Comments on: Americans see gloom, doom in 2007

Americans see gloom, doom in 2007

stbalbach — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:42:45 -0800

Poll: Americans see gloom, doom in 2007. Another terrorist attack, a warmer planet, death and destruction from a natural disaster are predicted by most Americans. 35 percent predict the military draft will be reinstated and one in four, 25 percent, anticipates the second coming of Jesus Christ.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:45:25 -0800

I predict more polls.

By: jonson

jonson — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:48:20 -0800

Whoa! One in four Americans is retarded?

By: Balisong

Balisong — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:48:56 -0800

I predict several "close calls" as well as a couple dozen new outrages/disasters/fears heaped on the pile in the comming year.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:49:51 -0800

Actually, the second coming of Jesus would great right about now.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:50:13 -0800

We'd lynch Him.

By: aletheia

aletheia — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:51:04 -0800

Came, went, nobody noticed.

By: anthill

anthill — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:51:09 -0800

Jesus is coming back, and he's going to be pissed!

By: disgruntled

disgruntled — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:56:20 -0800

I predict the rich will get richer and the poor willl get poorer, and affordable plasma screen TVs will soothe any ideas of revolt among the masses.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:56:42 -0800

2007 will be a great year. chill.

By: furtive

furtive — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:58:06 -0800

Americans who are willing to answer telephone polls see gloom, doom in 2007.

By: knapah

knapah — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:58:12 -0800

More bread and circuses please!

By: Balisong

Balisong — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:05:58 -0800

Optimism reigns in 2007

By: mediareport

mediareport — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:06:51 -0800

Same poll, different spin: Most Americans are optimistic about 2007: Seventy-two percent of Americans feel good about what 2007 will bring for the country, and 89 percent are optimistic about the new year for themselves and their families, according to the poll. Gloom, doom in 2007? Uh, ok. Your mission, stbalbach, is to find a link to the full poll instead of different newspaper editors' versions. Thanks in advance. :)

By: mediareport

mediareport — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:08:55 -0800

*shakes fist, curses Balisong's children to the seventh generation*

By: SinisterPurpose

SinisterPurpose — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:09:04 -0800

Whoa! One in four Americans is retarded? posted by jonson No. One in four Americans is desperately and willfully stupid. Retards can't help it.

By: baphomet

baphomet — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:11:51 -0800

furtive makes a good point. Many Americans no longer have access to land-line telephones in their houses, and such people are completely ignored by these kind of telephone demographers. I'm furthermore willing to conjecture that the younger, more educated community is less likely to own a land-line phone, and that the people who believe in nonsensical fairy tales are less likely to adapt to new technologies, or at least supplant old ones.

By: wendell

wendell — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:16:56 -0800

I wonder if Associated Press Writers Nancy Benac and Darlene Superville have ever met. Or if some AP supervisor said "Here, Nancy, you write the optimistic version and Darlene, you write the pessimistic version. Then we'll send them both out and let the papers pick which one to run based on their own biases." Modern professional journalism.

By: EatTheWeak

EatTheWeak — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:21:44 -0800

64% of statistics are made up on the spot. But assuming these aren't, can any math whiz mefite provide us an equation with which to remove the contributions of the 25% awaiting the rapture? Polling unreasonable people skews the results, I'd figure.

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:28:13 -0800

It's always the apocalypse and Christ is always about to arrive, forever and ever, world without end.

By: kozad

kozad — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:33:37 -0800

"Americans are known world-wide for their friendliness, optimism, and 'can-do' attitude." OK, except maybe the optimism part.

By: wendell

wendell — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:34:04 -0800

But if 25% of the population is made up of unreasonable people, we need to know that! We need a good measure of how many Americans are going to be disappointed when they survive the next year, in order to determine how much champagne to make for next New Years Eve. It's like the religion poll in which 10% MORE people believed Jesus was literally the Son of God than believed in the Virgin Birth. WHAT DO THOSE PEOPLE THINK HAPPENED 9 MONTHS BEFORE? Come to think of it, I don't want to know...

