I'm sorry, it is. Basic sampling errors. A failure of Statistics 101.
If people want to believe it or use it, fine. There's nothing I can say to dissuade when people are dug in. It becomes not about mathematics, but belief. And I can't argue someone if they want to have a belief over mathematical sciences.
So there's no point in arguing that portion anymore. At that point, we might as well throw Bibles at each other. Or Shel Silverstein, because that's what I have on hand at the moment. It's like using spectral evidence in court. Interesting exercise, but the decision to burn has been made.
The RW targets people because it's easy to target the vulnerable. We don't need bad numbers to know that. And we know, without these terrible numbers, that most crimes of this nature fall within friends and family groups, then religious and education groups. Any group that has a lot of open access to children tends to attract the kind of person for whom that's a bonus.
I could ask you the same question. Why do we highlight certain groups and ignore others? Yeah, there are religious folks out there who do these kinds of things. There are also a lot of teachers out there. I don't see those stories everywhere, do you? Kind of weird, isn't it? Even by those numbers on that website, educators are up there on the list. Do you think, perhaps, we're highlighting a much more ideologically friendly violator while remaining quiet on groups that we see as politically within our tent? And isn't that what Republicans are doing? (Although, I'd argue theirs is much worse)
I remember last January or so, Chicago Public Schools released a comprehensive report that was crazy interesting to read. I wasn't looking for it, it just kind of fell in my lap from a good friend who taught in the schools. It was published in the Sun-Times, I believe. I posted it on DU.
Guess how many bites that got? Go on, guess. A whole major school system is messy about child molestation and how it's handled. That's gotta be interesting, no?
Apparently not that interesting. Honestly, it's not that weird to me when belief and narrative rest at the center of deciding what knowledge is useful to disseminate.
It's important to have all knowledge, not just comfortable knowledge. Otherwise, it's not really knowledge at all.
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