Everyone have their own “hot takes” that either work as a valid opinion, or ragebait for drama. Personally, I have one that if I’m saying it to you all, maybe considered to be “too serious😈🤡”. The hot takes itself is . . .
God Never forbid man to do their [hobbies/fun], (toxic) society did
How about yours? I like to hear alongside the reason why ;)
(Edit: I’m aware that some takes may kinda too far and too deep, so let’s keep it casual)
The three levels of lying, Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.
People share statistics like they are proof of some conclusion or another. It’s a half-assed way of pretending their prejudices are supported by data. Racists like to share shit like “Black Americans represent 12% of the adult population, but 35% of the prison population” in order to imply that black people are inherently more likely to be criminals.
Of course, they won’t come out and say “white people are superior because they are more civilized” because that would be an odious and distasteful statement. But they will imply the fuck out of it, because these people don’t understand the relationship between statistics and evidence. A single statistic in isolation can be twisted to mean anything you like.
The very same racial disproportion could be used to concluse that systemic racism in the judicial system is more likely to convict black people and sentence them more harshly. In reality, it proves neither conclusion by itself. You have to control for socio-economic factors and prosecution rates and population density and education levels and employment numbers and and and.
The more statistics you have, the easier it is to selectively control for a desired outcome. But from a scientific perspective, there is nothing biological or psychological that is inherent to any particular “race” because the concept of race is mostly a conglomerate of prejudices to begin with.
statistics are a tool. you can misuse them and abuse them. i can use a hammer to build houses, or bash people in the skull.
in and of themselves if used properly, as in contextualised and verified, they are great. I’m talking about actual statistics themselves, not the bullshit cherry picked interpretation of them.
but yes, stupid people will freak out murders went up 400% because this year 4 people were murdered and last year it was one.
the quote you are references is from politician figures distorting statistics to push their agendas. just like they make scandals over sex in video games and media and other non-issues to rile up and lie to their voters. just like trump is going on about this wave of criminality that doesn’t exist.