Empirically Testing Ideological Claims

[Belisarius Cawl]

So in this post it may sound like I'm picking on the right, specifically the libertarian right, but I'm not, just using an example. There are all kinds of retarded takes that come from various kinds of leftists like blaming whitey whenever nigger-infested skoo' districks have horrible test scores but I put an especially decent amount of effort into this one:

Slightly tl;dr: Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said: "Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free." Here's a graph of different countries with income inequality (which is presumably the most salient form of inequality here) on the x-axis and on the y-axis is a measure of freedom from a right-leaning think tank. The slope of the line (OK, I didn't use a straight line so technically "slope" doesn't apply but anyway) is pretty flat. Therefore there doesn't seem to be an obvious trend here.

Thoughts on stuff like this?

(Also, attached are the World Bank Gini scores, most recent for each country, and HFI scores for each country. These were chosen where each country was in both datasets so I could do a complete inner join. I should have thought ahead and included the R code but I typed almost everything into RStudio and the rest was a bit of hacky Python.)

 

[User names must be unique]

Equality and Freedom are not a reliably quantifiable metrics, so it's hardly an empirical test.

In the CATO numbers they have the UK listed as more free #14 (at least in 2021) than the USA #15, there are clearly more constitutionally guaranteed freedoms in the USA.

 

[DumbDude43]

both the gini coefficient and the 'human freedom index' are abstract theoretical concepts, i don't see any big revelation in them not being strongly correlated

like, if you use gini to measure equality then countries like algeria, afghanistan and iraq are some of the most equal countries on the planet? nice meme bro

 

[break these cuffs]

I too turn to doge avatars on social media for empirical testing that validate my beliefs. A surface level comparison of two datasets in a single graph is hardly conclusive of anything. Academic studies can be wildly biased themselves. You have to critically look at sample size, methods, conclusions, who funded it, etc, unless of course you agree with it. Then just read the title and clap.

I'm going to laugh when someone doxes you using this thread. Blacking out your username will not save you.

 

[Belisarius Cawl]

Equality and Freedom are not a reliably quantifiable metrics, so it's hardly an empirical test.

In the CATO numbers they have the UK listed as more free #14 (at least in 2021) than the USA #15, there are clearly more constitutionally guaranteed freedoms in the USA.

I used their overall composite score. Now that I think of it, I should have possibly focused on economic considerations more but I'm not sure how much that would have changed things, either in the statistical outcome or concordance with Solzhenitsyn's quote.

both the gini coefficient and the 'human freedom index' are abstract theoretical concepts, i don't see any big revelation in them not being strongly correlated

like, if you use gini to measure equality then countries like algeria, afghanistan and iraq are some of the most equal countries on the planet? nice meme bro

In terms of income, presumably.

I too turn to doge avatars on social media for empirical testing that validate my beliefs. A surface level comparison of two datasets in a single graph is hardly conclusive of anything. Academic studies can be wildly biased themselves. You have to critically look at sample size, methods, conclusions, who funded it, etc, unless of course you agree with it. Then just read the title and clap.

I deliberately chose data that agrees with Solzhenitsyn's sentiments—being as charitable as possible—and still didn't find agreement.

Also you get to criticize my knowledge of these sorts of things when you can take the data supplied by the World Bank and Cato Institute and distill all of it into the plot produced and I can assure you it is not beginner Excel stuff. I probably could talk to you about appropriate sample size but are you going to know about statistical power for example?

I'm going to laugh when someone doxes you using this thread. Blacking out your username will not save you.

Both my username and the one I tagged are pseudonyms LMAO so that's hardly some huge prize

 

[break these cuffs]

Both my username and the one I tagged are pseudonyms LMAO so that's hardly some huge prize

The fact that you freely admit you're citing gay shit you posted elsewhere on kiwfarms is hilarious. May your Halal be as funny as this thread is pathetic.

 

[Belisarius Cawl]

The fact that you freely admit you're citing gay shit you posted elsewhere on kiwfarms is hilarious. May your Halal be as funny as this thread is pathetic.

I'll note you dodged the other quote of your post and leave it at that

 

[break these cuffs]

I'll note you dodged the other quote of your post and leave it at that

Dude, you're posting your own shit on KF. Rest your case all you want. I do not know or care about the specifics of the topics you're posting on. My entire post was bait to get you to admit that you're posting your own shit. You could have just posted the graph itself in the op, but you thought you had such a banger earlier this morning that you had to cap yourself and then post that.

You are a real big fag. Please wax on academically about how I don't know about stats. I don't. I do shit in the real world and KF isn't the place I try to jerk myself off on.

 

[Belisarius Cawl]

You could have just posted the graph itself in the op

That probably would have gotten a more or less identical response, less commenting about Doge

 

[break these cuffs]

That probably would have gotten a more or less identical response, less commenting about Doge

Heh, I see you chose not to respond to my entire post. I rest my case.

 

[Belisarius Cawl]

Heh, I see you chose not to respond to my entire post. I rest my case.

In that case, you could have just said "lol get fucked faggot" instead of going on about sample size etc. Sometimes even <30 can be adequate. Usually people who use that buzzword don't know this.

I've had fairly serious discussions in the short time I've been here. If this isn't going to be one of them, oh well, but it was worth a shot.

 

[Skitarii]

I never voted for this archmagos, btw

 

[Spitz]

What up, Andre? Stay away from the vacants.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

OP is gay and this thread is gay. your idea of mashing together shit like the Jewish-Goldstein Index of Heckin' Real Economic Freedom with some other gay made-up bullshit is not empirical in the least. would you still have posted it if the resultant graph instead looked like it disproved your pet PHIL 101 quote? make's u think.

Heh, I see you chose not to respond to my entire post. I rest my case.

lmao

 

[Black Man Underwear]

I'll take you seriously if you can define freedom.
Here's a hint: there's 2 definitions and I don't agree with yours.