Do you both own and possess at least one pair of eyeglasses or at least two drinking glasses?

[Boojatta]

Poll question: Do you both own and possess at least one pair of eyeglasses or at least two drinking glasses?

[Donnachaidh]

1. stop bogarting that joint, dude. n/t

[stellanoir]

2. Do binoculars, telescopes, or GPS systems count and how many of them does it take

to see a tree falling in the woods or Russia from your house. . . ?

[MineralMan]

4. And can you see past Boojatta's dead grandmother

to tell if there is a bear eating a cookie?

[Boojatta]

6. I interpret that post as a general protest against this thread.

However, I see zero votes for the poll option "Wish to register a general protest against the question."

[MineralMan]

8. And, yet, you will note at least one vote for "None of The Above," if

you are wearing your glasses, rather than drinking out of them. Could that be my vote, do you think? Or phrased another way: Could that be my vote? Do you think? The importance of punctuation cannot be underestimated, but you may need powerful glasses to con it.

And, speaking of glasses, have you examined yourself recently in the glass in your bathroom. Look closely, since it reveals a virtual image of yourself, reversed from your perspective. You do not look as you appear.

[MineralMan]

3. Ah, another puzzling conundrum from Boojatta, I see.

A guy has to wonder about your reasons for posting such silliness on DU. I see no religious or theological issues being raised in your poll of absurdity. Or is it your reason itself? From the subprime to the absurd we go whenever we find these threads.

Surely, Boojatta, there are issues worth dealing with. Surely you have an opinion on a subject worthy of discussion and the use of DU bandwidth. Surely you can post something timely, pertinent, and engaging. So I would think, at least.

Or is it so you would think? Perhaps that's the issue.

Do try harder, Boojatta.

[Boojatta]

5. "your reasons for posting such silliness in GD"

Actually I posted this thread in Religion/Theology, not GD. Perhaps it was moved?

Anyway, the issue of interpretation arises frequently in discussions of religion, especially if scriptures from a religion are being discussed. Here's a question for you: under what circumstances does a sequence of words itself have a clear meaning and under what circumstances is it not the sequence of words, but only an interpretation of the sequence of words, that has a meaning?

[MineralMan]

7. Meaning?

What is your meaning? Which pressing theological question does your poll address? Are you seeing through your glass darkly, Boojata? Are you composing your posts with a sequencer?

Time, Boojatta, flies like an arrow, yet fruit flies like a banana. It is not the sequence that holds the meaning, unless you are a composer of music. Words hold meaning, and glasses hold water or modify your visual acuity. Neither meaning has religious significance, although an aged minister must likely wear glasses in order to read his texts, if you take my meaning.

You will note that I corrected my previous statement to reflect the forum in which this meaningful discussion is not taking place.

I wish you godspeed, and soon.

[MineralMan]

9. Eyeglasses is a poor term for spectacles, generally,

since spectacles are often made with lenses of plastic. Drinking glasses, too, are more often made of other materials than glass than formerly, and so, perhaps should now have another name. Mirrors, however, also glasses, are generally made of glass, so perhaps we should only term them glasses and abandon the imprecision of your other usages. What do you think? Or should I write: What? Do you think?

It becomes even more confusing, this imprecision, since one may look at distant objects, magnified by a glass such as sailors were wont to use. I might examine tiny objects through a glass cover on a slide with my microscope, such cover being sealed to the slide with water glass. The confusion is worsened with every sentence, Boojatta. Precision is needed. Shall we not, now, use the terms spectacles, cups, telescopes, mirrors, and specimen covers? Do we not seek precision? Should we not reserve the use of "glass" to indicate composition, rather than use?

Precision, Boojatta, eliminates confusion. Imprecision is your hallmark. Shall we not let it be so in the future? Shall we think? Shall we post only when posting is useful, educational, or amusing? What? Do you think?

[Staph]

10. I own at least one pair of eyeglasses . . .

the lenses of which might easily be mistaken for the bottoms of drinking glasses.

I am not legally blind, but, without corrective lenses, I can not see the big E at the top of the chart.

[ZombieHorde]

11. This is one of the best push polls I have ever seen in my life.

Truly awesome.

[Boojatta]

12. Why do you consider it to be a push poll?

[ZombieHorde]

13. Most polls are an attempt to gather data. The data will then be used in some fashion.

A push poll is a poll in which the data gathered is not important, the point of the poll is to touch the voter in some way. Push polls are unpopular, but I like them more than ordinary, data gathering polls. Propaganda is an art form.

Another type of poll, and the type mostly created by Boojatta, is the type which is created in order to spark conversation. I am unaware of any name for this type of poll.

I could be wrong, but I believe the point of your poll concerns the limitations of language. Your poll is propaganda, and therefore, a push poll.

