NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 24: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks at a Amazon Labor Union rally ... [+]
Sometimes, what we think is obvious and predictable turns out to be not so obvious.
One example? When you conduct a poll that turns out to challenge your own viewpoint.
Recently, a writer for Occupy Democrats conducted a Twitter poll asking whether Elon Musk was more trustworthy than Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The poll included a comment that said: “Let's prove how phony the right’s ridiculous polls are by doing one of our own” with the assumption that the results would be obvious. Here’s the poll:
The results were a bit shocking, though.
Elon Musk won by over 81% with AOC receiving only about 19% of the vote. Some of the comments were revealing as well, because several Twitter users noted how the voting was not accurate or that Elon Musk followers tilted the scales in his favor.
And then, somewhat predictably, Elon Musk also commented, suggesting that the poll was a parody. (The original poster then called Elon Musk himself a parody.)
As we all know, these polls on Twitter and elsewhere are getting a bit tiresome. I’ve seen them more and more on LinkedIn, and it always makes me wonder how valid they are since you don’t really know how anyone is finding the poll or who is voting.
I suspect Musk followers did actually flock to this one, given that he has so many hardcore fans, and perhaps AOC fans didn’t even notice.
And then there’s another possibility.
I also suspect people who answer Twitter polls are more into technology and innovation, so they would naturally find an entrepreneur to be more trustworthy, especially one that has helped build multiple companies and seems to attract a legion of acolytes. AOC certainly has a massive fanbase, but she is not someone who has made her mark in the tech sector. It’s possibly the exact opposite, as she tends to downplay and criticize the importance of Big Tech.
Most of these polls are meant to be fun but this one definitely took a sour turn. The original poster even admitted that it was “a loss” and decided to keep the poll up in his feed.
At least there were about 375,000 responses, which is a good sample size. I’ve seen Twitter and LinkedIn polls with only a few hundred responses, which makes you wonder if they were mostly friends of the person conducting the poll.
Is it possible the polls are just a fad? I tend to think so. When I see the results, the first thing I wonder about is who chose the wording of the question in the poll, who participated, and are the results even valid.
I think this poll merely proves that Elon Musk is really popular.
