3 ms·

Americans will rightly be suspicious when a think tank in Germany writes about tariff relief that benefits them. Of course, we should all be critical always – t

by dfee 9mo ago

Americans will rightly be suspicious when a think tank in Germany writes about tariff relief that benefits them. Of course, we should all be critical always – that's the first word in the term "critical thinking".

nomercy400 9mo ago
In contrast to what other country? If a think tank from a non-tariffed country would write this piece, they risk getting tariffs tomorrow. And would Americans trust a (US) think tank in the juristiction of the US government right now?
nosianu 9mo ago
For the sake of quality of discussion, you should least least attempt to write something about the actual study, instead of basing your argument completely on superficial information outside said study. If you add that information, if you really think it adds any value, after discussing what's actually in the study the comment would be sooo much better.
stavros 9mo ago
I find this comment suspicious, and rightly so: We should be critical of it.
- dfee 9mo ago
  You should! Think critically about everything, friend!
uniqueuid 9mo ago
Nitpick: The Kiel Institute is not a think tank in the sense that people would understand the word. It is a federally funded research organization (part of the family of Leibniz institutes) similar to a university but without teaching. Here's a list of the others [1]. These are independent, high-quality research institutions without political money or a designated political agenda. [1] https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/en/institutes/leibniz-institutes-all-lists https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/en/institutes/leibniz-in...
- lingrush4 9mo ago
  The fact that they don't have an agenda written into their charter doesn't mean they don't have an agenda. Basically every American news organization is an example of this.
  - uniqueuid 9mo ago
    While your assessment may be true in many contexts, this is not one of them. American hyper polarization does not permeate other countries in the same degree and German academia is actually full of sober, level-headed, nuanced people.
    - Dirak 9mo ago
      This has never been the case across the history of humanity -- there has never existed a non-biased institution, and it's incredibly naive to think that a German think tank funded by the German government would be any exception. "Level headed" and "sober" people are not immune to the effects of incentives and conflicts of interest. Researchers are dependent on grants, on invitations to conferences, etc., and so are liable to follow trends (tariffs bad), and p-hack to support the mainstream narrative (as they do in this analysis with P values > 0.01). > German academia is actually full of sober, level-headed, nuanced people Thanks for the laugh. I hope you realize how pretentious this sounds. In actuality, Germany's GDP is about 1/6th of that of the US, so these German academics don't sound very bright for how "level headed" and "sober" they are.
      - nosianu 9mo ago
        If/since bias is everywhere and implicit because a person is that person and their own experiences, why point it out here so explicitly???? You do not point that out every. Single. Time. somebody argues even though it is true, or do you? Because that is just too shallow, that is the basis, nothing can be below that, so there is no point in pointing to the ground every time. So when you do point it out, it is YOU who has an agenda. You are trying to shift the framing.
lobsterthief 9mo ago
As an American, I wasn’t suspicious at all. I don’t know anyone personally who I think would be, either. Your comment serves nothing but to suggest anew that Americans _should_ be suspicious. Either that was your aim to begin with or you’re okay with that result.
- lingrush4 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - lobsterthief 9mo ago
    You misinterpreted my statement. OP was suggesting we should be suspicious because it’s from a Germany entity. I am not suspicious specifically due to it being from Germany. Also, you are extremely ignorant and uneducated yourself. See, I used the same logic you did—knowing nothing about you and calling you uneducated. Feels good, doesn’t it?
virtualritz 9mo ago
LGTM [1] What source would you trust on this matter? Or rather: who has published something we could look at that contrasts these findings? [1] https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/kiel-institute-for-the-world-economy-bias/ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/kiel-institute-for-the-world-...
- dfee 9mo ago
  You misunderstand me. I'm not saying that the Kiel Institute shouldn't be trusted, but there will appropriately be greater scrutiny applied due to its location. Which sources would I trust? I feel it's important to read broadly, and (on a long scale) improve your ability to discount biases. To that end, I'm not recommending anything, but everything in proportion.

by dfee 9mo ago

nomercy400 9mo ago

In contrast to what other country? If a think tank from a non-tariffed country would write this piece, they risk getting tariffs tomorrow. And would Americans trust a (US) think tank in the juristiction of the US government right now?

nosianu 9mo ago

For the sake of quality of discussion, you should least least attempt to write something about the actual study, instead of basing your argument completely on superficial information outside said study. If you add that information, if you really think it adds any value, after discussing what's actually in the study the comment would be sooo much better.

stavros 9mo ago

I find this comment suspicious, and rightly so: We should be critical of it.

dfee 9mo ago
You should! Think critically about everything, friend!

uniqueuid 9mo ago

Nitpick: The Kiel Institute is not a think tank in the sense that people would understand the word. It is a federally funded research organization (part of the family of Leibniz institutes) similar to a university but without teaching. Here's a list of the others [1]. These are independent, high-quality research institutions without political money or a designated political agenda. [1] https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/en/institutes/leibniz-institutes-all-lists https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/en/institutes/leibniz-in...

lingrush4 9mo ago
The fact that they don't have an agenda written into their charter doesn't mean they don't have an agenda. Basically every American news organization is an example of this.
- uniqueuid 9mo ago
  While your assessment may be true in many contexts, this is not one of them. American hyper polarization does not permeate other countries in the same degree and German academia is actually full of sober, level-headed, nuanced people.
  - Dirak 9mo ago
    This has never been the case across the history of humanity -- there has never existed a non-biased institution, and it's incredibly naive to think that a German think tank funded by the German government would be any exception. "Level headed" and "sober" people are not immune to the effects of incentives and conflicts of interest. Researchers are dependent on grants, on invitations to conferences, etc., and so are liable to follow trends (tariffs bad), and p-hack to support the mainstream narrative (as they do in this analysis with P values > 0.01). > German academia is actually full of sober, level-headed, nuanced people Thanks for the laugh. I hope you realize how pretentious this sounds. In actuality, Germany's GDP is about 1/6th of that of the US, so these German academics don't sound very bright for how "level headed" and "sober" they are.
    - nosianu 9mo ago
      If/since bias is everywhere and implicit because a person is that person and their own experiences, why point it out here so explicitly???? You do not point that out every. Single. Time. somebody argues even though it is true, or do you? Because that is just too shallow, that is the basis, nothing can be below that, so there is no point in pointing to the ground every time. So when you do point it out, it is YOU who has an agenda. You are trying to shift the framing.

lobsterthief 9mo ago

As an American, I wasn’t suspicious at all. I don’t know anyone personally who I think would be, either. Your comment serves nothing but to suggest anew that Americans _should_ be suspicious. Either that was your aim to begin with or you’re okay with that result.

lingrush4 9mo ago
[flagged]
- lobsterthief 9mo ago
  You misinterpreted my statement. OP was suggesting we should be suspicious because it’s from a Germany entity. I am not suspicious specifically due to it being from Germany. Also, you are extremely ignorant and uneducated yourself. See, I used the same logic you did—knowing nothing about you and calling you uneducated. Feels good, doesn’t it?

virtualritz 9mo ago

LGTM [1] What source would you trust on this matter? Or rather: who has published something we could look at that contrasts these findings? [1] https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/kiel-institute-for-the-world-economy-bias/ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/kiel-institute-for-the-world-...

dfee 9mo ago
You misunderstand me. I'm not saying that the Kiel Institute shouldn't be trusted, but there will appropriately be greater scrutiny applied due to its location. Which sources would I trust? I feel it's important to read broadly, and (on a long scale) improve your ability to discount biases. To that end, I'm not recommending anything, but everything in proportion.