About 1-in-4 Americans die of heart disease.
American: I'll have a cheeseburger with fries!
The chance of winning the Powerball jackpot is less than 1-in-292 million.
American: You can't win if you don't buy a ticket!
Here is journalist Elizabeth Kolbert reviewing the literature on "Why Facts Don't Change Our Mind." I was put in mind of this general topic of irrationality while growing depressed by "voter interviews" on TV news. One guy says he could fill his tank for $50 when Trump was president and now it costs $200. Let's see, gas today costs about $3.70 per gallon, so x is to $3.70 as $50 is to $200: x is then 93¢.
You could not buy gas for 93¢ a gallon when Trump was president. In fact you couldn't buy it for twice that. It did cost less: Covid was raging, demand was down, and meanwhile the president was carrying on about the wonders of Ivermectin, to say nothing of the possible curative properties of ingesting bleach or shining an ultraviolet light up your arse ("through the skin," to be precise, "or by some other method"). Alas, he was then diverted by the need to overturn an election.
If his side does well on Tuesday, at least it will prove elections are free, fair, and secure again.
Comments