4 ms·

She makes a good point, here: "We do not think about the statistical probabilities or compare the likelihood of such events with far more present dangers, like

She makes a good point, here: "We do not think about the statistical probabilities or compare the likelihood of such events with far more present dangers, like increasing rates of childhood diabetes or depression. Statistically speaking, it would take 750,000 years for a child left alone in a public space to be snatched by a stranger. Statistically speaking, a child is far more likely to be killed in a car on the way to a store than waiting in one that is parked."

Xcelerate 8y ago
I thought this was easily the strongest point in the whole article. Penalties for negligence should be based on actual, calculated risks. End of story.
- gnicholas 8y ago
  Well, there's a cost-benefit calculation. It's not all about the risk. If you want to get groceries, you have to drive, walk, bike, or take a bus to the store. Each has some level of risk, and some amount of inconvenience. Once you get to the store, there is some amount of risk to leaving your kid in the car. As she points out, it is infinitesimal. The ideal comparison would be to say that there's more risk of the kid being hit by a car while walking from the parking lot to the store than to just sitting in the car. Given the stats she quoted, I wouldn't be surprised if this were true.
GW150914 8y ago
That narrative is unacceptable to power structures that rule through fear. If people really internalized the fact that (for one example) a person in the UK is more likely to die from swallowing a bee than through terrorism, many totalitarian policies would be undermined. Likewise if most Brits accepted that it’s riskier riding a horse than taking MDMA, the war on drugs would suffer. Fear is just such a useful tool to keep people moving in the general direction you want that politicians and plutocrats will not give it up, and niether will marketers. Meanwhile the media has generally embraced sensationalism and fear for a very very long time. People are inculcated into a culture of fear to sell shit, to control them, to siphon money from them, and who’s left to show them the way out? The prototypical example is that so many people fear flying commercially, yet don’t blink at getting into their cars to drive.
- lainga 8y ago
  I think that's the thrust of this whole situation. When people say "that should be illegal," it's because they're so accustomed to the idea of an all-encompassing, all-regulating government, that they can see no other outlet for their anger than to suggest new criminal laws.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    In many cases the motivating emotion isn't anger, but jealousy. Others live as they wish they had permission to live.
    - kwhitefoot 8y ago
      But in fact they do have permission to live as others do. But they lack the nerve or the means.

Xcelerate 8y ago

I thought this was easily the strongest point in the whole article. Penalties for negligence should be based on actual, calculated risks. End of story.

gnicholas 8y ago
Well, there's a cost-benefit calculation. It's not all about the risk. If you want to get groceries, you have to drive, walk, bike, or take a bus to the store. Each has some level of risk, and some amount of inconvenience. Once you get to the store, there is some amount of risk to leaving your kid in the car. As she points out, it is infinitesimal. The ideal comparison would be to say that there's more risk of the kid being hit by a car while walking from the parking lot to the store than to just sitting in the car. Given the stats she quoted, I wouldn't be surprised if this were true.

GW150914 8y ago

That narrative is unacceptable to power structures that rule through fear. If people really internalized the fact that (for one example) a person in the UK is more likely to die from swallowing a bee than through terrorism, many totalitarian policies would be undermined. Likewise if most Brits accepted that it’s riskier riding a horse than taking MDMA, the war on drugs would suffer. Fear is just such a useful tool to keep people moving in the general direction you want that politicians and plutocrats will not give it up, and niether will marketers. Meanwhile the media has generally embraced sensationalism and fear for a very very long time. People are inculcated into a culture of fear to sell shit, to control them, to siphon money from them, and who’s left to show them the way out? The prototypical example is that so many people fear flying commercially, yet don’t blink at getting into their cars to drive.

lainga 8y ago
I think that's the thrust of this whole situation. When people say "that should be illegal," it's because they're so accustomed to the idea of an all-encompassing, all-regulating government, that they can see no other outlet for their anger than to suggest new criminal laws.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  In many cases the motivating emotion isn't anger, but jealousy. Others live as they wish they had permission to live.
  - kwhitefoot 8y ago
    But in fact they do have permission to live as others do. But they lack the nerve or the means.