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Comment by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS | Hacker News Reader

Point of contention - according to a recent YouGov[1] poll, 48% of respondents think DOGE should be kept or expanded, while only 37% think it should be reduced or eliminated. A far cry from 90% either direction. You may be subject to confirmation bias.

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/doge-support-collapsing-poll-elon-m...

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I don't really care about a single YouGov poll about what people think about a headline -- that's a shallow approach, misses quite a bit of context, and when used as a summary would rightly be called clickbait. Digging deeper and past propaganda, the activities of DOGE are deeply unpopular to the electorate wholesale, and my 90% claim is easily justified by a groundswell of current and long time understanding of the electorate:

- negative impact to the economy is deeply unpopular [0]

- lying about savings is deeply unpopular [1]

- threatening cuts to entitlement spending is deeply unpopular [2]

How you ask a question, what question you ask, and how you collect data will unduly influence any poll -- event with adjustments.[3] People aren't as fickle as headlines would otherwise lead you to believe.

My take on your oblique reference to "maybe [I] have confirmation bias" is that you are taking the headlines as fact and thus can dismiss anything that doesn't agree with your perspective. This may be mistaken on my part, but if you feel deep inside that it is not, then I encourage you to dig deeper.

[0] "It's the economy, stupid!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1hxNKweJbc

[1] DOGE is not trusted - https://truthout.org/articles/nearly-6-in-10-voters-concerne...

[2] https://www.nasi.org/learn/social-security/public-opinions-o... - Gallup shows opinions are fairly stable even though this source is somewhat dated

[3] Now-infamous Selzer poll https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/03/trump-harris...

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