buzzsawmonkey 1/29/2020 6:35:35 AM

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Liz Warren was babbling on NPR this morning, and dropped the number of "36 million uninsured" as one of the justifications for her "Medicare for All" proposal.

It occurred to me that the number of "uninsured"---it varied between 30 and 40 million---was one of the justifications advanced for passing Obamacare in the first place, but that after Obamacare was passed, and was under attack, the same number, more or less, was advanced---and is still being advanced---as the reason for either defending Obamacare, or expanding it into "Medicare for All."  The number doesn't change; merely the configuration of what it is used to justify---even though the continued invocation of the number is, in and of itself, a tacit admission that what the number is being used to defend or advance is a phony issue.

This is similar to the oft-used, still-used number of "11 million illegal aliens" in the US, a number that's been used for years even as illegals have been pouring over the border in tens if not hundreds of thousands every month for the decade(s) that number is bruited about.

There should be a list of these phony numbers; I'm sure there are others in addition to these two.  Likewise, there should be a list of nonsense political terms; my current favorite is "disproportionate," which is used in a variety of contexts.  This or that action "disproportionately affects people of color," or this or that demographic group is "disproportionately represented" in certain professions, or retaliation for a terrorist incident is a "disproportionate response."  Who determines what is "proportionate," and how?  Where is it written what is, or should be, "proportionate?"  The term is used by people seeking to sound judicious and concerned, but it is invariably complete and utter nonsense.

I'd be interested in people's suggested additions to either the Phony Numbers Listtm or the Gasbag Political Terms Listtm.

lucius septimius 1/29/2020 7:45:49 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 1:

Well, the "1 out of 4 women on college campuses have been victims of sexual assault" and "women only make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes" would have to be high up on that list.

The civilian casualties from the Iraq war is another famous one.  They took one neighborhood of Baghdad where there had been particularly heavy fighting, then extrapolated from there to the entire country.  It would be like taking the murder rate for Cook county and then just assuming the rate would be the same in all the other 3,007 counties in the US.  That way you get 1,7 million homicides in 2018.  Which, if you compare that with what they were saying about the Iraq war, actually make Iraq a safer place to be in wartime than the US in peacetime.

vxbush 1/29/2020 8:16:43 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 1:

This isn't necessarily in line with your purpose, but another trope that runs around is that we only use 10% of our brain, and to which my son is categorical evidence that this ain't so. 

But I really like the idea of your list. I'll try to think in between tasks today and see if I can think of any others. 

vxbush 1/29/2020 8:46:29 AM

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In #1 buzzsawmonkey said: the number of "uninsured"---it varied between 30 and 40 million

Speaking of which--a quick Google search gives the following as the top result: 

The number of uninsured nonelderly Americans decreased from over 46.5 million in 2010 (the year the ACA was enacted) to just below 27 million in 2016. However, for the second year in a row, the number of uninsured people increased from 2017 to 2018 by nearly 500,000 people. 

Sure looks to me like they are intentionally increasing the numbers. This site presents itself as "Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues" but never explains its analysis to reach those numbers. 

lucius septimius 1/29/2020 9:11:28 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 4:

Frequently "uninsured" actually means "under-insured" according to some arbitrary standard.  Also: the bulk of the "uninsured" are between 18 and 25 in most studies -- i.e., college kids and recent graduates figure prominently in those statistics.  That encompasses something like 1/3 of the total population.

buzzsawmonkey 1/29/2020 9:38:12 AM

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Occasional Reader 1/29/2020 11:17:12 AM

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In #3 vxbush said: another trope that runs around is that we only use 10% of our brain

Interestingly enough, a Youtube-based "science for kids" series that Little OR likes took that trope on in one of their episodes. 

buzzsawmonkey 1/29/2020 11:21:33 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 3: Reply to Occasional Reader in 7:

On one of the old Simpsons episodes, Bart gets drugged out on something called "Focusin," and at one point says to Lisa, "Do you realize that most people only use 10% of their brains?  I am now one of them!"

JCM 1/29/2020 12:19:05 PM

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... net neutrality?

Democrat Congressional Committee Demands Google Bury “Climate Misinformation”

The U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Climate Crisis has demanded Google demonetize climate skeptics, and provide education to millions of people who have been exposed to “dangerous misinformation”.

This is how it would have worked... under the radar of course.

Occasional Reader 1/29/2020 12:21:23 PM

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Reply to JCM in 9:

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. 

buzzsawmonkey 1/29/2020 1:13:16 PM

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Joe Biden's campaign song:

Hey, look me over---I'm a candidate
Running for president forty years too late
I don't have much brain, and yes, I plagiarize
If you're a bumbling fool, I represent you
That's not to be despised
Don't know my record, or what state I'm in
Ask about my corruption, well, where should I begin?
I'm not playing with a full deck
Truth to tell, I'm a bum
But look out, world---here I come!

Occasional Reader 1/29/2020 3:56:23 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 11:

+++

buzzsawmonkey 1/29/2020 4:45:32 PM

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