I find this misguided: Indeed mathematics and the scientific method are _the only_ tools that can help us find the truth about social problems. I lov

I find this misguided: Indeed mathematics and the scientific method are _the only_ tools that can help us find the truth about social problems. I love "analysis of evidence and data" as much as the next guy, and quite possibly more. That's why I am extremely wary of lending too much credence to data when it comes to something as messy as a society of human beings. What's one of the very first things we learn when we learn about "the scientific method" as schoolkids? For an experiment to be valid, we need control samples. This can rarely, if ever, be practically or ethically achieved with human beings. There are, to put it mildly, an overwhelming number of confounding variables at play in any statistical study of human beings. That doesn't mean data is useless when it comes to social sciences, but it is rarely if ever sufficient. (This is also resoundingly true for "lived experience", of course)