theft, Joseph Stalin style.
(Stalin said famously "It's not the people who vote that counts, it's the people who count the votes"
The scale of electoral fraud being perpetrated by the Republican party is unprecedented in American history.
3.6 million votes not counted, millions more gave up without even getting to the ballots due to deliberate under resourcing of the voting centers where the majority of the voters are democrats. The republicans had "caging lists" of thousands of black democrat voters who were to be challenged at the ballot box. Some of these lists were mistakenly e-mailed to georgebush.org. The evidence is there if you just open your eyes.
How can you defend this kind of corruption?

How can you say "Wah Wah Wah, It's all in the past, move along people, we're bored of that". It's not over, the fraud is not a one time only deal. It happened in 2000, your country "Moved on" it happened in 2004, your country complained a bit and "moved on" and it's going to happen in 2008 and that will leave plenty of time for the republicans to destroy every last shred of decency in the heart of america.

His reply

I'm not defending it. I'm saying that both parties do this ****. The solution to the problem is either to win by so much that the cheating at the margins doesn't matter or to cheat better at the margins. Bush was a terrible candidate in 2004. A decent alternative would have dominated him. Instead the dems picked a candidate destined to do poorly. We picked a candidate who had absolutely no hope of winning or at least being competitive in the south. We picked a candidate who was all over the place and totally undisciplined. The fact of the matter is that both elections were within the margin of error for the machines and processes used to count the votes. Okay, yeah, the shenanigans such. But there will always be shenanigans. Karl Rove could never "steal" an election from Clinton.

Your whinging is not accomplishing anything. If you were advocating something productive as an alternative to being victimized by republican dirty tricks, I would be all for it. But you're not. You're crying like a big ****ing baby. Take it on the chin and move on

The conversation went on like that for a few pages. I kept talking about the specifics of the republican election fraud, he kept saying that the solution was to have a better Democrat candidate and to cheat just as much as the republicans.

Dave! · 08-10-2006 1:10pm

Oh dear god..... That's scary. How are these people so f*cking stupid?!?!?! Read some of the links posted by mike65 too.

AHOKSLOG<DSFHOKMPRLMLRP<DRP{L<DLD<FB{<EG GRRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!

idiots.

Akrasia · 08-10-2006 1:22pm

I had a theory that the same proportion of americans who believe in the Saddam/9/11 link are also opponents of Evolution and proponents of young earth creationism.

I was right. a 2001 Gallup poll demonstrated that 45% of Americans believe God created Man in his present form. http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/creation/evol-poll.htm

Thomas_S_Hunterson · 08-10-2006 1:39pm

Akrasia wrote:

I was right. a 2001 Gallup poll demonstrated that 45% of Americans believe God created Man in his present form. http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/creation/evol-poll.htm

ROFL

pete · 08-10-2006 1:50pm

mike65 wrote:

This needs putting in context.
http://www.randomperspective.com/page.asp?1news/3/022

that link wrote:

For people concerned by this article, Professor Wilson had the following advice:

“Always double check your facts – just because you have seen a fact printed in one place does not make it a fact. It could be a hoax website – or even a piece of news satire.”

With the advent of the Internet, many news satire pieces are being picked up by people and being quoted as fact. A famous example of this is China's leading newspaper – the Beijing Evening Star – quoting a story from the Onion that stated Congress were demanding a new Capitol building with a retractable dome.

An even more shocking example was when the CIA inadvertently mistook a news report on a small online satire magazine run by two students that a small village in Canada was a training camp for Al-Qaeda operatives and levelled it with an air strike killing 130 innocent people.

weh weh weh

bonkey · 08-10-2006 2:10pm

An even more shocking example was when the CIA inadvertently mistook a news report on a small online satire magazine run by two students that a small village in Canada was a training camp for Al-Qaeda operatives and levelled it with an air strike killing 130 innocent people.

Thats just class, that is.

the_syco · 08-10-2006 2:10pm

Lolerz @ http://www.randomperspective.com/page.asp?1news/3/022

=-=

Not surprised with the 43% figure, tbh, esp as 51% voted for Bush. That means 51% belived his lies.

08-10-2006 2:24pm

If they're so stupid,how are they so powerfull?

Akrasia · 08-10-2006 2:34pm

Tristrame wrote:

If they're so stupid,how are they so powerfull?

The people are indoctrinated, the rulers are powerful because they have the biggest guns and no qualms about using them.
Power is not necessarily derrived from intelligence, more often, power comes from violence and aggression

philologos · 08-10-2006 2:40pm

Clever people within US Politics are able to manipulate much of the US public. That's how their system works. They fail to recognise that they have made Iraq worse since they have invaded it. Torture is now worse than it was under Saddam. It was bad then but its even worse now.

