This is how most people think and see the world, which is why we (the US) are in the boat we’re in now. People don’t see the big picture if they never have to or aren’t taught how to think critically.
Comment on Cathy, do the math.
iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I love how one person cites a statistic, and another person just dismisses it as false because of their anecdotal experience.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 2 months ago
faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
I think it’s a complicated problem. To start with, the studies are usually paywalled. If you can afford to purchase access, you still need the capacity to understand and parse the formal academic language. Most people have neither of those requirements, and have to rely on the media to report the statistics accurately, which doesn’t happen.
This leads to a situation where the media keeps trying to say, idk employment statistics are better than ever, and then everybody updates their mental blocklist to filter out the word ‘statistics’.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Not to mention most issues are extremely nuanced and complex, not something that can be accurately broken down into 5 second sound bits.
TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
That was the whole point of the media before it became entertainment
Maeve@midwest.social 2 months ago
Almost as of by design of corporate overlords and billionaires. Almost as of billions of dollars and collective hate can’t fill the emptiness. Almost as if we should focus on healing everyone’s (including billionaires ')wounded inner child schisms and social divides may start healing. Maybe
bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If these people were good at critical thinking, they wouldn’t have these stupid fucking opinions to begin with.
jonne@infosec.pub 2 months ago
And I’ve never heard of a contract that explicitly ties non-union workers’ pay to the union contact, but I’d be cheering the union guys on if they ever asked for a raise if that was the case.
ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
That’s actually more common than you think. It’s not explicit.
My niece who works at a very popular coffee shop where some are unioned, the non-union ones get paid a bit extra and reminded on the daily about that benefit of higher pay for being non-unioned.
And my aunt works as a receptionist in a non-union hospital. Her counterparts in a union, when they went on strike and got a huge pay bump… She suddenly “mysteriously” got a pay bump aligned with it because the non-union hospital was afraid of employees unionizing (which secretly, they were).
Natanael@infosec.pub 2 months ago
It’s in the news that Starbucks does that
kahdbrixk@feddit.org 2 months ago
My thoughts exactly. And how I love this complete dismissal style with the “False.” at the beginning, that has established itself online. it’s a perfect giveaway for " now my personal but universal opinion, also called Truth bomb, is going to destroy your statement" - which in my opinion is just extremely patronizing and never really true.
Especially when comparing your personal anecdotal experience with a fucking statistic.
Oh and nobody talks like that in real life, or at least the people that do start their verbal line of argument this way are idiots and everybody knows it.
jmf@lemm.ee 2 months ago
False. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beats. Battlestar galactica.
cynar@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Part of the problem is that statistics can be abused. It takes a reasonable amount of training to be able to differentiate between reliable statistics and potentially dodgy. Even worse, we are often presented with them, striped or context.
The best solution is to teach people how to both spot problems and seek reliable data. The proper meaning of “do your own research”. Unfortunately, a significant chunk just give up with them and only trust their gut.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 2 months ago
statistics can be abused
They can be abused, by people who understand statistics talking to people who don’t understand statistics. This is a good reason to learn statistical methods rather than reject them.
cynar@lemmy.world 2 months ago
There are levels of abuse, some blatant, some subtle. Leading questions are obvious, when you have the question asked. Publishing bias is difficult to spot, even for trained scientists looking for it.
Learning about statistical methods isn’t enough. People need to be taught how to weigh the data presented against the value of misleading them.
It’s a subsection of logical reasoning, and needs to be taught as part of an integrated whole.
TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
I think statistically (pun intended) there are more problems with people ignoring statistics or plain lying, than statistics being abused
freddydunningkruger@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Typically, statistics are abused by poloticians/partisan hacks who take data from reliable sources and lie/spin it to their narrative. The thing is, the average Fox News viewer with a HS diploma isn’t going to dig any deeper. And I wouldn’t say they trust their gut… they trust the propaganda narrative.
oo1@lemmings.world 2 months ago
I dont know, when most people were children they might believe their parents like that. Some of them grow up and develop minds of their own and critical thinking but others seem not to. Maybe it gets harder to grow up, the longer you spend as a child.
Or maybe you’re right and it’s an intrinsic part of human diversity - maybe the tribe has always needed some sheeple - so our genes might always create some.
slazer2au@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Sounds like every online platform ever.
T00l_shed@lemmy.world 2 months ago
False! Source: my ass
tomenzgg@midwest.social 2 months ago
Image
T00l_shed@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s good. I’m taking it haha
_stranger_@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It was more like False, Source: this paper that says True.
TheBat@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Cite it
T00l_shed@lemmy.world 2 months ago
False! Source: (my ass, 2025, jerboa for lemmy)
Is that acceptable?
pdxfed@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Actually, that’s not true at all. This one time, I met a guy who…