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> wouldn't pass even the most basic "is this poll statistically valid?" test

It totally would. Statistically, a sample size of 282 out of a population of 60000 is pretty good.

If this test was authentic, we would be 95% sure that the true percentage of the population who think that the memo is harmless is between 47% and 60%.



Presumably that would require a population-representative sample of 282 though, not a self-selected (and therefore potentially biased) sample.

Otherwise you could run a poll "Who thinks [minority] should leave the USA?", get a high "yes" response, say "THE POPULACE AGREE!" but then discover only racists/whatever have replied because Breitbart/4chan dogpiled the poll - which would make it 100% invalid, no?




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