What If We Multiply A Much Larger Number By A Slightly Smaller Number

It occurred to me this morning that all the DATA JOURNALISTS and assorted THAT'S JUST MATH types who weigh in on politics these days are similar to the skeptics/New Atheists movement of the aughts. Just a bunch of dumb dorks who think that by asserting that they are smart and not bound by the irrational superstitions and narrow ideologies of normal humans, that their every pronouncement is transcendent.

It is not a joke to say I've forgotten more about math/statistics than these guys ever knew. I knew a lot and forgot it all! But I just laugh at all the people who think knowing 3 weeks of a probability/stats class and the ability to make a graph in excel means they are data guys, or whatever.

Tangentially, my long very simplistic model of a good liberal arts education is that you gotta teach people a bunch of dots (information, facts) but also teach them to learn how to connect the dots (why the dots matter, how they exist in relation to each other), and not in a wall of weird way. Now we have a bunch of nerds going "look, my dots!"

Also like every dumb asshole who thinks he's really smart, when they're proved fucking wrong they just move on to the next nonsense like it never happened.