[extropy-chat] The NeoCon Mind-Trick (was letter concerning presidential growth)

David Lubkin extropy at unreasonable.com
Fri Dec 16 04:43:50 UTC 2005


The Avantguardian wrote:

>Maybe, but my data is not. It is from the
>http://www.tickle.com website. All I did was cut and
>paste into Excel. I sent the Excel file as an
>attachment to the list but it needs moderator approval
>because its size (47kb) is just over the 40kb limit.
>In any case, all I did was cut and paste data from 2
>different sites neither of whom knew I using their
>data for analysis. Once the moderators approve it for
>distribution, feel free to analyze it yourself.

Even assuming the validity of your Tickle data, most states were not 
uniformly pro-Kerry or pro-Bush. Take a look at the various election 
maps that break out votes by county, some of which also display 
population density. With few exceptions, there are no red states or 
blue states. People who live in large cities overwhelmingly voted for 
Kerry; everyone else overwhelmingly voted for Bush.

A state-based comparison is inherently flawed.

To my thinking, bad science is more harmful than no science. It has 
the veneer of validity, and dupes the many people who don't have the 
background or intellect to see what's wrong with it. So when I see 
bad science, whatever the subject matter, and whatever side it's on, I pounce.

But suppose it were all true and all valid. The average Kerry voter 
is smarter than the average Bush voter.

***** SO WHAT? *****

How is your posting anything more than a dressed-up playground sneer?


-- David.
   




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