By: baphomet

baphomet — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:35:45 -0800

It's always the apocalypse and Christ is always about to arrive, forever and ever, world without end. And so I'll fill up my SUV and leave all the lights and appliances in my house on all day, and vote for the same tired warmongers once again, because i just know Jesus is right around the corner.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:37:41 -0800

I predict the IMG tag won't make a comeback.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:40:09 -0800

Jesus is right around the corner. Actually, he is working that corner and is here illegally.

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:44:53 -0800

Kozad - howabout: Americans are known world-wide for their friendliness, optimism, 'can-do' attitude, and utter manic depressive tendancies? Honetsly, most of the time it;s all "rah rah rah, we are great", but one Vietnam-level military faliure and it's like worlds ending. What are you, Russian?

By: PontifexPrimus

PontifexPrimus — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:45:25 -0800

wendell: "WHAT DO THOSE PEOPLE THINK HAPPENED 9 MONTHS BEFORE?" They don't think. It's as simple as that. They have no desire to think, they have learned to ignore their own curiosity, they just accept someone else's thought as a substitute for their own. In my opinion that's the saddest thing a human being can become; yet I still hope for skepticism and independent thought to make a comeback. Maybe 2007.

By: InnocentBystander

InnocentBystander — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:54:21 -0800

The problem, baphomet, is that the EXACT SAME line of reasoning you just posted was used to explain why, contrary to the polls, Kerry was going to cream Bush in 2004. Do I need to say more? And in unrelated news, when I saw that statistic about J.C., my first thought was to wonder if it was up or down from previous years. Because I'm pretty sure 10%-20% of the population, at any given time, is convinced the world is going to end RIGHT NOW AAAAHHHHHHHHH.

By: duffell

duffell — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:54:59 -0800

And so I'll fill up my SUV and leave all the lights and appliances in my house on all day, and vote for the same tired warmongers once again, because i just know Jesus is right around the corner. Hey, the faster you fuck up the world, the faster he'll get here. FACT.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:57:38 -0800

The 10 most outrageous civil liberties violations of 2006.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:00:18 -0800

The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. Could somebody please tell me the point of having a margin of error for polls involving speculation? If people guessed differently, would it have a bearing on the outcome?

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:18:53 -0800

Ironically, Iraqis are pretty optimistic about the next year.

By: Tacos Are Pretty Great

Tacos Are Pretty Great — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:26:20 -0800

I am pretty sure Jesus will be around in 2007. He runs a great little taqueria, and I hope he keeps making those awesome chorizo tacos.

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:33:26 -0800

Could somebody please tell me the point of having a margin of error for polls involving speculation? If people guessed differently, would it have a bearing on the outcome? It means there's a 95% chance (or 90%, or whatever number they've chosen) that if you asked the entire population, you'd get a number within 3 points of the poll results. It's about how representative the sample was of the whole population's opinion, not of reality.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:39:08 -0800

Ironically, Iraqis are pretty optimistic about the next year. Because you can't fall off the floor.

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:43:27 -0800

35 percent predict the military draft that's funny.

By: Opposite George

Opposite George — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:44:15 -0800

can any math whiz mefite provide us an equation with which to remove the contributions of the 25% awaiting the rapture? -and- Could somebody please tell me the point of having a margin of error for polls involving speculation? If you're using the poll as a forecast model (iow, to predict the future,) then knowing 25% of your respondents are batshitinsane will increase the uncertainty of the results, unless it turns out that being batshitinsane is sufficiently tied to responding in a certain way and you can make allowances for that. Real statisticians* here might be able to supply the math. The point of supplying a margin of error is to indicate how closely you'd expect the results of the poll - which only questions a few people - to differ from the answer you'd get if you questioned everybody in America. If the point of the poll is to predict the future, and if it is the case that a poll of everybody would lead to a good prediction, then the margin of error would tell you how good the poll's prediction can be expected to be, roughly. Of course, the point of this poll is really to serve as a national mood barometer, so the margin of error really tells you, roughly, how closely the pollsters expect their results to reflect the feelings of the nation as a whole. *My sister-in-law is a statistician, so take this response like the one you might get to your question about brake jobs from your friend whose buddy owns a garage; in other words, it's almost certainly superficial and very likely substantially incorrect. I've been led to believe that's practically as good as the truth, at least in Metafilter.

