Lying to the Pollster

’Tis the season for telephone polls, and earlier tonight I got a call from one of the poll robots. A lot of the time I hang up on the pollsters, because I don’t have the time or the patience to sit through all the yap-yap. But tonight I was in a mellow mood for some reason, so I went ahead and answered the questions.

For quite a few years now all the political polls that come in to Schloss Bodissey have been fully automated. This one wasn’t a robot voice, as far as I could tell — they’d actually hired a woman to record all the questions and all the numeric options for responses — but there was no human being on the other end of the line during the call.

Strangely enough, it didn’t begin with “Para continuar en español, oprima nueve.” That’s what I get when I talk to the electric company, or the bank, or the credit card company, or the phone company. Could the polling company’s algorithms tell from my south-of-the-Mason-Dixon-Line “Hello” that I was a native English speaker from the South — a moderate rebel, as it were?

Anyway, the digital voice launched into its spiel. It gave the name of the polling company, and said it would like to ask me a few questions. I pressed “1” to continue.

It said, “First of all: Is this Edward?”

Well. I tend towards paranoia, but I also assume that I have no privacy left. So I pressed “1” to tell the robot lady that yes indeed, I was Edward. But the thing is, anyone who calls me “Edward” doesn’t know me. That’s what tells me to hang up immediately when a salesman calls and asks for Edward. So wherever this polling company got the connection between our number and Edward, it wasn’t a from a friend of mine.

From there on, however, I lied. It’s my policy to lie to pollsters. I don’t want the social engineers to get an accurate reading of the pulse of the American public. I don’t let them know how I feel until I actually enter the voting booth.

If you feel the same way, I recommend that you lie to pollsters whenever they call.

I strongly approved of Hillary Clinton and most of her policies — minimum wage, health care, taxing the rich at a higher rate, etc. etc. I strongly disapproved of Donald Trump and all his hateful xenophobic racist policies.

But I didn’t punch the button for the exact opposite of my opinion in every case. I varied it a little bit (mostly by pressing “3” for “it doesn’t matter”) just to randomize the result.

But then, when the robot reached the end of its (her?) list of questions, it told me…

… that the poll had been sponsored by Donald J. Trump for President. Wotta gag!

But, seriously, think about it — if I had been a municipal employee, or a teacher, and the robot already knew who I was, would I have told the robot I supported Donald Trump?

Unless I was totally brain-dead, I would know what happens to people who publicly reveal their support for Donald Trump. They lose their jobs. They’re referred to mandatory counseling. They get beaten up. Someone phones in to the school and threatens their kids. They get a brick thrown through the windshield of their car.

That’s why I don’t think any of the polls are accurate. Even if the media are commissioning truly representative polls and reporting the results accurately, they aren’t taking the real pulse of the nation. Because a prudent voter will lie to the voice on the other end of the line if he holds anything but the pre-approved, politically correct opinions.

As for me, I lied on principle.

I don’t have to lie out of self-interest. I don’t have a job to lose. I live in a very red county in a very red region, where people own 4x4s and chew tobacco and say “ain’t” and “y’all”.

And everybody — and I mean everybody — owns a firearm. Or several.

52 thoughts on “Lying to the Pollster

  1. Good on you mo chara (my friend auf Deutsch…I mean Irish). One 2 many Guinness I reckon.. but then y’all y’all suthern red-neck trash knows wot i mean; as we used to say in Texas………smirk smirk.

  2. Unless I was totally brain-dead, I would know what happens to people who publicly reveal their support for Donald Trump.

    And what happens to them has created what Scott Adams calls “the shy Trump voter”. I love his use of the word “shy” in this context…so do other bloggers:

    From a country boy here in Virginny (I think)
    https://politicsandprosperity.com/tag/shy-trump-voter/
    ———————
    From Don Surber in West Virginny, who lost his MSM job for being too conservative (they’re mostly Dems in West VA, even though they depend on coal and the Dems want to shut that industry down):
    http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2016/10/they-think-were-mushrooms.html

    Look at Surber’s book on his site. An excellent compilation of all the talking head conservatives inside the Beltway or on the intertubes who are #NeverTrumpers despite the fact that #CrookedHillary is the sworn enemy of their political principles. But it’s more important to them to have access than it is to conform to their own principles. Surber’s book lists the truly awful things these supposedly principled people have said while scrambling to maintain a safe berth under Hill&Bill, Redux – they have the opposite problem to that of the #ShyTrumpsters).

