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CDC data are disappearing
431–440 of 656 posts
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the problem. Real humans in real world cannot be impartial and will always have biases. So if you expose the public to many different biased opinions and let them learn to recognize the biases and see past them, the "cumulative mindset" will be more objective and less prone to manipulation. But if you let one biased group decide what the majority is allowed to see, the public opinion will inevitably align with…
> Have you noticed how in the past decade or two we have totally abandoned the pursuit of happiness through self-reliance and independence? No.
Really? Maybe its my bias showing through, but my memory of the last couple decades is largely an exercise in most people looking to outside authorities (governments, corporations, titled experts, etc) to fix problems rather than dealing with it individually.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
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I’m curious about what will happen if they get to the parts of this Project 2025 like agenda that involves telling people to do things, or banning things people like. We already see that abortion bans are unpopular. When they are put to a vote they lose, even in very red states. How much more will people take? How will the Joe Rogan dudebro crowd react to banning porn? That’ll be interesting. I’ve been predicting for…
I mean the current game plan, from what it seems, is to make porn a shameful and taboo thing. Same as abortions as well.
There’s a heavy pro-natalism push for obvious reasons, and I have no idea why, but it feels like current government is trying to fix it through wrong methods. They know they’re royally fucked if people having 0-2 kids max.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, fact-checking works if it's done impartially. So, if you want to fairly fact-check a political debate, each side should have their own team of researchers/fact-checkers being equally able to object to an argument made by the opposing party. Due process, sort of, kind of. But I don't think I've ever seen that done actually. Usually, fact checkers are akin to Reddit moderators. Technically independent, but with o…
The Trumpian opposition to fact checkers is not based on some principled disagreement of substance. Trump, and by extension Republicans, oppose fact checking because the facts are in contradiction to their goals. Trump himself exists in some post-modern environment where "facts" aren't real and all that matters is spin. He wants what he says to go unquestioned. That's why instead of having a debate about facts, suppo…
I don't believe that is a one party issue. Life is messy and politicians attempt to smooth that over with grandiose, but hollow, visions for the future and data points taken out of context to paint a picture.
It's a fundamental problem of scale, you either become so bogged down in details and nuance that you get nothing done or you lose so much context that your statements are false without a massive list of caveats.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Data isn’t the ultimate fact check But it is. Numbers can be twisted, but it they can easily be verified. Bias, bad sources and cherry picking can allow you to tell stories, but the data will allow you to verify those stories are indeed facts. Brain can’t really fact check things that don’t have any data.
Can data, or AI, tell me definitively who the MVP of the NFL was this season? Allen, Lamar, Saquon? The numbers certainly help when making comparisons, but they aren't the entire story, different people will come to different conclusions based on the exact same set of facts.
Who cares about the NFL? The issue here is that, and mark my words this almost this exact conversation will play out in the very near future:
Scientists: X number of people died of Covid in the US according to CDC data.
US Government: you can't prove that number. That data doesn't exist on government servers, the data in the copies is fake and can't be trusted.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#436Removing these records from the public internet could likely be considered illegal under the OPEN Government Data Act, 44 U.S.C. § 3506:
> (d) With respect to information dissemination, each agency shall— (3) provide adequate notice when initiating, substantially modifying, or terminating significant information dissemination products; (4) not, except where specifically authorized by statute— (A) establish an exclusive, restricted, or other distribution arrangement that interferes with timely and equitable availability of public information to the public; (B) restrict or regulate the use, resale, or redissemination of public information by the public
If these datasets were actually permanently deleted then the incident should be investigated by NARA [1]. The people responsible could be charged with a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 2071: > (b) Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.
1. https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/unauthorized...
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
Data isn't the ultimate fact check - it's just numbers waiting to be twisted. Bias, bad sources, and cherry-picking turn 'facts' into fiction. Real fact-checking needs brains, not just bar graphs.
> Data isn’t the ultimate fact check But it is. Numbers can be twisted, but it they can easily be verified. Bias, bad sources and cherry picking can allow you to tell stories, but the data will allow you to verify those stories are indeed facts. Brain can’t really fact check things that don’t have any data.
Numbers alone will always lack context. You can absolutely verify where the numbers came from, weren't altered, and the math was done right. What you can't do is verify the numbers alone accurately portray what was happening in the real world, or what has happened in the real world since the snapshot of those numbers was taken.
Numbers are extremely useful, but numbers alone mean absolutely nothing.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
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I’m not sorry, but the narrative that the 2nd amendment keeps the government in check is beyond naïve in the 21st century, its celebration of stupidity. Perhaps in a world where armed combat between civilians and the military only involves muskets this holds true, but exactly how do you expect to “exert your second amendment rights” when a squad armed with M16s, grenade launchers, body armor, and night vision goggles…
> "its celebration of stupidity"
A large number of voters seem to think it works.
> “exert your second amendment rights”
The second amendment is a prohibition on the government, so it is not a right to be exerted, but rather a natural right that is not to be inhibited.
> [...] when a squad armed with M16s, grenade launchers, body armor, and night vision goggles shows up to your door?
Guerrilla warfare has proven time after time that you should not assume the larger-numbered, better-equipped party will automatically win this type of scenario.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
Data isn't the ultimate fact check - it's just numbers waiting to be twisted. Bias, bad sources, and cherry-picking turn 'facts' into fiction. Real fact-checking needs brains, not just bar graphs.
But surely, the answer to 'data can be twisted' is not to remove the data? We have enough of a problem already with wilful misinformation. Having the data is the first step towards a reasonable discussion. Otherwise, you have to resort to 'I feel ....' vs 'Based on this interpretation....' I agree that the first kind of debate is already the dominant form today, however I think we can all agree that it's not been goo…
This isn't a new problem unfortunately. Data and research during the pandemic response was being horribly mishandled, largely by the Democrats at the time.
This isn't a one party or one person problem. It sure seems like a problem more correlated with our government structure and/or climate, or authority structures themselves.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
lol if you watch zuck's take on it his problem is the fact checkers ended up being biased.
Maybe they are. The solution to this is to provide evidence in favor of your argument. That's how we used to resolve conflicting opinions: debates supported by evidence. Now, instead, we're simply getting rid of any attempt to decide what is factual, and instead let demagogues decide for us what is fact and what is not, without any evidence at all. Since evidence is now superfluous, why waste government money by prov…
The internet was designed to be robust in the event of nuclear war. Maybe it’s time for distributed data caches. Maybe we encode it all in crypto currency.