Reply #13: Did I ever suggest anecdotal evidence is proof? Did I suggest statistics were proof? [View All]

[jpgray]

No. You claimed I suggested the former, and you yourself suggested the latter. Further, I never contested the validity of individual polls or statistics, but rather the flawed interpretations of them that believe they irrefutably "prove" something. Unfortunately, the burden of proof is therefore on you. I'm making the claim that a widespread human activity encompassing myriad motivations such as a national election cannot have its results impugned simply by wishful analysis of polls. Even if the exit polls and the actual polls were even wider apart, there would still be a possibility that there was no foul play. You can't prove foul play with these polls--you can argue there's an inconsistency, but there are so many possible reasons for the inconsistency that are so difficult to measure, it's impossible to make a definitive claim either way.

That's all I'm saying. There are conservative rebuttals which claim to "prove" there was -no- foul play, and they use the same polls and similarly flawed logic.

Look, I don't have a problem with arguing the possibility of massive, election-stealing fraud. There is plenty of evidence of voter fraud in various cases, and the voting machines are incredibly susceptible to tampering. Proving that this happened with polls is impossible. You can say it's plausible and possible and I agree with you, but that's all you can say.