08-10-2006 3:01pm

So there are some clever people in the U.S but most of them are stupid and hence they are the most powerfull country in the world.

I see.

RedPlanet · 08-10-2006 3:12pm

Tristrame wrote:

If they're so stupid,how are they so powerfull?

Bullies usually aren't the brighest.
Maybe Americans opt for military power because they have small d***s?

mike65 · 08-10-2006 3:24pm

They are powerful cos you don't need to be Mastermind to work hard and apply oneself to doing a good job in everyday life. Sure its easy to mock they lack of nous of many Joe Citizens but Yanks will never slack and thats where the money to buy the guns comes from.

Mike.

08-10-2006 3:50pm

People are equally stupid here, it's just there hasn't been quite so much effort put into manipulating the population.

Best not to underestimate the intelligence of the people pulling the strings.

spooiirt!! · 08-10-2006 5:35pm

Yeah yeah americans are dumb. Say how many of the worlds top twenty universities are American? How many are Irish?

Time Magazine · 08-10-2006 6:31pm

spooiirt!! wrote:

Yeah yeah americans are dumb. Say how many of the worlds top twenty universities are American? How many are Irish?

Ireland has a population of 4 million people, the USA have something in the region of 290 million.

We have seven universities; less than the USA have in the world's top twenty.

These cows are small, but those are far away.

spooiirt!! · 08-10-2006 7:56pm

Ah so its the Population game you wanna play?

USA, 280 million, 17 of the top 20 Unis.
France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, England, Switzerland,Ireland, Austria, approx 280 million, 2 of the top twenty unis.

These kiss my ass are small, but those are far away.

Akrasia · 08-10-2006 8:45pm

spooiirt!! wrote:

Ah so its the Population game you wanna play?

USA, 280 million, 17 of the top 20 Unis.
France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, England, Switzerland,Ireland, Austria, approx 280 million, 2 of the top twenty unis.

These kiss my ass are small, but those are far away.

The top american universities have far more resources at their disposal compared with universities in Ireland or in most of Europe. American universities can afford to buy in talent from around the world. They can attract the brightest students and the best academic staff.

For an irish student to attend Trinity College, Arguably Ireland's best Universtiy, it is free, (or you can say about 1,000 if you include student services fees) for an american student to attend Harvard it costs around $40,000 per year.

Memnoch · 08-10-2006 8:54pm

spooiirt!! wrote:

Yeah yeah americans are dumb. Say how many of the worlds top twenty universities are American? How many are Irish?

not all americans, just 43% of them, which is still over a 100 million people.

Probably, none of those 43% went to or will go to any of those top twenty universities your talking about.

Unless off course the University of Holy Bible Truths is among them.

LostinBlanch · 08-10-2006 8:59pm

constitutionus wrote:

just be glad they havent mixed "iraq" up with "ireland". both begin with "I" and share several letters so they must be connected

And we sit right beside them in the UN :eek: With Israel on the other side

spooiirt!! · 08-10-2006 9:35pm

Memnoch wrote:

Unless off course the University of Holy Bible Truths is among them.

Yeah or the university of typical stereotypes. Biddel di die diedell die hey, wheres your pot of gold my son?

"For an irish student to attend Trinity College, Arguably Ireland's best Universtiy, it is free, (or you can say about 1,000 if you include student services fees) for an american student to attend Harvard it costs around $40,000 per year"

Yes of course it costs more for the student. How much does it cost the state to send one student to trinners?

"American universities can afford to buy in talent from around the world. They can attract the brightest students and the best academic staff."

Of course. Money. Thats what makes them better. And? Does that take away from the fact that they are better?

(it also depends on wether you get a scholarship or not. American Colleges give Scholarships for just about everything. A mate of mine is on a partial football scholarship in Wisconsin. He only pays half price, and hes only a back up player. )
If someone is really bright in the US theyll go to harvard, princeton etc wether they can afford it or not. I remember reading that american colleges give 25000 scholarships to foreign students alone every year.

Akrasia · 09-10-2006 1:23am

spooiirt!! wrote:

Yeah or the university of typical stereotypes. Biddel di die diedell die hey, wheres your pot of gold my son?

"For an irish student to attend Trinity College, Arguably Ireland's best Universtiy, it is free, (or you can say about 1,000 if you include student services fees) for an american student to attend Harvard it costs around $40,000 per year"

Yes of course it costs more for the student. How much does it cost the state to send one student to trinners?

