I want to give an illustration of how statistics in any field can be exploited to further a cause. I will do this by simply posing a logical scenario concerning health. Many vegetarians will hoot and holler about how eating meat causes various cancers. The mistake made here is to automatically assume that the meat was the overriding variable. This logic is used in so many areas of “common knowledge” such as the planet has warmed in the last 50 years, and so has industrial output, therefore one caused the other. Without further investigation, this is as scientific as your favorite team’s pitcher not washing his socks for weeks because they’re on a winning streak. Back to the cancer caused by meat: people that eat meat die from various cancers more frequently than vegetarians. Without analyzing the studies, let’s just say this is 100% true. It is also clear that older people get cancer more than younger people. The older someone is, the more likely they are to contract cancer. Could it be that the longer lifespan of meat-eaters makes them more susceptible to “old-person” diseases, such as cancer? If you don’t live long enough to get cancer, you are less likely to get it.
I am not trying to portray this as scientific proof of my hypothesis. I am simply trying to alert the masses to their ignorance of dependent versus independent variables in statistics and their tendency to accept statements without deep thought and analysis. Intellectual laziness is what leads to the multitude of myths that THRIVE in the arena of common knowledge. A book you have to read: Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity.
Only a liberal would be convinced of the danger of global warming, but unconvinced of the danger of terrorism.
Global warming cannot be confirmed by the scientific method which requires the elimination of plausible alternatives. “All hypotheses and theories are in principle subject to disproof. Thus, there is a point at which there might be a consensus about a particular hypothesis or theory, yet it must in principle remain tentative.” The global threat of terrorism, mainly from Muslim extremism is certainly more confirmable since they have no desire in hiding their goals! They have told you they will kill you for not being Muslim. Why are you so able to believe in global warming but not in the imminent threat of terrorism? Simple, you’re not interested in the truth if it isn’t what you expected.
Only a liberal would fight tooth and nail to prevent the death of a convicted child rapist/murderer, but support a female’s right to abort an innocent fetus.
This is not a BLINDLY pro-life statement, I am in fact in favor of it in certain situations. But it is the epitome of hypocrisy to be ok with aborting an innocent life, but adamantly against aborting an evil life.
“Racism has many definitions, the most common and widely accepted being the belief that members of one race are intrinsically superior or inferior to members of other races.” (Wikipedia)
The notion that racism has MANY definitions is nonsense; its simply a manifestation of the exploitation of the concept to silence controversial thought. There was a time in America when if you showed a picture of a white person next to a black person, and asked Jim Bob who was smarter, he and many Americans would have immediately answered that the white person was smarter. That kind of response is extremely ignorant and racist. Just as it is to interchange any race, color, or religion into that scenario in place of white or black. There have been and are today many great minds of impressively high intelligence representing all races, and other identifying features that I will ignore for the remainder of the article to remain focused.
Why does society accept studies that illustrate height differences between races as completely possible, but rejects the possibility that there could be intelligence differences? If one can accept the concept of survival of the fittest, then it follows that taller animals might have a better chance of surviving, simply because taller often means bigger and stronger. More muscle, more weight, better ability to defend itself and survive. Extending that one step toward our conclusion, certain areas of the Earth might have more or less predators. In the areas with less predators, the tall animals survive, but the smaller animals also do. The area with more predators might weed out a HIGHER percentage of the smaller animals. Over hundreds or thousands of years, the population’s average makeup in the two different areas would be different. This illustration can be applied to so many other aspects of a species development: longer tongues on anteater’s, longer necks on giraffes, etc. Why would intelligence be immune to these natural influences?
An intermediate understanding of probability and statistics is all that is necessary to understand why Dr. Watson’s comments were NOT racist. Critics of Dr Watson’s comments have painted him as Jim Bob of the scenario above, which is an ugly mischaracterization. It’s VERY possible Dr. James Watson is a raging racist, but that cannot be determined by the comment he recently made. Dr Watson is referring to the findings of other scientists that indicate the AVERAGE IQ of Africans is lower than “our intelligence” on average (I assume “our” means Americans since he is American, but lets assume he means Caucasians to entertain the critics). It is quite true that scientists have found that there is a difference in the mean IQ of different races. For what its worth, I have no stake in which race wins, in fact, my race is not the winner. The misunderstanding that occurs when discussing this subject is the concept of a probability distribution. The 10 smartest people on earth could all be from the race with the lowest average, and this fact would not substantially affect the average. The average or mean is the sum of all the IQs of the subjects in the sample taken, divided by the number of subjects. The sample of subjects in all the races is made up of really stupid, average, and really smart people. Just because your race’s average isn’t the winner has nothing to do with your intelligence.
An ignorance of statistics combined with knee-jerk, irrational political correctness has condemned an amazingly important man of modern science. Just because his statements were blunt and insensitive does not dispute the veracity of the statements. As I said before, I have no stake in whether his statements and the studies they were based on are true or not. All I know is they have not been disputed by contrary studies. Im sorry that people of African descent are offended by these statements, but the fact that white people’s feelings might be hurt by the statement “White men can’t jump” doesn’t change the fact west africans have more fast twich muscle fibers than European whites. Regardless of who wins, is it so hard to believe that people of different races have different numbers of “fast twitch” brain “muscles”?
What Dr Watson said…
“In an interview with his former protege Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe, he said that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours whereas all the testing says not really.”
While visiting Southern California on Thursday, President Bush promised to give federal aid to the region for uninsured losses. While compassion and pity are admirable qualities, this action would basically inform anyone who had the prescience and self-reliance to purchase their own insurance that they are suckers. Telling people that were responsible enough to plan for such a disaster, and spent money year after year after year to insure their home and personal property that they wasted their money is much worse than the loss suffered by those who were not prepared. It is a terrible and unacceptable message to send to the people of California and the rest of the nation. It is another possible attack on the American principle of self-reliance and removes incentive to act properly.
Natural disasters are tragedies and very often unpredictable, but many areas throughout the country and the world are obviously succeptable to specific disasters, and the people of those regions are responsible for preparing for them. If someone builds their house on a steep hill, and a landslide destroys their home, its not MY responsibility. I made my home in a safer place, and I should be rewarded for that. People in Florida should obtain insurance for hurricanes, many Kansans should insure against Tornados, and San Franciscans need protection against earthquakes. The federal government should not insure EVERYTHING for many reasons. Iowans should not have to retrofit their structures for earthquakes; it would be a colossal waste of money because they don’t have earthquakes frequently enough to warrant it. They should also not have to pay for earthquake damage in other states. It’s not their responsibility
Building a city with several areas below sea level near an ocean is just plain stupid. I do not believe people should be prevented from settling in these areas, but if they choose to live there, they should be responsible for the consequences. Not me. If someone leaves food out in their house with the windows open in an area known to be inhabitated by many bears, its their fault and responsibility to either fix the damage or to insure it. Not mine. We have figured this logic out in so many areas. No rational person would ever claim that the widow of a man without life insurance should receive the equivalent of her late husband’s salary for the rest of her life unless they had an insurance policy. Reimbursement policies like that would OBVIOUSLY bankrupt the country over time. No one would ever apply for life insurance, and claims would flood the federal government.
Of course many of the Californians may have been unaware of the risk of fire in their area, due to the high concentration of houses as well as some residents’ ignorant objection to controlled fires to reduce risk and the high velocity Santa Anna winds at this time of year, but their ignorance cannot be rewarded while those that weren’t ignorant are essentially punished for years of good behavior and judgment.