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Comment by renewiltord

20 days ago

Typing “Trump” into that trivially reveals disparate outcomes. Then again perhaps “Trump says Maduro captured” is computing and science to these people. I have no peer-reviewed evidence that they don’t think that so I must admit it as equally likely as anything else.

It is a common error to misunderstand the base rate of an event. In this case, the frequency of media articles about Trump dwarf other political subjects.

Or one could assume a vast conspiracy to explain the phenomenon.

  • False dichotomies like that are easy mistakes to make. Consider Reddit, no conspiracy, and yet overwhelmingly of some opinions. Coordination requiring conspiracies is naïve, but forgivable among novices of epistemology.

    • Observers of this exchange will note the main point, the base rate fallacy, has not been addressed. Instead, a nit about rhetorical punctuation was indulged.