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by chneu
503 days ago
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In general crime is down across the board big time. Violent crime especially. If you go back 20 years it's pretty crazy how much crime is down. It's even more startling if you go back further. Americans believe in a lot of weird stuff that isn't backed by real world evidence. Newt Gingrich said it years ago, facts don't matter if people can be made to believe something. It's all relative and Americans have grown up with ridiculous privilege, which makes most people think immigrants are eating dogs or they go buy TP in bulk cuz of reasons. People are horrible at understanding statistics. An American is more likely to die falling down a set of stairs than they are from a foodborn illness, for example. Or the average gun owner is more likely to take their own life with their gun than they ever are to use it against a criminal. Heck, that gun is more likely to be stolen and used in a murder somewhere else than a person is to use it in self defense. But most Americans believe they absolutely need a gun because of how dangerous the country is. Meanwhile, they're more likely to choke on a pen or get killed by a dog than to ever use that gun. |
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Yes, but people are also horrible at defining how a person "should feel" about statistics. A ton of statistics are apples and oranges in practice (e.g. falling down stairs vs food poisoning), because humans intrinsically care about more variables than statistics express (which is why we willingly drive cars, for the most obvious example).
It's just not that simple.