I lament statements like this because I work with statistics and you can't just make them say anything. I hate that people use this to dismiss real facts.

You always have to look at the distribution, which is hard to do well. Simple statistics and averages hide so much detail, it's often ineptitude more than outright deceit.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You can't make statistics say anything, I agree. What happens is more sinister - cherry picking, misrepresenting, and falsely comparing statistics.

[–] wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago

That does happen a lot unfortunately.

Usually people only want the statistics that confirm their preexisting positions and pick at anything else or ignore it.