Or maybe you are simply compiling lists of DUers possessions.

This poll is still one of my favorite polls on DU.

[Boojatta]

14. "the point of the poll is to touch the voter in some way"

Okay, that affects the connotation. Normally the term "push poll" suggests violation of an unwritten rule of honest communication. In this particular case, I experienced cognitive dissonance because the poll contains a variety of options and I would have included any option that I thought somebody might vote for, and I would have gone beyond the limit of ten options if I could somehow have arranged to do so. After all, I wanted to included every combination of having legal title to movable property and having the property in one's hands or lap or briefcase or knapsack or ... whatever.

I suppose that one might speak of a "Bell-style long-distance feeling poll" or a "Reach-out-and-touch someone Poll." Regardless of your personal aesthetic appreciation, "propaganda" has a connotation that is negative and, in my view, it's a good thing that it has a negative connotation.

[ZombieHorde]

15. "Normally the term "push poll" suggests violation of an unwritten rule of honest communication."

Yes, this is another way of viewing push polls. I suppose the motivation of the poll creator is significant, such as the difference between Surrealist art and Dada art. Your poll is not nearly as nasty as some push polls I have heard of, for example, I heard of a poll which asked voters what their feelings were towards John McCain's illegitimate Black child. This push poll, if it indeed existed, is nasty because it turned a good deed, adopting a child, into a naughty deed, having an affair, and included the race of the child for the sake of many racists. In fact, your poll does not seem to be nasty in the slightest. Perhaps the definition I was using for "push poll" was overly broad.

I am sorry if I insulted your poll. I will try to be more careful and thoughtful with the term "push poll" in the future.

"Regardless of your personal aesthetic appreciation, "propaganda" has a connotation that is negative and, in my view, it's a good thing that it has a negative connotation."

My understanding of propaganda is aligned with http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/propaganda">Dictionary.com's first three definitions of the word "propaganda."

–noun
1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
2. the deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc.
3. the particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or movement.
4. Roman Catholic Church.
a. a committee of cardinals, established in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, having supervision over foreign missions and the training of priests for these missions.
b. a school (College of Propaganda) established by Pope Urban VIII for the education of priests for foreign missions.
5. Archaic. an organization or movement for the spreading of propaganda.

I don't doubt definition 4 or 5, but I don't use the word in that way.

Why is propaganda viewed as negative? Do you believe propaganda's bad reputation helps people to think for themselves?

"I suppose that one might speak of a "Bell-style long-distance feeling poll" or a "Reach-out-and-touch someone Poll." Regardless of your personal aesthetic appreciation, "propaganda" has a connotation that is negative and, in my view, it's a good thing that it has a negative connotation."

I have been leaning towards "conversational poll."

[rrneck]

19. It pushes.

It just pushes in no discernible direction.

Internet message boards are almost always much more of a platform than a launching pad.

[Ready4Change]

16. Other, to be posted later.

But first I have to go looking for a bar so I can get a drink.

[rrneck]

17. Okay, I'll say it.

There's no beer goggles option.

[rrneck]

18. It's been years

but I read an article that referred to the mathematics of topology. If my understanding of the subject is correct, eyeglasses and drinking glasses are topologically equal. Collecting them in pairs would make them conceptually equal.

The implied equality of drinking glasses and eyeglasses and all the linguistic permutations that follow may be result of the topological realities of the material used in their manufacture. Glass is malleable and can be made into both items. It was probably first used most often to make those items and the resulting linguistic similarities reflect that.

Pair of glasses and a pair of eyes...
Pair of drinking glasses and a loaf of bread a jug of wine and thou...
Two fisted drinking...
Double vision...
Beer goggles...

To paraphrase an observation about architecture, "We make our stuff, and our stuff makes us."

edited for lack of coffee

[Boojatta]

20. Kick

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. What DU needs is an 'unkick' option

Perhaps based on the number of days since a thread was last posted to, and whether it was the thread originator doing a vanity kick, or if someone had actually had something worthwhile to say. Thus, a thread kicked after over 250 days of unactivity, by the thread starter, with nothing more to say, would only need a couple of 'unkicks' to get it sent back down to the oblivion of page 20 of the R&T forum, before the necroposting was done. If someone did a genuine kick of someone else's thread, or it was done in a much shorter time frame (you know, a really short period, like 3 months), then you'd need a lot more people doing an antikick, like a few hundred.

[LAGC]

22. I don't know about that.

I could see the Freepers just registering a shitload of accounts for the sole purpose of "burying" threads they didn't like. They obviously already have an Unrec squad who sends threads no true progressive should send into negative Rec territory.

So I'm not so sure that's a good idea.

[Boojatta]

23. Why not just use the hide thread feature?

Alternatively, you could put me on ignore. Anyway, I'm interested in the concept of a "genuine kick."

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

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