Beefy's Corner - The Off-Topic Chat Thread
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Some of those results are ridiculous. I mean who could possibly believe fifteen percent of girls under 16 become pregnant every year?
EDIT: Ha. The point's already made
That was a good read, Joe. You're scintillating on topics this evening. The stand out paragraph for me was:
We need to see three things happen. First, politicians need to be better at talking about the real state of affairs of the country, rather than spinning the numbers. Secondly, the media has to try and genuinely illuminate issues, rather than use statistics to sensationalise.And finally we need better teaching of statistical literacy in schools, so that people get more comfortable in understanding evidence.
Truthfully, I was genuinely surprised by how many people have a warped sense of what is true and what is not. I can't say that I would have been accurate with every question, but I think I would have been far more accurate than some of the answers. Also, bear in mind that it is easy to condemn a whole swathe of population for being ignorant of truth, when in actual fact, many people may have badly answered a single question, yet answered the rest with commendable accuracy. There is no significant bunch of totally ignorant citizens out there. Well, there may be.
I think ignorance is pretty common, but as you say it's hard to come down too hard on the people when they're being misled by politicians and the media. I often feel like there are powerful people out there who want to keep us stupid so that we remain easily fooled. It would explain why education isn't getting any better.
I dunno, what proportion of our population buy the Daily Mail?
I'd probably rank the Sunday Sport higher than the mail, at least it doesn't pretend to be something it's not.
On the subject of anti-vaccine bullshit, here's a fun website: http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Anti-Vaccine_Body_Count/Home.html
Certain influential people (Jenny McCarthy) who have been spreading these unproven myths are responsible for thousands of deaths.
Saw this interesting thing on anti-vacciners today. I imagine figures would be even more startling for homeopathy/alt-med reliants.
EDIT: **** sake, Steinberg.
Too much negative sensationalism by the media and the politicians alike. One day I'd like to hear an opposition politician (any party being in power) say, "I think the current government have done a bloody good job on that". Won't happen though.
Truth is the Government cover up loads. Like the fact they are stock piling Bird Flu vaccines just for the people that they deem important. So when it hits and it will **** loads will die as atm the stockpile isn't even big enough for a quarter of the population.
My younger (mid-20s, and thus old enough to know better) sister is starting to go down that route, and it scares me. Not the climate change denialism, thank goodness, but the alt-med believe-random-stuff-you-see-on-your-Facebook-feed-over-science nonsense. Threw a fit recently because she'd given her three-year-old daughter raw goat's milk because "it's natural!"...that kid gets as much as a stomachache as a result and I'll throttle her.
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