    Adams has written on this phenomenon several times. Here is one idea he has about how the ST’s answer polls and why:

    http://blog.dilbert.com/post/149563357661/the-mental-vote

    I don’t know if polls will have a real place in future elections. The electorate is too divided, polarized, and devious – see the B’s reasonings – to answer truthfully. Of course, some of the more dystopian among us – you know who you are – are muttering about there not being any future elections anyway.

    But we’ll cover that when it comes time to scream about rigged elections. The rumbling has started but it won’t reach full pitch until Nov 9th. That’s when you may see Donald Trump starring as Sampson…bringing the whole Temple of the Sacred Vote tumbling down upon its rotted foundations.

    Stayed tuned…and as one of our commenters is fond of saying , in the meantime, “lock ’em & load ’em”…or do I have that backwards? Seems like you’d have to load them first? But what do I know? Guns are a fashion statement…I want the Hello Kitty AK-15.

    • Sampson, eh? Victor Mature c1950, with Hedy Lamarr (an intelligent and interesting woman offscreen) as Delilah, if I recall correctly.

      Called upon to wrestle a lion, and assured it was drugged and had its teeth drawn, Mature said “Who wants to be gummed to death?” Married five times, but allegedly gay, he sent up his macho image in “After the Fox” with Peter Sellers.

    • Please………………..
      “Lock” means to insert the magazine, then rock it back until it LOCKS into place.
      “Load” means to pull back on the charging handle so that the bolt slams foreword, thus chambering a round and readying the rifle to fire.
      Hence: Lock and Load. This method is identical for the commie AK-47/74 OR our national AR15/16/M4 series of rifles.

      Yer ‘Hello Kitty’ guns are finished in PINK (barf)–but lethal nevertheless.

    • I am close to 80 years old, I have lived on two continents and never in my life have I heard or read so much about an election being held in the USA. The debate here in Australia has never been more robust, on par I would say ,almost with a local one. That I beleive, says much about the state of our world. The land of my birth England has thrown off a yolk that has lain on the collective shoulders of the British people for decades, the EU is no more. That act alone has thrown the entire leftist movement of the world into confused terror , that terror is echoed in this up coming Right V Left fight in the USA. I admit bias but my feeling, perhaps overshadowed by hope, is that Trump will succeed in gaining the Presidency. There is a saying, that escapes me at this moment, about history being made by an action being taken at the precise moment in time, *taken at the flood* , God willing America is, at the Flood.

      • There is a tide in the affairs of men.
        Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
        Omitted, all the voyage of their life
        Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
        On such a full sea are we now afloat,
        And we must take the current when it serves,
        Or lose our ventures.

        — William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, spoken by Brutus

  3. I always ask if they are going to pay me for my time. When they say no, I say No thanks and hang up.

    • I also say I charge for my time, but it goes like this:
      Caller: ask question
      Me: Are you being paid to make this call.
      Caller: yes
      Me: Well, I’m a professional too, and I charge for my time.
      Caller: (sputters) or says I don’t know what you mean.
      Me: Explains
      Caller: hangs up or swears like sailor (that gives sailors a bad name)
      Me: hangs up

  4. Even for an automated polling phone call, it is usual that the questions will be pre-recorded with a natural sounding human voice, not electronically produced by text-to-voice software. Yesterday I received such a polling call. I assured the caller that I was for Hillary, and mixed up the answers as Edward did, for sake of believability. But when I saw that I would be asked my opinion on a long list of names of (local) candidates, I hung up, not wanting to spend more time on this. I wonder whether the answers of pollees who do not complete the questionnaire are counted.

    But why has Trump not asked his supporters to tell pollsters they support Hillary? This would effectively render all polling data useless. In fact, I have never heard of a candidate asking supporters to lie to pollsters. Is there some good (psychological?) reason why candidates do not adopt this poll-invalidating strategy?

