From The Hill, “Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has a math problem. In his recently issued Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, the chief made a basic mistake that would be obvious to anyone who encounters simple math concepts – ratios, proportions, averages – in their work or pastimes, including sports fans, teachers, fulfillment center operators, bakers, mechanics, even lawyers and many others. Roberts’s miscalculation matters because it downplays an ethics problem among federal judges, as I will explain below.”
The title of the article from The Hill, which I used as the title of this post, intrigued me, and the substance of the piece coincidentally coincided with a couple of books I just read — How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg and The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rule Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. These books were — mostly — a breezy read since their contents were laymans’ interpretation of mathematics and statistics demonstrated by real-world, practical applications. Although I have taken countless math and statistics courses during my undergraduate and graduate studies — and then through self-study with post-graduate work — these books were a refreshing way to think about the subject matter that wasn’t written in pedantic prose. Then it occurred to me how many adults simply are never taught the basics of probability, statistics, mathematics, etc. Of course, this epiphany only reinforced my unyielding premise that Americas are just really f***ing stupid. Allow me to give a real-world example of the massive knowledge gap that “informs” the average American idiot. The person who cuts my hair is one such American moron, and every two weeks I must swallow my disdain to be cordial, not knowing what dumb-dumb notions will come out of her mouth as she watches Faux News. So, you see, all my rantings about RepubliKKKlans and MAGA morons are well-grounded in my bi-monthly indoctrination of what’s new in crazy town. She may be a dingbat, but she cuts hair well, and I do need to stay in tune with the “other” side of “alternative facts” to justify my experienced writing. More to the point, she often likes to engage in the classic logical fallacy of cum hoc ergo propter hoc (“with this, therefore because of this”), which, in more colloquial parlance, means correlation proves causation. Of course, this is wrong reasoning. Correlation is not necessarily causation, but people in their failed ability to think critically like to assume that when two events occur together (or nearly together), one must be the cause of the other. A perfect example is when a moron like Joe Rogan contracts COVID, decides to take Ivermectin, claims the drug prevented his death, and thus touts its efficaciousness over vaccines, but never mind he probably was never going to die from the disease in the first place. But whatever! This is precisely how charlatan “medical” treatments by quacks get amplified and perpetuated, all because people are too stupid to think.
Then I am reminded of a friend who passed along part of a social media thread that was driving him crazy. The part of the exchange ended like this: Vaccinated people are 18 times more likely to die from COVID. Full stop! The logical conclusion (in the arguer’s mind) is that the COVID vaccine is bad and deadly, so don’t get it. My friend sent it to me as an example of some of the conversations he gets into, which probably are conversations he should avoid. But assuming the “18 times” number is a fact — doubtful, but again I have no idea where it came from because Lord knows these crazies quote everything and anything as gospel — what other piece of critical information is missing? Anyone? Does anyone at all have an answer? Can anybody out there provide one piece of information to support the counterfactual argument that vaccines are bad? How about this? The unvaccinated are 100 times more likely to die from COVID. Both statements can be true. Without the flipside of the argument (the unvaccinated), you are completely missing the salient point. Yes, of course, vaccinated people are going to die, but there is a greater chance you will die if you are not vaccinated. Clearly, having this additional piece of information would strongly suggest you should get vaccinated. But these lame-brained half “arguments” pervade everything when it comes to COIVD and anti-vaxxers more generally. Again, it is stupid thinking by stupid people meant to confuse other morons to make poorly reasoned arguments. COVID has not made America stupid; it’s only shone a light on just how benighted Americans actually are. And this is why traitor trump is the most popular politician in today’s profoundly stupid America. Oh my, I have severely digressed.
Getting back to Chief Justice Roberts. It is hard to say if Roberts does have a math problem or if his intentions were more insidious. It’s Roberts, so I’m going with insidious, duplicitous, malicious, and plain old mendacious. I’m sure he understands his sleight of hand calculations, knowing that the average moron does not. Therefore, he can get away with making profoundly wrong conclusions while having the air of infallibility disguised in high rhetoric and stately legal-esque prose, which all conveys a sense of logic beyond reproach. In short, Americans can be easily duped because they are not smart enough to know any better. Moreover, Americans are too stupid to recognize what they don’t know, and even if they were cognizant of such shortcomings, nothing would come of it because if the solution or information is not on Facebook or Twitter, then it does not exist. Try picking up a book, dare I say. Welcome to stupid America — always and forever. And no one cares!