4 ms·

The irony of any statistics regarding race, etc. is that the very act of analysis is itself a form of unnecessary segregation. For example, during the election

The irony of any statistics regarding race, etc. is that the very act of analysis is itself a form of unnecessary segregation. For example, during the election I saw CNN blabbing about each candidate's popularity among white women voters or black voters or this or that, and I just turned it off. The whole problem is that people treat these as relevant and appropriate categories. The statistics should be completely uninteresting, in a color-blind world.

philwelch 17y ago
The problem is, the statistics are very interesting just because we do live in a non-colorblind world. We're never going to live in any kind of idealized fantasy world where race and sex are irrelevant, so pretending that they are is ignorant of reality.
- makecheck 17y ago
  If there's a flaw in democracy, it's that people can use any criteria they want to vote. :) If people ignore all logic and vote entirely based on a candidate's name or color, there's really nothing stopping them. But what would discourage such shallow thinking, is a media that sets a good example. If newscasters' generalizations are closer to the best interests of voters (e.g. "popularity among people in <profession>"), it may have a positive effect on attitudes in society.
  - philwelch 17y ago
    The media's job isn't to "set an example", it's to report things as they are. As things are, people vote differently based upon sex and race, because they have different experiences and viewpoints and stations in life due to sex and race. Even when all the candidates are white males, black people tend to vote for the white male that supports affirmative action and civil rights over the white male who does not.
    - didip 17y ago
      Since most media companies is run as for-profit, I would say that selling stories that sells is in their best interest as opposed to reporting things as they are. Telling stories about black vs white candidates/voters are too profitable to passed up.
      - philwelch 17y ago
        Be that as it may, the objective thing to do is still to report differences between voting populations based upon race and sex, because those differences do actually exist.
kragen 17y ago
In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. "What are you doing?", asked Minsky. "I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-tac-toe" Sussman replied. "Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky. "I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play", Sussman said. Minsky then shut his eyes. "Why do you close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher. "So that the room will be empty." At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.

philwelch 17y ago

The problem is, the statistics are very interesting just because we do live in a non-colorblind world. We're never going to live in any kind of idealized fantasy world where race and sex are irrelevant, so pretending that they are is ignorant of reality.

makecheck 17y ago
If there's a flaw in democracy, it's that people can use any criteria they want to vote. :) If people ignore all logic and vote entirely based on a candidate's name or color, there's really nothing stopping them. But what would discourage such shallow thinking, is a media that sets a good example. If newscasters' generalizations are closer to the best interests of voters (e.g. "popularity among people in <profession>"), it may have a positive effect on attitudes in society.
- philwelch 17y ago
  The media's job isn't to "set an example", it's to report things as they are. As things are, people vote differently based upon sex and race, because they have different experiences and viewpoints and stations in life due to sex and race. Even when all the candidates are white males, black people tend to vote for the white male that supports affirmative action and civil rights over the white male who does not.
  - didip 17y ago
    Since most media companies is run as for-profit, I would say that selling stories that sells is in their best interest as opposed to reporting things as they are. Telling stories about black vs white candidates/voters are too profitable to passed up.
    - philwelch 17y ago
      Be that as it may, the objective thing to do is still to report differences between voting populations based upon race and sex, because those differences do actually exist.

kragen 17y ago

In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. "What are you doing?", asked Minsky. "I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-tac-toe" Sussman replied. "Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky. "I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play", Sussman said. Minsky then shut his eyes. "Why do you close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher. "So that the room will be empty." At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.