Best of 2021: Poll analysis that’s possibly worse than Nate Silver
🌲 I won’t be online the week of Dec. 20, so I’ve scheduled some “best of 2021” posts (aka reruns), similar to what I did in July. These are ones that got the most views or nearly so each month from August-December. I hope you enjoy!
Please make sure to vote in December’s $50 donation poll to help decide which cause I’ll donate $50 to for December, and explore the rest of the site. Happy holidays! 🌲
<><><><> BEST OF OCTOBER 2021 <><><><>
It’s been a while since I followed up on a few Twitter polls I’ve done.
If you ever wanted to know:
which ‘80s gift is the best
whether Kirk or Picard is better, and
how to refer to the hosts of TYT’s main show
whether pumpkin pies and spice should be seasonal or year-round
when the weekend starts unofficially
and you want to base your opinion on what literally dozens of people on Twitter think—then this is the post for you!
The results are therefore not guaranteed to be any better than Nate Silver’s sometimes misguided, offensive, and inaccurate poll analysis. But I don’t think he’s ever polled anyone about pumpkin pie, so I’ve got that going for me.
TYT Hosts
1) The Young Turks is hosted by Ana and Cenk, not Cenk and Ana. The people have spoken! Ana Kasparian should come before Cenk Uygur when talking about this dynamic duo. Assuming this non-representative sample of 21 voters is right.
‘80s Gifts
2) A plurality of people on Twitter don’t know what the fuck these popular gift items from the ‘80s are. I have to say, I am shocked and chagrined that 41.2% of people didn’t want to receive any of these as a gift. Of the other choices, Garbage Pail Kids cards won.
If I had it to do over, I would have included the Snoopy Snow Cone Maker in the poll. As soon as Melissa R Knive replied with this, I realized that it should have been included, and that now that I’m an adult and my mom can’t tell me no, I should totally get one.
Kirk v. Picard
3) Captain Picard is over 4x as popular as Captain Kirk. My guess is that after William Shatner saw the results of this definitive poll of 25 random people on Twitter, he decided he had to go to space so he could one-up Patrick Stewart.
Pumpkin Pie
4) Pumpkin pie and pumpkin-flavored food and drink can and should be consumed All. Year. Long. It’s not often that Cenk is wrong, but when he is, he is very wrong. He’s doubled down, and tripled down on the fact that pumpkin is not that good and therefore should only be a seasonal item. But 75% of people who took the poll agree with me that he is 100% wrong.
The Official Start of the Weekend
5) The weekend starts on Friday after the workday is done. A whopping 81.4% of people said this, plus I was able to get in a plug for Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Nando Vila. Or should it be Nando Vila and Ana Kasparian? 🤔 Maybe a poll for another time!
Hope to see you in the chat for Weekends or on Twitter for my weekly #FollowFriday thread!
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🚨 If you like this post, please explore the rest of the site, share it on social media, follow me on Twitter @eclecticmisc, and/or comment below.
Also, don’t forget to vote in the October poll to help decide which progressive-friendly org will get a $50 donation! The poll is open until Oct. 31 at 11:59pm Eastern. Have a good one!