  5. Same here in England. Kiss of death for any career to voice support for British National Party, Britain First, Liberty GB, EDL. Even the wishy washy UKIP gets a threat. Little item I read some time ago regarding C of E member of local church for 20 years was told by Bishop – via Vicar – his presence no longer wanted at church because he stood as BNP (I think) Councillor. Social Services threatened to take away foster children from family because foster parents were UKIP supporters and would “brainwash children”.

    Who would true valour see,
    Let him come hither;
    One here will constant be,
    Come wind, come weather
    There’s no discouragement
    Shall make him once relent
    His first avowed intent
    To be a pilgrim.

    Whoso beset him round
    With dismal stories
    Do but themselves confound;
    His strength the more is.
    No lion can him fright,
    He’ll with a giant fight,
    He will have a right
    To be a pilgrim.

    Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
    Can daunt his spirit,
    He knows he at the end
    Shall life inherit.
    Then fancies fly away,
    He’ll fear not what men say,
    He’ll labor night and day
    To be a pilgrim.

    (Mr. Bunyan).

  6. Anyone who has the time to do a survey is not the person you want to hear from.
    Simple rule – works every time.

  7. If you actually do get a human being on the other end of the line ; asking questions; consider straining your voice as you answer hesitantly ; simulating the once or twice daily activity where one purges oneself of waste matter. Ask the pollster to be patient with you as a compelling activity is taking precedent. Since the pollster is visiting Scheisse on your privacy….you too can visit some on the pollster.

    • If you connect with a human on the other end of the line,as they start their spiel interrupt and say just a minute please the baby was stirred by the phone . I will just settle him won’t be a minute then sing six or seven nursery rhymes they eventually hang up

  8. Or maybe it would be better if the Don just withdrew from the elections on November 6 or 7. I still think he planned something like this all along. Either because he has been
    a) a Clinton stooge from the beginning
    or b) he is so […] with RINOs and recognized the […] that he would have to wade through to get anything done if he had become president that he decided at a later date to absolutely the ”stupid” party.

    It would totally […] the […] which is politics in the US of A.

    The productive could move to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming or the Dakotas or the NE corner around Maine or Vermont, fortify themselves and burrow in. Alternatively, they could try to liquidate assets and move to foreign and more welcoming climes for the non-parasitical.

    • I have adduced the same thing. No other scenario can account for all the reality tv scripting.

    • That’s what the left want Trump supporters to to think.
      So you could be a Clinton supporter pretending to be a Trump supporter and expressing reservations about Trump in order to demotivate Trump supporters in order to ensure a Clinton election victory.

      I have difficulty believing that this site does not attract Clinton trolls eager to demotivate Trump supporters.
      After all there are plenty of Clinton trolls on Breitbart trying to demotivate Trump supporters .

      But here’s the thing.Trump is not only America’s only hope .He is also as the next leader of the free world Western civilization’s only hope.

      So no matter how tempting the Koolaide you’re offering to the unsophisticated among us.

      I assure you being made well acquainted with Clinton supporters’ dubious tactics ( by said Breitbart’s expose`s ) I have no intention of drinking it.

      • @Shelagh: “Trump is not only America’s only hope .He is also as the next leader of the free world Western civilization’s only hope.”

        I do indeed feel pretty much the same way.

      • Every time Trump supporters finds a clin-troll… well it gets NASTY fast. AND I DO MEAN NASTY!! The clint-troll is set upon like a rabbit being chased by HOUNDS…BIG HOWLING HOUNDS!

        I have watched with amusement as the PAID clin-troll is reduced to a simpering wimp… running away with its BLOODY entrails dragging in the snow.

        I always add a few comments to the effect of ” THAT’LL TEACH YOU TO COME hopping into OUR territory.

        OH, the HOWLS of the TRUMP VICTORS is a lovely sound.

        WHAT FUN!! I love it.

