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ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#281176: May 20th 2019 at 1:55:44 PM

You say we're skewed to the left of the USA, I say the USA is skewed far, far right of the free world.

Regardless, it's come up before and I'll say it again, the press is the source of a lot of harm to the American people. I don't see how to fix the problems while TV news has a hold, but hopefully cable/satellite TV is on the way out sooner rather than later.

[down]I suppose the effect of my Mild Hyperbole Mode fake wikiword didn't come across the way I intended.

Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on May 20th 2019 at 5:02:56 AM

My musician page
Imca (Veteran)
#281177: May 20th 2019 at 1:59:12 PM

Skewed to the right of Europe yes, world as a whole not really, its actually decently left there.

We in Asia are much farther right, as is most of South Amercia, and Africa.

I mean hell in most of the world, homosexuality is still a crime, and in lots of places punishable by death.

Edited by Imca on May 20th 2019 at 2:00:11 AM

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#281178: May 20th 2019 at 2:00:27 PM

To be fair, they most likely didn't know what "Arabian numbers" are and therefore reacted accordingly.
I think that was Imca's point, that they were reacting to the word "Arabic" with no regard/knowledge to what they were actually being asked.

Like that early episode of The Man Show where they got people signing a petition to end Womens' Suffrage.

Edited by sgamer82 on May 20th 2019 at 3:00:46 AM

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#281179: May 20th 2019 at 2:00:51 PM

"So, the White House now launched a tool to report social media bans"

I hope people use it to report Trump for being in their feed all the time.

PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#281180: May 20th 2019 at 2:08:08 PM

Even if they do, the WH isn't gonna do anything about it. At worst, it'll annoy them for a while.

i'm tired, my friend
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#281181: May 20th 2019 at 2:10:10 PM

[up][up][up] Yes, but if you actually read the question, it was worded "should schools teach Arabic numerals as part of the curriculum?", not "Should there be Arabic numerals in school". That is the difference between this question and the reaction of this NPD politician I was talking about. The NPD politician immediately jumped on the notion that people might use Arabic numbers to number their own houses and was absolutely against the notion (the moderate, but still ignorant answer would have been "people only have to make sure that there is also a number in German used, so that people are not confused" (yes, there is actually a rule in Germany about having a number on your house and light in during the night so that people don't get confused). The reaction to "Should the school teach Arabic numerals as part of the curriculum?" can just as well answered with the some line of thought in mind you might have if the question were "Should the school teach Cyrillic/greek letters as part of the curriculum?"´. Meaning: What for? There are really more useful subjects they should learn.

To me this question shows that one third of the asked democratic voters were ignorant about using Arabic numbers, not necessarily that all of them were kind of racist. Unless naturally there were other questions which would provide a clearer picture.

Edited by Swanpride on May 20th 2019 at 2:10:25 AM

danime91 Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#281182: May 20th 2019 at 2:21:47 PM

Well there was another question worded something like "Should the creation theory proposed by Catholic priest Charles Lemaitre be part of school science curriculum?" The trick being that Father Lemaitre came up with the Big Bang theory. Democrats were overwhelmingly more likely to vote no.

While a small subset of the way people answered may be due to simple ignorance and not caring, the larger trend usually shows signs of bigotry/prejudice.

Edited by danime91 on May 20th 2019 at 2:22:54 AM

fruitpork Since: Oct, 2010
#281183: May 20th 2019 at 2:23:40 PM

Seriously though, why are they dragging their feet?

Kayeka (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#281184: May 20th 2019 at 2:24:22 PM

[up][up]So it was specifically designed to trick people and give "wrong" answers. Other than proving just how badly you can skew the results of a poll by asking the questions in just the right way, I don't see how this poll has much value to any topic at hand.

Edited by Kayeka on May 20th 2019 at 11:24:38 AM

Oruka Since: Dec, 2018
#281185: May 20th 2019 at 2:25:08 PM

[up][up]They're practicing their Harlem Shuffle?

Edited by Oruka on May 20th 2019 at 2:25:30 AM

MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#281186: May 20th 2019 at 2:27:59 PM

RE the Arabic numerals issue: Fun fact, the actual name for the numeral symbols used by the Arabic language is "Eastern Arabic numerals", whereas what is commonly referred to as simply "Arabic numerals" has the more distinct-looking-and-sounding alternate name of "Western Arabic numerals".

Edited by MarqFJA on May 20th 2019 at 12:28:31 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
danime91 Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#281187: May 20th 2019 at 2:29:36 PM

[up][up][up]Because it reveals biases and also strips away the mask of "it's not about racism". Education level for both Democrats and Republicans is more or less equal, according to that poll. Meaning if the answers were solely based on ignorance, then the results should have been about the same. In the case of the Arabic numerals question, Republicans were overwhelmingly more against it than Democrats were. Showing that there's definitely an element of racial bias.

Edited by danime91 on May 20th 2019 at 2:29:43 AM

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#281188: May 20th 2019 at 2:40:09 PM

If anything, the "Should the creation theory proposed by Catholic priest Charles Lemaitre be part of school science curriculum?" question proofs my point. The democrats were most likely more likely to vote "no" because they assumed that the creation theory of a priest would be anti-scientific, while the Republicans didn't care either way. If the democrats were both pretty ignorant about a number of things and answered the question based on "does this sound like it would make sense to have it into a curriculum?" I can see how they wouldn't think that the creation theory by some priest and some foreign looking numbers wouldn't be high on the priority list.