I think the state subvention is around €8,000 per student. (less for arts, slightly more for engineering students)
That is less than 1/4 of the per student funding in U.S. colleges, and that doesn't include the massive corporate funding given to Ivy league U.S. universities and the huge State funding given to research at these universities that dwarfs funding given to Irish or european universities.

"American universities can afford to buy in talent from around the world. They can attract the brightest students and the best academic staff."

Of course. Money. Thats what makes them better. And? Does that take away from the fact that they are better?

Money makes those universities better. Nobody is arguing against the facts that the Top U.S. universities are better institutions than Irish or European counterparts. I am arguing that the fact that the U.S. has the worlds best universities is a good indication of the level of intelligence of the average U.S. citizen. Clearly it is not.

(it also depends on wether you get a scholarship or not. American Colleges give Scholarships for just about everything. A mate of mine is on a partial football scholarship in Wisconsin. He only pays half price, and hes only a back up player. )
If someone is really bright in the US theyll go to harvard, princeton etc wether they can afford it or not. I remember reading that american colleges give 25000 scholarships to foreign students alone every year.

The fact that U.S. colleges give high scholarships for athletes is no secret. It is also nothing to do with the level of intelligence of the American people. College sports in America is massive business. The investment by the universities in Scholarships for talented athletes would more than pay for itself through increased income from successful sporting teams. (another revenue stream not available to Irish or european universities)

Memnoch · 09-10-2006 7:58am

spooiirt!! wrote:

Yeah or the university of typical stereotypes. Biddel di die diedell die hey, wheres your pot of gold my son?

Well 43% of americans believe that saddam was involved in 9/11, and 43% believe the bible is literally true, these aren't sterotypes, they are researched facts... I'm guessing it's the same 43%, and I'm guessing the university of holy bible truths does indeed apply.

There is a difference between sterotypes and mythology which you seem to be confusing.

If someone thought that most irish people abused alcohol, then that would be a stereotype, but it wouldn't be far off the mark since something like 50% of irish ppl binge drink

guildofevil · 09-10-2006 11:57am

Look. Intelligence is not a function of where you are born.

I could have been born in Alabama, instead of Dublin. My brain would work in the same way. I would be no more or less intelligent than I am now but I would have grown up differently and could well believe that the 9/11 hijackers were Saddam's best buddies.

Americans are not stupid. On average, they are not as well educated than Europeans but this is a relatively small difference and does not explain this phenomenon.

The reason for this shocking ignorance, on the part of so many Americans, is that they tend to be very parochial.

Most Americans who buy a newspaper by a local newspaper, not a national one. This is because they are primarily interested in events in their immediate locality. They are interested in their local city or county government and the state legislature. Most get a bit vague when it comes to national politics and really don't have a clue when you move into the realm of international affairs.

When someone comes up to them on the street and asks them their opinion on something in international politics, they don't have a clue, but don't want to seem uninformed, so they feel they have to at least try to answer.

With only half remembered CNN from months or years ago to go on, they just fall back to an understandable emotional reaction and begin, as they see it, supporting their country.

They don't know what they are talking about, but they believe that the US are the good guys and they know that Saddam is evil, so they make an assumption.

They don't know the real deal (do any of us) and they were arguing with a neighbour about the new stop sign proposed for the junction Blake Avenue avenue and 4th street, when GWB made his statement, changing the official party line on Iraqi involvement in 9/11. Basically, they didn't get the memo.

They are not stupid, they just aren't all that interested.

They may no know much about international politics, but I bet they know a lot more about their local government than most of us know about ours.

Ayla · 09-10-2006 1:22pm

I am an American, and I came to live in Ireland almost 2 years ago b/c of my husband. Every now and again a thread like this starts on this website that is American-bashing and this one, like the others, never ceases to amaze me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to proclaim that Americans as a whole know very much about the world. I agree that we are spoon-fed our opinions, and few take the time or energy to formulate their own ideas about current events.

And don't even get me started on the Bush/Kerry election (that was b.s., I have no doubt). :rolleyes:

My decision to post on this thread, however, is maybe to suggest a bit of tact when criticizing Americans so generally. After all, a lot of Americans are direct descendants of Ireland (and not so long ago that they're not claiming their "Irishness" within the States.) Yes, 43% of Americans may incorrectly believe that Saddam had something to do w/ 9/11, but that means 57% are undecided or understand that he didn't. Even by election standards 57% is a majority.

And I've been living within Ireland long enough to take the rose-tinted glasses off and see that a lot of Irish don't have a clue about current events either. And I predict that the more comfy the Irish become with their new economic standing the less they'll know about the world around them. It's a common phenomenom...the wealthy are content in their little fishbowl and so don't bother about the cats peering just above the water.