  9. Try to waste the pollsters time and drive up the cost of polling while reducing accuracy through reduced sample sizes. If it is automated just set the phone down without hanging up. If it is a real person then tell them you want to do this but you need to get something and can they hold for a bit…

  10. My phone number is also my business number. So anytime the phone rings and I don’t know the person I answer as if it were a business call. What follows is a click and a line going dead. Rather convenient and cuts to the chase, wouldn’t you say?

    OTOH, time was when people volunteered to be servants and stewards who would help the rest of us manage things that became much bigger than we were. Elections were held because we wanted the most competent person in the community available, out of rather obvious self-interest.
    Now self-interest is paramount and those who campaign for office are just that, campaigners who are off to battle the others who would oppose them in their quest for power and authority over others so as to be served, but not to serve. The old axiom of not trusting anyone who puts themselves first is being played out in this election season in stark technicolor reality. Competency for office is now measured by how many skeletons are in the candidate’s closet. The information machine is in high gear.
    I never thought it would be possible but America is resembling 1930s Germany with an Orwellian 1984 flavor. It has become a carouse-l ride that is going dizzyingly fast. Just watching makes me dizzy and somewhat nauseous. The parallels between Israel of Jeremiah’s time and now are a bit frightening.
    Batten down the hatches me hearties and trust in the LORD ’cause that’s all we have to hold onto during this wild hay ride.

  11. Here in Albion, things are of course so much better managed (!) Seriously, if my ‘phones (landline and mobile) are ex-directory, and I’m registered with the Telephone Preference Service, I get few uninvited calls, and they mostly originate abroad, where Her Britannic Majesty’s writ is weak. Maybe it’s different in the US?

    • Mark, you don’t know how well you have it, I’m in Canada, have only a land phone (no mobile–I’m prehistoric!) and many times every day the telemarketers ring!

      Thank goodness for the message recorder, one of the greatest ever inventions!

  12. Baron, I am disappointed. I have usually seen you as someone whose moral compass is unusually resistant to interference. In this case, I am afraid I can’t confirm that finding.

    Lying is a bad idea generally. It’s destructive for society. It’s forbidden by all major religions including Christianity, to which I believe you subscribe.

    You find yourself ‘justified’ in lying to the pollster, as a matter of policy. In 99.9% of cases of lying, the liar has a mental justification.

    Lying damages those polls. They rely on honesty. You don’t like the polls–don’t participate. You increase the costs, and ultimately the NUMBER of people who have to be called, for a given level of reliability.

    I’m not a Christian myself, but I can tell you one thing clearly: Jesus is not with you on this one. Neither is your pastor if you have one. Neither are Christians generally.

    I’ll tell you who is right behind you in your general principles here: Karl Marx and the entire Left.

    • Neither the telephone nor the poll existed in Jesus’ time, so I reckon He didn’t have anything to say about pollsters.

      I lie to pollsters as a matter of principle. This is because polls are dangerous, pernicious, and damaging to our social structure, to the moral fabric of society. They cause politicians to base their actions on the latest responses to poll questions, rather than their own judgment and principles.

      Furthermore, polls are a means to achieve subtle social control. This is one of their main purposes. Respondents are manipulated through carefully-worded deceptive questions. Results from unrepresentative samples are deliberately publicized in the media so as to make public opinion seem different from what it actually is. The intention is to overwhelm the average, uniformed voter with the sense that his opinions are in the minority, out of step with public opinion, and in the wrong, thereby causing him to change his vote, or to refrain from voting.

      This is an evil system. It is Satanic. I won’t lend my hand to the work of Satan in the world. If enough people lie to pollsters, the evil system will fail in its purpose and ultimately break down. Lying to pollsters is a moral and ethical good.

      Furthermore, the virtue that inheres in telling the truth applies only to my encounters with real human beings, not to conversations with an automated voice over the phone.

      I would lie without hesitation to save the life of my wife or my child, so lying is not always and everywhere an immoral act. Lying to a pollster is another instance of the same principle.

      Your assertions are simplistic at best.

      • Your kind of systemic reasoning is EXACTLY the kind of reasoning that Marxists use to lie. They identify what they consider evils and injustices in the system; define the system as evil and satanic; and justify lying against it.

