Yes, it’s possible. But those truly interested in the truth, pollsters that is, use IP tracing and other tracking techniques to mitigate such measures.
This is exactly what the late great Rush Limbaugh exposed from the various attacks on his own page. A dozen people with the ability to post 1,000’s of times with one post. Then there are “bots” and “spiders” and other such creatures of the web. Given a VPN all manner of things are possible to and include a DNS attack on a particular web site. I don’t understand half of what my youngest son says but I catch little bits and hope to ask sentient questions. This was actually a class assignment for him. Build a web site and attack it so that the provider shuts it down. It’s interesting to see how fragile the web can actually be. Kind of like the power grid… but that is a different topics (mebby not really) .
I remember waaaayyyy back in the mid-1990s when sometimes I just couldn’t get on the Internet because my 14:4 modem and phone line just didn’t have enough juice to compete with all 6 other people in town who even knew what the Internet was. Funny thing is that I would just take a deep breath, sigh, and shut it down and go do something else. No big deal.
Now? If I can’t get on the WWW, I can’t access my $$$, pay my bills, etc. But I still don’t geek out about it like the folks who live across the street who are hardcore gamers. When they lose their wi-fi an ambulance shows up and carts at least one of them to the ER. What’s really interesting to me is how much the digital revolution has changed our perceptions of reality. Kids are going to jail for what they post online as a joke or for teasing each other. People are being shot, stabbed, burned out, etc. because something they posted offended a total stranger. Our capital is occupied by more armed troops now than during the Civil War because of QAnon, but after AQ hit the WTC and Pentagon on 9/11? Not so much. And most folks seem to think recto-cranial inversions like this are normal, reasonable, and unalarming.
Ever seen an influencer ‘fake it till they make it’… yep, they buy bot time to interact with their page to ‘look’ like they are getting a lot of traction.
Same can be down with polls and email. I can do it simply from my machine here since I use VPN. You don’t even need a ‘real’ email address for a lot of them, just a valid ending domain, which is what they check against.
In the end, polls say what they want them to say. A lot to do with how they ask the question, and who they ask to some extent. Ever seen a poll disappear because they did not get the results they wanted?
No doubt. Leading questions is a HUGE problem in polls as is sample size and sample demographic. Mostbpolls today are nothing more than manipulation. Do a poll to claim support for your pet subject/cause.
I’m trying to stay caught up. Mr. Potato head…isn’t. My beloved Aunt Jemima syrup? Gone. Mrs. Butterworth’s ousted too. Dr. Suess is in hot water, until the word hot starts to offend people. The classic Uncle Ben’s…isn’t. But the parent company (can we still say parent?) Quaker Oats is still okay and isn’t being accused of cultural appropropriation…yet. Maybe no one has informed them of their deep dark inherent evil. A favorite, Eskimo Bars are no more. And I just found out that they finally came for…and got, jimmies for kids’ iced cream. You have to call them sprinkles, or you will lose your job, friends, house, car, kids, etc. I wonder what they’re planning to do to kids who ask for these things? Probably a little jail with low ceilings someplace…
I can hear conversations with our nieces, nephews, kids, grandkids, and others (who we will have to call something else by then). Why I used to love that maple syrup that I can’t tell you the name of…
It doesn’t even seem to take 1000. Or fake accounts. The thresh hold for “public outrage” seems pretty low, these days. A dozen Twitter users are enough to get the ball rolling, and everyone else will pile on. News stories are rarely more than Twitter summaries, these days, so a couple hundred people who feign online outrage to relieve their boredom can ruin careers.
I have read that 2 gians of cencelling and virtue signalling, Revlon and Kelogg, are done. One is filing for bankruptcy, the other is splitting into 3 companies. Good.
