Large Fierce Mammal

In an overly politicized, polarized world, seething with bullshit and wherein you can’t swing a severed arm without hitting someone who’s selling something, entirely too much credibility and trust is placed in statistics. Statistics have value only within very specific parameters, and for the most part those parameters do not include the broad, sweeping strokes of nonsense they are daily called upon to support. In short, Statistics as a field of study, and statistics as a tool, were never intended to fall under the definition of “popular science”. They are steps toward a goal of understanding, and never a giant leap ahead. Remember, when the leaping starts, a lot gets missed while you’re airborne.

To illustrate how the information compiled from statistics, taken out of context, can lead to the most erroneous of conclusions, I will yet again refer a matter of import to the inimitably eloquent lindybeige.