Plus, this shows even more that the whole thing was designed to Gotcha people. If anything, it shows how easily it is to manipulate people. Plus, looking through the twitter feed, the guy who posted it apparently mostly did it to make the "see, democrats are just as bigoted as republicans" point. Or, to put it differently, he is making the "on both sides" argument.

[up] Yes, but it is impossible to tell how much of it was race bias and how much of it was "what a useless subject" bias. Also, education level tells you nothing about the level of ignorance in specific subjects. I am sure that there are college professors out there who don't know that we use arabic numberals or at least wouldn't necessarily remember the fact while doing some questionaire.

If you wanted to test the race bias, you should have asked "is it okay if people decorate their house with arabic numbers".

Edited by Swanpride on May 20th 2019 at 2:44:22 AM

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#281189: May 20th 2019 at 3:01:11 PM

@Tobias: Would you truly prefer someone who was in favour of segregation until seeing the light or someone who consistently stood against it, even when such a position was unpopular and there was no way of turning it into reality? The choice is clear.

There are like 20 candidates, arguments that Bernie is better then Biden aren't actually very strong.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Grafite Since: Apr, 2016 Relationship Status: Less than three
#281190: May 20th 2019 at 3:14:37 PM

[up] Maybe I'm overly confident, but I'm anticipating that Bernie and Biden will be the only candidates by the time most tropers here vote. Just due to how much below them the other candidates have been polling, only rising with their 15 minutes of fame.

Life is unfair...
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#281191: May 20th 2019 at 3:18:31 PM

I think by the time voting starts, we’ll be down to 5-7 serious candidates. I hope to god it’s not just Biden and Bernie though; that’d be awful. And why does everyone keep assuming they’re unbeatable? At this point in prior primaries, front runners have included people like Herman Cain and Joe Lieberman.

Edited by wisewillow on May 20th 2019 at 3:19:31 AM

PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#281192: May 20th 2019 at 3:18:36 PM

Like I said, debates can bring about some major changes. Counting anyone that isn't Biden or Bernie out for America has a chance to get a better sense of these candidates is a step below falling into that cycle of almost nihilist defeatism that the left so loves.

i'm tired, my friend
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#281193: May 20th 2019 at 4:18:52 PM

The only candidates I count out are the ones consistently polling in the low single digits. There are too many of them in the race for people to start staging realistic surges, unless several of the big wigs implode.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#281194: May 20th 2019 at 5:09:23 PM

This is actually a creation of SCIENTISTS and not at all uncommon in academia as "Gotcha!" questions are designed to state that polls and many often decisions are created in ignorance of the subject. The issue of "low information voters" and how they can contribute to the problem. Academics use them to basically try to teach people to work harder on understanding before voting.

If you're surprised by the "Are you against Arabic Numerals in School" and "Are you against Catholic Science?" then you're probably more familiar with the joke pitch that many have made about banning Dihydrogen monoxide from a school district.

It's one of the most common science jokes you can make.

Similarly, you can say, "Are you against outdated Victorian genetics? Are you aware the schools still teach the work of a monk named Gregor in Biology?"

Mind you, polls are often like this:

Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 20th 2019 at 5:13:02 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#281195: May 20th 2019 at 5:45:00 PM

Yeah I’d like to see the poll data, especially the rate of “I don’t know” responses.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Imca (Veteran)
#281196: May 20th 2019 at 5:51:48 PM

[up] Its in there 18%

[up][up] Ignorance or Mallice doesnt matter when the result is the same, and the result is what is being discussed in that most people are low information voters who dont exactly agree with the more left ideas, but are rather just fine with the status quo...

If you react negatively to the word Arabic because you dont understand at the end of the day thats just ad much a problem as ang other reason.

Edited by Imca on May 20th 2019 at 5:54:09 AM

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#281197: May 20th 2019 at 6:02:19 PM

Pretty much, if you react negatively to "Arabic numbers" without knowing what "Arabic numbers" even are in the first place, it's indicative that you don't really care what they are, either.

BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#281198: May 20th 2019 at 7:34:32 PM

If they wanna try to figure out how to do decimals with Roman numerals, be my guest.

Do not obey in advance.
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#281199: May 20th 2019 at 8:07:51 PM

“Our goal in this experiment was to tease out prejudice among those who didn’t understand the question,” Dick tweeted. “Most people don’t know the origins of our numerical system and yet picked a tribal answer anyway. You can argue that one is worse than the other but both prove a similar point.”

For simplicity's sake, the numbers on the teaching Arabic numbers question: "56% of respondents said no, 29% said yes and 15% chose no opinion."

When their political affiliations were clarified: 72% of Republicans said no. 57% percent of Independents said no. 34% of Democrats said said no.

On the other question concerning teaching the "creation theory of Catholic priest George Lemaitre as part of their science curriculum" the answers were:

53% said No, 20% said Yes, and 27% said No Opinion.

"Of the respondents who said no, 73% of them identified as Democrats."

Honestly, I'll defend the people who said No on that second question. Even knowing it's a trick question going in, my initial thoughts were to assume the question is talking about Creationism (Young Earth Creationism, to be specific). And frankly, I suspect that the people who said Yes, regardless of political affiliation were also under the impression they were supporting Creationism as well.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#281200: May 20th 2019 at 8:09:49 PM

I knew it because:

1. I'm familiar with the scientist/priest/astronomer in question.

2. Catholicism doesn't support Young Earth Creationism.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

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