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:54:54 -0800

I never believe these kind of egregiously large percentages. I look around where I work, and there's at least 100 staff there. I'm supposed to believe there's a full 25 people in that mix that expect Jesus Christ to be back in 2007? I'm sure there's at least one or two people who believe that, but 25?

By: Talanvor

Talanvor — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:56:12 -0800

I have yet to meet Jesus and I live in Texas ffs!

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:57:39 -0800

Your mission, stbalbach, is to find a link to the full poll I looked but I don't think it exists online. So I posted a direct link to AP's website. The "Optimistic 2007" story Balisong (and mediareport) found is an interesting look behind the curtain of how the press works.

By: baphomet

baphomet — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:00:00 -0800

InnocentBystander: You make an excellent point, I concede this. But you do have to admit that surveys like this suffer from a sampling bias that did not exist, say, 20 years ago, or even 10 (to a degree).

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:21:52 -0800

I met Jesus and Buddha coming down the road. Being highly confused, I killed both of them. Sorry.

By: John of Michigan

John of Michigan — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:26:17 -0800

While we're on the subject of polls, Miltary Times polled the troops. Here are their responses. (Via)

By: ab3

ab3 — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:29:06 -0800

-25 percent anticipate the second coming of Jesus Christ. -19 percent think scientists are likely to find evidence of extraterrestrial life. Considering the probable lack of overlap between these two, seems like we're at least 44% batshitinsane around here, one way or the other. But wait - if Jesus is an undocumented alien, then...

By: porpoise

porpoise — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:32:26 -0800

WCityMike - but you live in Chicago. Move to somewhere in the bible belt and there might be 80 people out of 100 that ~~believe~~ expect baby Jesus to show up next year.

By: Opposite George

Opposite George — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:35:58 -0800

you do have to admit that surveys like this suffer from a sampling bias that did not exist, say, 20 years ago, or even 10 (to a degree). Almost every poll you see coming from a responsible, professional polling organization is adjusted for the myriad of inevitable biases resulting from their sampling methodology. It's possible the pollers' model is flawed, but it's probably unfair to suppose that folks in the business aren't at least aware of this very major shift in land-line ownership and trying to adjust for it. Heck, the Literary Digest debacle is one topic you're almost guaranteed to run into in any intro to stats and sampling course.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:36:43 -0800

Whoa! One in four Americans is retarded? Wow, I was going to look it up, but it seems like everyone working on the Wikipedia Article for I.Q. is a bell-curve reading idiot.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:38:09 -0800

Considering the probable lack of overlap between these two, seems like we're at least 44% batshitinsane around here, one way or the other. Actually a lot of scientists are looking for evidence of microbes on mars, that sort of thing. I doubt it would happen in 2007, but it wouldn't be that surprising.

By: ibmcginty

ibmcginty — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 11:42:52 -0800

When they called me, I responded "yes" to the Second Coming question. With all the people who'll get zapped into the sky, I had to answer "yes" to the act of mass terrorism question, too. I bet a lot of respondents found themselves in that situation. That might have skewed the results somewhat.

By: rougy

rougy — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:18:16 -0800

I just got laid off - out of the blue - so I can only hope 2007 will be a good year for me.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:43:46 -0800

I just got laid off - out of the blue - so I can only hope 2007 will be a good year for me. Hope jessamyn is gentle with your exit interview. Can I have your karma points? Kidding aside: hang in there, rougy.

