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I’m not sure the name of the fallacy, but there’s a common urge to assume what’s measurable is real. So in statistics you have to really design your sample well.

But frequently whatever is nearby can still be useful for selling ads or whatever so people get used to using it for everything.

Back in the olden days people would mock others who quoted a random twitterer who said “George Bush thinks xyz” but now that’s like half of all the news stories.