I hang out in a science fiction forum and someone pointed out that we didn’t have that many female members. So, some of the dudes are like “well women are just not inclined to be interested in science. It’s biological.” This whole argument starts and at one point this dude draws the above graph because he thinks I don’t understand how distributions work. Here is the full context:
Not only is the graph just something he drew, but the axis make no sense.
The thing is, this happens to me all of the time. Often, during arguments people will try to make a statement that sounds… mathematical to bolster their point.
Notice how he instructs me to “start visualizing statistical distributions.” There is nothing in the way that I discussed statistical matters that could have indicated that I wasn’t familiar with “statistical distributions” ...also I’m a mathematician. Perhaps that’s why massive errors like this annoy me so much when they come from people who claim to know better.
Here is another example from a different guy on a different topic. This one was arguing with me about racism. He linked to some stats that he claimed backed his observations. It turned out he had no idea what the stats were really saying:
Please don’t be like these guys. Please don’t abuse mathematics and statistics because you think they will intimidate people. Please don’t underestimate women.