Just think before you go criticizing an entire nation of people, especially if you've never lived there or personally experienced their lives.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 09-10-2006 1:54pm

well, I've been living in canada for the past year.. about 5-6 hours from the american border and I've yet to meet a single person who didn't tell me a couple of stories about "stupid americans" they've had contact with.

maybe americans aren't as stupid as the rest of the world things, but the rest of the world doesn't really care. if it feels good we laugh at it.

guildofevil · 09-10-2006 2:17pm

I agree completely with you Ayla. I am often saddened by the ignorance and apparent stupidity found in Ireland too.

In fact, if you look hard enough anywhere in the world you will discover that people are stupid.

For example, I lived in Germany for a while and, while they are, for the most part, more interested in international politics, I don't think they really understand them any better than anyone else.

During the first Gulf war, they really got their knickers in a twist.

Somehow the the German Public got it into their heads that, not only did Saddam have the mad big Supergun everyone was crapping on about, at the time, but that it was capable of delivering chemical warfare shells to Germany.

They were really scared of this and all of the army/navy surplus shops ran out of gas masks in no time flat, causing even more panic.

People were really angry and scared and began shouting about the government not protecting the people from the imminent chemical death they were all going to suffer.

My aunt, who is Irish, was living in Schleswig-Holstein (the most northerly part of Germany) at the time and was actually considering flying back to Ireland and staying with my mother, so she and her family, be safe.

My mother couldn't believe the hysteria on on the other end of the phone.

aidan24326 · 09-10-2006 3:11pm

Akrasia wrote:

The people are indoctrinated, the rulers are powerful because they have the biggest guns and no qualms about using them.
Power is not necessarily derrived from intelligence, more often, power comes from violence and aggression

Quite true. You don't have to be intelligent to be powerful, unfortunately. As someone once said, the trouble with power is it usually ends up in the hands of the very people who shouldn't have it.

Lirange · 10-10-2006 5:46am

Ayla wrote:

Yes, 43% of Americans may incorrectly believe that Saddam had something to do w/ 9/11, but that means 57% are undecided or understand that he didn't. Even by election standards 57% is a majority.

That may be so. But how many of those 43% just happen to be Republicans? There was a report on CNN awhile back that conducted the same poll but correlated it with political loyalties. You can guess the results. Some of this may in fact be due to insularity and I agree with much of guildofevil's comments. But some of it just bullheadedness. You do not have to be a worldy person to know better. You don't need to have all the answers in order to ask the right questions.

As simplistic as it sounds there are really two Americas right now. It is polarised. That polarisation is NOT based upon the war on terror or foreign affairs. It centres around social values and cultural politics. The political climate is so divided that the people on either side take on the other policies as a matter of course ... that includes international issues. The Republicans condemned Clinton during the Kosovo intervention. This was just after the movie Wag the Dog. The Republicans were making the most of that alleging it was an attempt to divert the American public away from Monicagate. People in this administration can definitely be characterised as war hawks but I would not say that of Republican party supporters ... they are just toeing the line. As long as their core social/conservative values are upheld the politicians are given leeway on the international stage.

Ayla · 10-10-2006 9:43am

Lirange wrote:

That may be so. But how many of those 43% just happen to be Republicans? There was a report on CNN awhile back that conducted the same poll but correlated it with political loyalties.

First of all, I've done polls, and I'll tell you there are so many ways to make the data say exactly what you want it to say that it's almost a joke.

I'm not saying the Republican party hasn't fully supported a lot of this war, and that a lot of Americans are Republican. That's obvious. It's a common theme that when people get nervous, as they did after 9/11, the Republican party gains popularity b/c they come in with a hard attack and put the people back on the offensive.

And it's also common, as you noted that both parties play these games with the public and ensure the "other guy" is dragged through as much mud as possible. That's politics, and we don't need to look any further than Irish politics of the last week to see the same thing happening here.

So how does this reflect on the American people? From growing up there, I can say that (as guildofevil mentioned) Americans are much more concerned with their local goings-on then the international world. It's not necessarily right, but it's true. That doesn't mean they're stupid or laughable, but what it does show is that when you live in a nation that's as big as the states, it's easy to forget that there's anything else.

So when the media spoon-feeds you information, much of which is biased in it's on way, it's easy to take that as fact and base your opinions on that. I'm not defending it (it's a lazy and easy way out), but perhaps we could all try and understand why the general American population is as it is? I know it's funny to laugh at Americans and everyone loves getting their digs in (Mordeth you're guilty of this as well), but how about everyone stop the jokes for awhile to actually see the real issues?

