The Glade 4.0

Ok, I want to start with stating this is NOT about the organization that called me, so I don't want to make this a discussion about gun rights, the UN or whatever.


I got an automated call this morning from the NRA. Ordinarily I would simply ignore, but I was curious why they would be calling me. (other than the fact I live in Kentucky)

The call launched into a (I hate to use the word slanted, the description wasn't slanted, it was simply a collection of blatant lies) 'biased' description of a UN resolution, insisting that the UN resolution would superceed the 2nd Amendment, that the Obama administration was going to confiscate everyone's guns, etc etc etc.
Then they asked me yes or no if I supported destroying the 2nd amendment, letting the UN come on to US soil and take everyones guns, etc.

(I assume this is related to this: http://www.factcheck.org/2009/12/intern ... an-treaty/ )

What irks me here is the pretense of a 'survey'

I grew up in a household where surveys were a common subject of conversation. (My father is the Survey Methodologist for IPPSR) and I've worked both doing marketing surveys (worst...job...ever...) and spent a couple of years doing data processing and data entry for IPPSR myself.

maybe I'm over sensitive but we always went SO far to avoid any bias in the questions, auditing the people who asked the questions to make sure they were not slanting them one way or another, doing our best to eliminate as much bias as possible.

I understand, they have an agenda and want to push it, but the pretense was what pissed me off. Why even bother with the games? Why go through the charade of a survey?

I'd like to add that this sort of BS is pulled by all sorts of lobbying organizations, not just those on the political right. The NRA is just who #$@$ me off this morning.

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I have this option on my phone that let's me hang up at any time I start to feel irked.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

NO WAY. You have one of those?!?!

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

I feel obligated to answer survey questions given my father's occupation.

And I feel compelled to oppose the NRA's tactics by skewing their results.

Yep. I pay and extra 6.99 a month for it. The salesman said I could'nt live without it!

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

The survey isn't there for any purpose except to make you feel like your input is valued which makes you more likely to contribute which is what they are actually after.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Yeah, sounds like a BS survey.

"Do you want to increase funding for public schools or do you hate children?"

*click*

And come here to ***** about it.

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"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." - Alice R. Longworth

"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun." - Ash Williams

So apparently this IS about the NRA?

This is just all part of the process.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

how do you figure?

I skew anyone's survey tactics that pulls this bs with me.

It's worse than that. 48% of the time, the statistics are completely made up.

I meant the processes described in that particular book, not merely implied by the title.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

You know, as a general rule, one can find the survey and questions asked in phone surveys by various groups; in the past, the NRA has been particularly good about posting its surveys and methodology on its own news before the survey even goes to calls ...

All I see is a bunch of liberals on the net whining about a crackpot survey, but no indication from the NRA themselves that they're conducting a survey.

So, I wonder ...

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By Jove you've cracked it Khross! Its a liberal conspiracy, spearheaded by me! I'm conspiring to bring down the NRA by making up stories about their surveying practices! Yes, I'm sure that's it.

Not even the Poster Who Shall Not Be Named ever played the Victim Card that fast ...

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I think the far more reasonable and broadly applicable reading of Khross' post, Riov, is simply that some non-NRA group is posing as the NRA as they perform this survey, for whatever reason.

Unless you believe that Khross suspects you of fabricating the survey yourself, and cold calling several other people who have posted similar complaints. But no, you jump to the assumption that Khross is asserting that you're simply posting under various pseudonyms on many sites to fabricate this.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Ahhh. See I assumed that Khross was just being a jerk, and not that he was joining the tinfoil hat society. Silly me.

Because obviously the idea that someone might pretend to be someone they're not on the telephone is tinfoil-hat worthy.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Why? To persuade the 1000 people in America that forgot to register for the Do-Not-Call List that the NRA is nuts? Whatever happened to Occam's razor?

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I hate to break this to you, but occasionally people do things that are not well thought out.

As for Occam's razor, it's a rather badly abused principle and at least a little arbitrary.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

More likely, NRA farmed a survey out to an incompetent company or someone spent thousands of dollars to run a campaign to reach out to a handful of people and convince them that the NRA REEEEALLLY supports gun rights?

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Or, a left leaning cause which already had contact information for the people they intended to call did this to stir up some ****.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20