We all do it.
Use the "Fallacy of Range" to make our point. In other words: cheat with stats.
Hence the phrase: "Lies, damn lies, and statistics".
Stats can be manipulated. And whenever something can be done, it will be done.
As in the Fallacy of Range:
Climate alarmists (aka Greens; aka the Dems) will clip bits of a temperature trend series to show the rising trend in temperature.
Climate realists (aka ordinary folks; aka the Reps), will clip a trend, often from the same series, that shows a flat or dropping trend in temperatures.
Here is a classic, below:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States government, tries to big itself up, by showing how their creation led to major drops in work fatalities. Hence:
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| Source: National Safety Council |
Wow! Pretty amazing, right! How good is government! As soon as OSHA was created workplace death rates dropped!
But wait...
Zoom out and you see that the trend was already on the way down. Because that's what capitalist industry does. It's better for the bottom line to take care of your workers. Hence:
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| Source: National Safety Council |
Oh... Wow again! Turns out that creating OSHA wasn't such a big deal after all.
The previous trend simply continued down, both before and after OSHA. But you can count on government to be quite happy to mislead, if it makes them look good.
The above is a classic case of "The Fallacy of Range".
Whenever someone shows you a graph, you want to ask: is that the WHOLE of it? Is that the full range of the statistics? If not, zoom out to see the whole picture of all the stats. The longer the picture, the longer in time the trend, the more likely it's correct. Above, for example, the bottom chart is more accurate than the first. It tells a truer pictures. Because it's more zoomed out: to the full series.
Which gives us this saying: "Zoom out to Find out".