I'll be the first to admit Americans aren't perfect, but by God neither is anyone else.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/ · 12-10-2006 8:00am

spooiirt!! wrote:

Yeah yeah americans are dumb. Say how many of the worlds top twenty universities are American? How many are Irish?

your American right?

that post proves the point

LovelyHurling · 12-10-2006 9:04am

Originally Posted by spooiirt!!
Yeah yeah americans are dumb. Say how many of the worlds top twenty universities are American? How many are Irish?

Depends what kind of measuring stick you use. what gives you the idea that the American universities are better than anyplace else?
The popular theory in corporate-academic circles is that the measure of a universiity is it's research output cited in upstanding, largely scientific journals. Not only does much of this fail to take account of the humanities and law, but indeed is completely ignorant the quality of teaching bestowed upon undergraduates.
It's offtopic, but I think it's an important point.

And lets not forget the notable international presence in the ivy league universities either.

Ontopic: there isnt really much more to say. The fact that 43% of Americans s.d.+/- 4.5% actually believe that crap is telling in itself.

Shabadu · 12-10-2006 9:07am

Memnoch wrote:

Americans never seize to amaze me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/43-of-americans-still-be_b_28877.html

Okay the guy in the video does seem to be a bit of a psycho but he's funny and makes some valid points.

Here's a link to the original CNN article...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/06/iraq.poll/index.html

Seriously though, how can a democracy function when such a huge portion of the populace is clearly ignorant and clueless? This is the power of and danger from organizations like FOX news that are responsible for spreading this kind of misinformation and propaganda.

Well, to be honest, in a shopping centre in Tullamore last year, I saw a 10 yr old point out a Halloween mask of Osama Bin Laden to his Mum saying: "Look! Look! Saddam Hussein!". Fair enough, thought I, a silly mistake for a 10 yr old. Surely his Mum will now correct him. Tullamore Mum: "Oh yeah! LOL!"

InFront · 12-10-2006 9:10am

hallowe'en masks of bin laden? what next, hallowe'en masks of dick cheney?

Shabadu · 12-10-2006 9:13am

Yeah, the whole vignette complete with turbaned Bin Laden Mask felt like some post modern, post ironic live art ensemble.

Bottle_of_Smoke · 21-10-2006 2:37am

Ok - Polls are the easiest thing to manipulate in the world

For example - Headline tells you "Polls show 90% of people support the Irish language in schools" - then goes on to say this is a reason Gaelige should continue to be compulsory in school.

I know one person personally who surveyed joe public for this poll - the question was "Do you think the Irish language should be taght in schools?" even though you'd have expected it to be "do you think Irish should be optional or compulsory in schools?"

I wouldn't be surprised if the Hussein question was along the lines of "Do you think Saddam Hussein may have had any personal involvement in 9/11" - You exaggerate any & a lot of people who didnt know for sure/didnt care will answer yes.

I worked for a different telemarketing place - you can easily get people to answer in a certain way if you feel like it/

America bashings getting old- insulting them generally is insulting ourselves. Same species I'm afraid/

\m/_(>_<)_\m/ · 23-10-2006 7:37am

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote:

Ok - Polls are the easiest thing to manipulate in the world

I wouldn't be surprised if the Hussein question was along the lines of "Do you think Saddam Hussein may have had any personal involvement in 9/11" - You exaggerate any & a lot of people who didnt know for sure/didnt care will answer yes.
/

but the point here is that he didn't have ANY personal involvement in 9/11.
so 43% are still hugely ill informed, or just plane dumb...even the way you put that question.

Bottle_of_Smoke · 23-10-2006 10:50pm

\m/_(>_<)_\m/ wrote:

but the point here is that he didn't have ANY personal involvement in 9/11.
so 43% are still hugely ill informed, or just plane dumb...even the way you put that question.

plane dumb - teehee, the ironing is delicious!

Honestly its split second stuff - ill informed yes but as i said can be easily manipulated/ if it had of been "do you think it's possible Saddam Hussain had any personal involvement in 9/11?" I reckon you'd get at least 43% of Irish people to say yes.

Don't mean to be condescending but I've worked in these places & I know how easy it is to do.

free2fly · 27-10-2006 8:30pm

Ouch! We're not all that gullible. I didn't vote for Bush in either election. And I was completely disgusted with the suggestion that Hussein had anything to do with 9/11. I never bought the progaganda that is spewed by certain US news channels. I have a mind of my own. I read international websites to get a different view of world situations. I hate generalizations. But to be fair I have spoken to many Americans who will believe anything they are told, or are just too caught up in their own lives to care much about international issue.

43% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11

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