Tools: Statistics

28 March 2024

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” [1]

“Statistics” is a valuable scientific tool often abused by ideologues to present data in a way which misleads one to accept their agenda.

The input to a statistical analysis is raw data; the data can be collected in ways designed to prove any conclusion, in the guise of scientific proof. Hence Twain’s justifiable contempt.

Buried within data collection are countless ways to “alter” reality to suit the ideology. A great example is the often heard claim that maternal and infant mortality in the US is worse than a third world country. This lie is used to assert that “the risk of death during or after child birth is approximately 14 times greater than the risk of death from abortion-related complications.”

Here are a few ways the data was corruptly collected for such an absurd conclusion: [2]

* Any woman who died from any cause (accidents, drug OD, suicide, cancer) up to 19 months after her pregnancy ended, was included in the mortality rate.

* Hundreds of women over the age of 70 were counted as pregnant (among other erroneous entries).

* Deaths ensuing an abortion are recorded as “pregnancy related’ not “abortion related.”

This reminded me of how Ethiopian birth fatalities are exceeded by US rates. Ethiopians don’t customarily name their infants until they are likely to live; they also do not record birth dates. In 2000 we worked with a Doctor in Sodo Waleta, who earned his credentials in the UK, who did not know his own birthdate. Many of the tribes we worked with on a medical mission had no communication with health authorities at all. Most births did not take place in a medical facility.

Most data reflecting “increased harm from climate change” is grossly distorted. We read that losses from hurricanes and wild fires are getting worse every year. In actuality, frequency and intensity of storms and wild fires have not increased, while the number of homes and resorts in areas prone to such disasters has increased dramatically, as has the value of those properties. Actual data shows that in the last 100 years, deaths from climate disasters have decreased 97%. From near 500,000 annually to fewer than 15,000 in the 2020's. “‘Net Zero’ is more than seven times as costly as the climate change it tries to address.” [3]

“Poverty not decreasing in the US” is often heard, while the government has habitually broadened the definition of poor. Income from government assistance is excluded from household income. A family of 4 with two not working can receive up to $80,000 in benefits (in 14 states, up to $100,00 in 3 other states), and still be counted as “in poverty” [4]

Crime statistics are so consistently misrepresented that when celebrated Harvard Economics Professor Roland Fryer [5] published his findings that disproved racial bias in policing, he needed armed security to escort him. (Fryer is Black - his biographical story is impressive).

Media these days do not question the source of statistics that favor their biases. Eg, Hamas is reporting innocent deaths as announced by Al Jazeera, which apparently made them up. The figures were repeated by the world media, despite the apparent impossibility of the figures. [6]

1. Usually attributed to Mark Twain.

2. Alysia Finley, “Abortion and America’s Phony ‘Pregnancy Crisis,’” Wall Street Journal, 25 March 2024

3. Bjorn Lomborg, “We’re safer from Climate Disasters than Ever Before,” WSJ, 3 Nov 2021. See also his “Follow the Science Leads to Ruin,” WSJ, March 14, 2024.

4. Fox Business, “Jobs, published December 19, 2022"

5. Bari Weiss, Fryer Interview The free Press, February 13, 2024

6. David Adesnik, “Hamas’s Number Games,” WSJ 5 April 2024.

Loving you,

Grampa Jeff