        Why would you not justify:

        Lying at a job interview — because the capitalist system is satanic.
        Lying on your taxes — because the government is satanic.
        Lying in court — because the court is satanic and is oppressing the poor and weak
        Cheating in exams — because the education system is satanic and discriminatory

        No-one said that there were polls in Jesus time. Most Christians see Jesus (you can argue about whether this vision of him is justified or not) as placing a very high premium on truth, and seeing lying as an evil. I do believe that most Christians would see your lying to pollsters (even under your given justifications) as sinful.

        • Lying is not always wrong. Imagine that a thug breaks into my home, steals my valuables, points a gun at me, and says: “Where is your comely teenage daughter?” Is it moral for me to tell the truth and say: “She’s hiding in the attic.”? Or would it be better for me to lie and say: “She’s having a sleepover at her friend’s house.”?

          This demonstrates that lying is not always wrong, and that telling the truth is not always right. That means the question is: Where do you draw the line? And this is where you and I disagree.

          It is not always easy to determine what is right and wrong when we are all enmeshed in a massive, evil, ungodly social and political system. The advance of technology has created efficient vectors for the expression of evil that were not even conceivable when the Bible was written down. Therefore the Bible cannot always be a specific guide to choosing between right and wrong. In cases that involve the use of mass communications technology, a Christian must synthesize and extrapolate to determine what is morally correct.

          This means that, yes, I must use my own best judgment about the circumstances I find myself in. I must employ my native intelligence, draw on my education, and use my ability to reason to determine what Jesus might say if He were walking the earth in 2016.

          My reason and judgment and ability to draw analogies have led me to conclude that Jesus would say: “Lying to a telephone pollster is like the man who lied to the thief about where his daughter was hidden. Let all who have ears hear.”

          • I’ve already said much the same thing, that this breaking of the social contract is acceptable in cases of serious danger to life and limb. Like proportional violence is also acceptable in such circumstances.

            Jesus would never have said what you say.

            There are evils in pretty much every system. And not all that is called ‘social control’ is bad; the ten commandments are an important form of social control, including the one which says not to lie.

            You may be right about some of the evils of polling. You may be exaggerating; I think you are. I think you go way overboard to say polling is ‘satanic’.

            Being right about the evils of some polling does not justify lying to pollsters. You have not addressed any of my questions: why doesn’t the evils of the capitalist system justify lying in a job interview; or the evils of the education system not justify cheating in exams?

            It is not sufficient that a system manifests evils to justify lying against it. Not in Christianity anyway. In Marxism, yes.

          • It is not sufficient that a system manifests evils to justify lying against it.

            No, that is sufficient in itself. Ask any kid whose bullying father tells him, “I demand the truth. As long as you tell the truth…” so the child tells the truth and is beaten or otherwise punished.

            Your black-and-white reasoning does not leave room for the casual cruelties of real life.

            TRUTH HAS TO BE EARNED.

        • Mind your own business. What the baron does or does not do is NONE of your business.

          He made his comments on his own BLOG and they are AOK with me.

          I never answer pollsters. EVER!

    • It looks like I can’t edit my comment but it seems I can ‘reply’ before it is moderated.

      If I could I would edit it to be more respectful, Baron. I do respect you in general, but I think you’re making a big mistake of principle here, one you may just not have thought through.

      Lying is a fundamental breaking of the social contract. There are times when it is warranted — if an assassin is looking for you and asks are you at home, I can lie; it’s still a breaking of the contract, but it is proportional. Like proportional violence in self-defense, or civic defense.

      It’s obviously proportional to break it out of genuine risk to life or limb, but it is totally disproportional to break it out of some theory that you just don’t like something or some system and find it objectionable. You may not like polls and justify lying to pollsters on that basis; how different are you to the person who does not like ‘big corporations’ and thinks it is OK to lie at a job interview? Or who just does not like ‘the system’ and lies at job interviews or anywhere?

      What next? Can’t you see how slippery this slope is?

