Daniel Finklestein writing in the Times yesterday said that he came across a recent US opinion poll in which a quarter of Americans blame the Jews either moderately or a great deal for the financial crisis, and 40% attached some blame to Jews.
Surprised? It never occurred to me to blame a religous group.
Is there a high proportion of Jews in volved in Wall Street?
===Daniel Finklestein writing in the Times yesterday said that he came across a recent US opinion poll in which a quarter of Americans blame the Jews either moderately or a great deal for the financial crisis, and 40% attached some blame to Jews.===
Why do they even poll this crap? I'd also like to hear how they worded the questions. Did they say "Are the Jews responsible for your problems?" Or, did they say "Do you think one or more Jews played a role in the events that caused the financial crisis?" There's a world of importance in how they word the questions.
===Surprised?===
Not in the least. Disappointed, but not surprised.
===Is there a high proportion of Jews in volved in Wall Street?===
Of course there are; but what does that have to do with anything? "The Jews" is not a homogeneous unit or hive that does everything concurrently. What does Bernie Madoff have to do with Yankel Feffercorn from Brooklyn? To "blame" an entire group of people of whom a tiny subset are relevant is clueless, bigoted and ignorant.
Hopefully, I'm not telling anyone anything they didn't already know and agree with.
Originally posted by eamon o Daniel Finklestein writing in the Times yesterday said that he came across a recent US opinion poll in which a quarter of Americans blame the Jews either moderately or a great deal for the financial crisis, and 40% attached some blame to Jews.
Surprised? It never occurred to me to blame a religous group.
Is there a high proportion of Jews in volved in Wall Street?
Well, Alan Greenspan is jewish, so there you go.
I'm not at all surprised, because Jews are frequently stereotyped as being greedy bankers. I have no idea what history and statistics actually support jews being prominent in financial industries. But really, it's just a stereotype. People will bizarre reasons for every misfortune.
Originally posted by sh76 Why do they even poll this crap? I'd also like to hear how they worded the questions. Did they say "Are the Jews responsible for your problems?" Or, did they say "Do you think one or more Jews played a role in the events that caused the financial crisis?" There's a world of importance in how they word the questions.
I agree, disingenuous poisonous crap. But one wonders, do you question the wording of questions in polls whose results support your views? And, honestly speaking, do you lead with those misgivings when you discuss the polling data that supports your opinions?
Originally posted by FMF I agree, disingenuous poisonous crap. But one wonders, do you question the wording of questions in polls whose results support your views? And, honestly speaking, do you lead with those misgivings when you discuss the polling data that supports your opinions?
Fair question.
You're right. We should look at the wording of all polls before we cite them.
For election polls it's not really necessary, because all they ask is "If the election were held today, who would you vote for?" And, in any case, we know from experience that telephone polls (but not exit polls) are usually deadly accurate in recent US electoral history.
But, for these types of polls where the wording can make a big difference, we should look at the wording whether we like the result or not.
I hereby pledge to try to look for the wording of these types of polls before I cite them in the future.
jews blamed for the economic mess?
28 May '09 13:23
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