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Here's a relevant opinion from Newt Gingrich on the matter of perception of violence vs. actual trends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhJWusyj4I https://www.

Here's a relevant opinion from Newt Gingrich on the matter of perception of violence vs. actual trends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhJWusyj4I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhJWusyj4I

rjf72 7y ago
This, moreso, seems to emphasize how much partisanship has gripped everybody. For instance homelessness is substantially down across the US. [1] But of course certain areas, especially in California and New York, do not follow this trend. And so for people in these regions and especially in certain areas of them, homelessness is very much an issue, aggregate stats notwithstanding. Imagine having the same interview, except now have an advocate for focusing on homelessness as an issue and a journalist who keeps interjecting 'but homelessness across the country is down!' Now furthermore, have somebody go and insert laugh tracks when the homeless advocate speaks. People would react to it entirely differently even though it's the exact same logic, just with the issue being discussed swapped. I think this is mostly reflective of partisanship, as it emphasizes that the logic itself is not what people are mocking. Increasingly often we mock or support logic based not on the soundness of said logic, but whether it affirms or challenges our views and values. --- But more on topic I completely agree that the media holds some responsibility (I imagine many people even outside of New York and California believe that homelessness is on the rise, contrary to the data) but there's also the very real issue that aggregate stats do not necessarily represent local conditions. There are also a couple of other factors to consider. People are much more influenced by relatively recent changes rather than changes that happened decades ago. For instance the violent crime rate has been increasing recently. That it's far below the levels of the 90s is probably not much comfort for those in areas where it's increasing. Another issue that increases in population can see a rate decrease, but the number of incidents increase or remain stable. If the population increases 10% and the murder rate declines 1% you'd see an increase in the number of murders happening. That it's at a lower per capita rate is, once again, probably not very comforting to those in the area. [1] - https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/ https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homeless...

Here's a relevant opinion from Newt Gingrich on the matter of perception of violence vs. actual trends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhJWusyj4I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhJWusyj4I

rjf72 7y ago

This, moreso, seems to emphasize how much partisanship has gripped everybody. For instance homelessness is substantially down across the US. [1] But of course certain areas, especially in California and New York, do not follow this trend. And so for people in these regions and especially in certain areas of them, homelessness is very much an issue, aggregate stats notwithstanding. Imagine having the same interview, except now have an advocate for focusing on homelessness as an issue and a journalist who keeps interjecting 'but homelessness across the country is down!' Now furthermore, have somebody go and insert laugh tracks when the homeless advocate speaks. People would react to it entirely differently even though it's the exact same logic, just with the issue being discussed swapped. I think this is mostly reflective of partisanship, as it emphasizes that the logic itself is not what people are mocking. Increasingly often we mock or support logic based not on the soundness of said logic, but whether it affirms or challenges our views and values. --- But more on topic I completely agree that the media holds some responsibility (I imagine many people even outside of New York and California believe that homelessness is on the rise, contrary to the data) but there's also the very real issue that aggregate stats do not necessarily represent local conditions. There are also a couple of other factors to consider. People are much more influenced by relatively recent changes rather than changes that happened decades ago. For instance the violent crime rate has been increasing recently. That it's far below the levels of the 90s is probably not much comfort for those in areas where it's increasing. Another issue that increases in population can see a rate decrease, but the number of incidents increase or remain stable. If the population increases 10% and the murder rate declines 1% you'd see an increase in the number of murders happening. That it's at a lower per capita rate is, once again, probably not very comforting to those in the area. [1] - https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/ https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homeless...