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:52:11 -0800

Coincidentally I'm watching a documentary about The antichrist right now on the History Channel - yes they've fallen a long way. Not long ago I saw an awful documenatry about space aliens causing the events of the bible, which is probably their nadir. Anywya, I'm guessing this was filmed over a year ago as Ted Haggart features quite prominently, banging on about the end times...

By: StrangeTikiGod

StrangeTikiGod — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 13:36:38 -0800

"We demand rigidly defined areas of uncertainty and doubt!"

By: waldo

waldo — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:02:18 -0800

Somebody needs to start a Reverse Mortgages for Evangelicals loan program. Folks who know that the rapture is coming should be happy to get, say, $0.50 on the dollar for their homes, with the understanding that they can continue to live there until the rapture, or January 1, 2008, whichever comes first. I think that's a pretty great deal.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:16:24 -0800

Rapture? Parousia? Who cares? What will really highlight 2007 is a massive flameout in MetaTalk that will run to 1500 snarks until cortex and itsrainingflorencehenderson make droll comments that make everyone laugh. Isn't that what we all joined MetaFilter for?

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:46:45 -0800

A draft? No way. Jesus and Mohammed will fly into Jerusalem on a jewish unicorn before that happens.

By: oncogenesis

oncogenesis — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 15:30:08 -0800

EatTheWeak: 64% of statistics are made up on the spot. That's a lie, a damn lie! Everyone knows the correct number is 57%.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 15:39:57 -0800

Given the supposed 60 percent of Americans (or whatever) who don't believe in evolution, this all sounds about right. Too bad the rest of us have to face extinction too.

By: tehloki

tehloki — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 15:41:02 -0800

1 in 4 Americans are fucking cop-outs and do not deserve the very existence bestowed upon them by wild fortune and chaos.

By: notsnot

notsnot — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:12:28 -0800

Artw wrote:

as Ted Haggart features quite prominently, banging on about the end times...

Somethin' about bangin in the end, just made me guffaw.

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:17:41 -0800

Him too, apparently. It was really rather odd seeing him in his natural pre-outing habitat. Smug, secure, batshitinsane...

By: Pinback

Pinback — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:28:00 -0800

wendell : It's not unusual to see two versions of a report, upbeat and downbeat, come out on the AAP feed one after another. Media outlets just choose the one they want to suit their prevailing mood.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:29:24 -0800

25 percent, anticipates the second coming of Jesus Christ. Watch therefore, for you don't know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. Matthew 25:13 Arrogant bastards...

By: Secret Life of Gravy

Secret Life of Gravy — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:07:41 -0800

The Secret Life of Gravy Super Scientific Poll of 2007 82%: President Bush will stir up some shit 72%: Condi Rice will spout some supportive shit 60%: Oprah Winfry will give away some shit 42%: Contaminated fresh vegetables will cause some bad shit 13%: Britney Spears will take a public shit 4%: God will reveal that he actually doesn't give a shit 2%: Extraterrestrial aliens will come to earth and snork up all the monkey shit they can find, resulting in a world wide monkey shit shortage crisis.

By: angryinla

angryinla — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 12:17:44 -0800

I think most of america's problems are brought own by american. We could all use a course in anger management

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 12:32:46 -0800

the second coming of jesus actually sounds pretty dope. imagine...millions of people that get on your nerves, suddenly vanishing. it'd be paradise on earth!

By: tehloki

tehloki — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:37:47 -0800

Can we please stop joking about the fucking rapture like it doesn't mean anything? There is a large group of people who believe that they will be carried off to paradise just in the nick of time by their imaginary friend while the world is destroyed and the rest of us will burn in fire and pain for all eternity. That is a big fucking problem.

By: modernnomad

modernnomad — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:19:26 -0800