      In fact, here is a challenge for you: identify some kind of lying that you *do* find objectionable. I’ll find some plausible reasoning that would justify it, that would be just as solid to some people as your justification for lying to pollsters.

      You’re dead wrong on this one, Baron. I suspect that Dymphna will tell you so. Swallow the pride. Move on. Make the forward decision.

      Away from the prince of Lies, Lord of Marx and Engells. Back to Jesus. And while I am not a Christian, I am not being facetious when I say “back to Jesus” here: I’m saying it because Jesus has it right.

      • No, Dymphna won’t say any such thing. As for Jesus, he refused to answer the mendacious questioners and often turned their traps back on them, sometimes using parables.

        He also made a clear distinction between what we owe to God and what we owe to Cesar. If Cesar is a reasonable governor we “owe” the truth as a matter of compliance with a just state. But if the state is the kind of overweening Orwellian – even Kafkaesque – monster we have now we owe it to our descendants to do everything we can to thwart it. Including lying. The out-numbered Underground in Europe was urged by its pastors to live a lie in order to save the future.

        There is a small Underground in present-day Europe, working to save itself from Islam, a juridical system which promotes lying at all levels.

        If you do not understand the mortal seriousness of the fight in which we are engaged, your kith and kin will be part of the Ummah and will lie to survive.

        Jesus said to be as innocent as a dove and as wily as a serpent. He understood thoroughly the struggle against evil in which humanity is engaged. He himself was a member of an oppressed minority with the right to shut up and obey. Thus his Two Great Commandments, both of which involved love in its basic form and was to be applied to ourselves and our *neighbor* – NOT to the behemoth bureaucratic state.

        Your understanding of moral theology appears to have failed to mature past a grade school level. Work at a woman’s shelter for a few months and find out the painful cost of telling the truth. In all human interaction, the moral thing to do is trust and then verify. If your interlocutor turns out to be untrustworthy, a morally wise person withdraws that original trust…but is still required to continue verifying.

        You would be well-advised to do some reading in moral theology. It doesn’t have to be dry arguments – you could start with Chesterton’s fascinating “Father Brown” mystery series. Apparently simple but underneath, timeless truths about the eternal battle against the Father of Lies. It was to Lucifer that Hillary Clinton’s mentor dedicated his book. Saul Alinsky continues to influence the leaders of the Democrat Party. We owe them less than nothing even though they are in power in every hellish rathole they’ve created in our inner cities.

        The flat wooden swords you wave here, Truth on one side, Lies on the other, are better suited to the schoolyard. Sad.

        • Dymphna, your reference to schoolyards and use of personal terms exposes your weak arguments.

          I remain firm: lying to pollsters in this context shows a willingness to lie which is subversive of your society–just as the Marxist’s willingness to lie is subversive.

          I won’t answer your straw men. I agree about the subversive nature of Islam in our societies. But when you perceive appropriateness to lie in domestic polls, you’re off the rails.

          • Dismissing the context of family abuse and truth-telling as “strawmen” doesn’t strengthen your black/white reasoning. Nor does dismissing the experience of the Underground in WWII. Where is your faculty of discernment, sir? Your self-righteous insistence is disturbing.

            Again, I would urge that you move toward the light of discerned reasoning and against the moral reasoning of the child. If all had acted as you prescribe there would have been no founding of the United States.

            I would dread your counseling of a child forced every day to deal with the brutal parent, or a wife or husband who is faced with the choice of lying to protect her/his children or telling the truth to a tyrant and let the children take the consequences of her high-minded “truth”…

            TRUTH MUST BE EARNED. TYRANTS AND THEIR SERVANTS DO NOT DESERVE THE TRUTH. In fact, it is wrong to give it to them.

            As far as “pollsters” are concerned, it’s a mug’s game. They are paid to attempt to invade others’ thinking in order for their often unprincipled employers to make immoral decisions based on majority rule.

            Again, I would urge you to read moral philosophy instead of depending on the computer-like on-off computations you call “truth-telling”. If you don’t then I’ve nothing more to say to someone who lives in a child’s world.

          • I can’t reply below; so I’m replying here.

            The reference to women’s shelters and family abuse does indeed seem to be a straw man. You don’t even know if I disagree with you about anything you are implying about it.

            Society is subverted if people allow themselves the simple evil-system reasoning applied to pollsters here to lie. That’s my position, and I stand by it.

            Your claim that I adhere to on-off black/white absoluteness in telling the truth is indeed a straw man. I have disavowed it even BEFORE it was brought up as a straw man, disavowed it after it was brought up as a straw man, and disavow it again.

            That’s defensive, Dymphna, telling people to read up on things, like a cornered leftist. It never comes across well to the wise. I am surprised to see you do it.

          • Cautious, you’ve made some good arguments, but the Baron comes out ahead here imho, when he said:
            “I must use my own best judgement about the circumstances I find myself in, draw on my education and use my ability to reason….”
            As you can see, I’m leaving the Jesus parts out, being a non-believer, however I think that sentence killed your arguments.

            Look around you; while I wouldn’t use the word satanic, what the American MSM is doing to Trump is low, underhand, and not exactly representative of “the greatest country in the world!” (with one of the worst voting systems in the world)

            Btw, when it comes to lying, neither of you mentioned the followers of the ‘prophet’.

  13. As I read about the Baron’s approach to pollsters, I found myself nodding my head in agreement . . .briefly. I do not give pollsters any inclination of where my political opinions lay. However, it’s not because I choose to befuddle the poll with inaccuracies, I simply will not answer any unknown call. Should the caller have something of importance to discuss, they are invited to leave a message for our consideration of whether or not to pursue further contact.
    I was taught, albeit, long ago, the incredible value and sanctity of my political voice via the ballot box, as our founding father’s envisioned it could/should be. I also recall being taught certain topics were taboo in social settings with strangers/aka PC approved ‘new friends’ – topics such as religion, politics and a woman’s age could be booby-trapped.
    Current circumstances illustrate why, – as the Baron/Edward explains above – those social skills prove to be invaluable lessons for the age. Unfortunately, also noted above, the electronic data age circumvents a great deal of that treasured privacy, which is why “Edward” as many of us persistently receive unsolicited communications (political or commercial) which intentional or not, risk exposing our treasured privacy ever further.
    All the best to Dymphna, Baron and the tireless crew at Gates of Vienna – HRW

  14. I generally have music playing in the house all day, unless the TV is on. I also have caller ID. When I see that a call is an unsolicited cold call, often I will pick up the phone and place it front of one of my speakers and just continue with whatever I was doing.

    I’m also thinking that the next time someone asks to see my ID that I’ll tell them, “You can’t ask for ID, that’s raaaycist”.

    • I too let telephone solicitors listen to the radio, especially when dealing with someone who has a subcontinental accent. They are obviously calling across the sea because they cannot get a decent country-music station in their home country. I leave the phone next to the speaker of a radio tuned to
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXRL .
      “This station does not stream on the Internet.” That’s why the telephone is the only way for subcontinentals to hear such songs as
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bttG6vBIDPo

  15. Despite disagreeing strongly eith them on this issue, I would like to express Salutations to Baron and Dymphna for printing my disagreements. Many blog owners would not have.

    • Baron and Dymphna, I’m also sorry I was so aggressive and strident about the whole thing. I don’t agree with where Baron places the decision to lie here, but I did not need to make such a federal case of it. There wasn’t enough riding on it for the level of fuss I made.

      • Go off and [express your unhappiness] someplace and remember your [defeatist] attitude to TWO of the best and most trust worthy people on the internet.

        I have come to respect these two as a MATTER OF LOYALTY to those who put up with countless jabs. Yet they continue and educate many of us as to what the heck is really going on in the fight against jihadis.

        • I don’t disagree with you in your praise of Baron and Dymphna, but I find your attitude to be repugnant. When a person comes in and apologizes an attempt to troll over that is very ugly indeed.

          If you’re a frequent poster here, check if you are violating policy by hiding your identity; you should be using your normal identity if you post here.

          Perhaps you are a once-off “Attack Cat” troll.

        • Baron, am I being denied right of reply to what is largely a personal attack?

          Why is that?

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