Non-IT News Thread
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@tonyshowoff said in Non-IT News Thread:
I just find self-reported surveys of any sort to really be wholly unscientific. I hate them!
Yes, survey are crap. We should take a poll to see who likes them.
This is me when I read about a new "study" which proves some diet is better than the other because of self-reported survey data based upon what people think about themselves:
And that's true with other surveys similar to that as well, people are so horribly bad at reporting information about themselves, I can never take it seriously no matter what it's reporting, unless we're reporting on the kind of people who respond to surveys.
But diets and food are the worst, just ask any morbidly obese person, almost all will tell you they "don't actually eat that much" (ironic survey). People just aren't good at it.
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@wirestyle22 said in Non-IT News Thread:
On a serious note I honestly don't think that democracy is working for us anymore.
The US has never been a democracy. Ever. I realize that most people have no clue, no matter what @scottalanmiller thinks. He thinks it is beat into people in school. That is blatantly not true.
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@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
@wirestyle22 said in Non-IT News Thread:
On a serious note I honestly don't think that democracy is working for us anymore.
The US has never been a democracy. Ever. I realize that most people have no clue, no matter what @scottalanmiller thinks. He thinks it is beat into people in school. That is blatantly not true.
What connects it being beaten into people with them not remembering? I know that people learn where South America is, how to do basic math, what a verb is and so forth in school, yet most adults don't retain that stuff either. I make no claims that people don't ignore or forget it, but I think if you check, it's actually taught most of the time. No way to know for sure and any given teacher might make up their own stuff (I had a science teacher tell us that the moon did not rotate and an elementary teacher that told us that the date change was at 1AM rather than at midnight, for example.)
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
@wirestyle22 said in Non-IT News Thread:
On a serious note I honestly don't think that democracy is working for us anymore.
The US has never been a democracy. Ever. I realize that most people have no clue, no matter what @scottalanmiller thinks. He thinks it is beat into people in school. That is blatantly not true.
What connects it being beaten into people with them not remembering? I know that people learn where South America is, how to do basic math, what a verb is and so forth in school, yet most adults don't retain that stuff either. I make no claims that people don't ignore or forget it, but I think if you check, it's actually taught most of the time. No way to know for sure and any given teacher might make up their own stuff (I had a science teacher tell us that the moon did not rotate and an elementary teacher that told us that the date change was at 1AM rather than at midnight, for example.)
Wait, are you trying to say that schools teach that the US is NOT a democracy? Because if that's what you think, you're just flat out wrong...
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@thanksajdotcom said in Non-IT News Thread:
Wait, are you trying to say that schools teach that the US is NOT a democracy? Because if that's what you think, you're just flat out wrong...
You had teachers lie to you about that? we were definitely taught, from early grades till graduation, that the US was a republic and that the founding fathers specifically did that to avoid democracy, which was so clearly awful that it was considered a mocking word, like saying that something is tantamount to anarchy today.
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@thanksajdotcom said in Non-IT News Thread:
@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
@wirestyle22 said in Non-IT News Thread:
On a serious note I honestly don't think that democracy is working for us anymore.
The US has never been a democracy. Ever. I realize that most people have no clue, no matter what @scottalanmiller thinks. He thinks it is beat into people in school. That is blatantly not true.
What connects it being beaten into people with them not remembering? I know that people learn where South America is, how to do basic math, what a verb is and so forth in school, yet most adults don't retain that stuff either. I make no claims that people don't ignore or forget it, but I think if you check, it's actually taught most of the time. No way to know for sure and any given teacher might make up their own stuff (I had a science teacher tell us that the moon did not rotate and an elementary teacher that told us that the date change was at 1AM rather than at midnight, for example.)
Wait, are you trying to say that schools teach that the US is NOT a democracy? Because if that's what you think, you're just flat out wrong...
Upstate NY, we were taught that we were in a Republic, in both of my US history classes it was drilled into us that we were part of the representative democracy or a representative republic.
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I was taught its a republic as well. I just misspoke/typed
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I don't recall if the word democracy was used or not - but we were definitely taught that we are representative based.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@thanksajdotcom said in Non-IT News Thread:
Wait, are you trying to say that schools teach that the US is NOT a democracy? Because if that's what you think, you're just flat out wrong...
You had teachers lie to you about that? we were definitely taught, from early grades till graduation, that the US was a republic and that the founding fathers specifically did that to avoid democracy, which was so clearly awful that it was considered a mocking word, like saying that something is tantamount to anarchy today.
I had several teachers say the US was democratic and many others say it was a democracy. I don't remember which ones said which, but I definitely had teachers saying it was a democracy.
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@coliver said in Non-IT News Thread:
@thanksajdotcom said in Non-IT News Thread:
@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
@wirestyle22 said in Non-IT News Thread:
On a serious note I honestly don't think that democracy is working for us anymore.
The US has never been a democracy. Ever. I realize that most people have no clue, no matter what @scottalanmiller thinks. He thinks it is beat into people in school. That is blatantly not true.
What connects it being beaten into people with them not remembering? I know that people learn where South America is, how to do basic math, what a verb is and so forth in school, yet most adults don't retain that stuff either. I make no claims that people don't ignore or forget it, but I think if you check, it's actually taught most of the time. No way to know for sure and any given teacher might make up their own stuff (I had a science teacher tell us that the moon did not rotate and an elementary teacher that told us that the date change was at 1AM rather than at midnight, for example.)
Wait, are you trying to say that schools teach that the US is NOT a democracy? Because if that's what you think, you're just flat out wrong...
Upstate NY, we were taught that we were in a Republic, in both my US history classes it was drilled into us that we were part of the representative democracy or a representative republic.
downstate Illinois most certainly mentioned republic once or twice, but it was never stressed. The normal phrase is representative democracy.
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It is true that the U.S is most certainly not a pure democracy.
But calling the U.S. a democracy is valid as our system does fall under the definition of a representative democracy.
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@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
It is true that the U.S is most certainly not a pure democracy.
But calling the U.S. a democracy is valid as our system does fall under the definition of a representative democracy.
Which is more a Republic then a democracy. Is it valid to say it is a democracy? Sure but it isn't technically correct.
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@coliver said in Non-IT News Thread:
@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
It is true that the U.S is most certainly not a pure democracy.
But calling the U.S. a democracy is valid as our system does fall under the definition of a representative democracy.
Which is more a Republic then a democracy. Is it valid to say it is a democracy? Sure but it isn't technically correct.
That is also very true. But @scottalanmiller's typical hard line stance on terms is incorrect when saying that people should not be able to use the term democracy and still be accurate to a degree.
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@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
It is true that the U.S is most certainly not a pure democracy.
But calling the U.S. a democracy is valid as our system does fall under the definition of a representative democracy.
Democracy, The Individual, and any group of Individuals composing any Minority, have no protection against the unlimited power of The Majority. It is a case of Majority-over-Man.
Republic is a constitutionally limited government of the representative type, created by a written Constitution--adopted by the people and changeable (from its original meaning) by them only by its amendment--with its powers divided between three separate Branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Here the term "the people" means, of course, the electorate.
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@coliver said in Non-IT News Thread:
@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
It is true that the U.S is most certainly not a pure democracy.
But calling the U.S. a democracy is valid as our system does fall under the definition of a representative democracy.
Which is more a Republic then a democracy. Is it valid to say it is a democracy? Sure but it isn't technically correct.
So it's okay to be wrong? Intentionally? Not technically correct is just a couching way to say incorrect. Technically correct is the only form of correct.
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@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
It is true that the U.S is most certainly not a pure democracy.
But calling the U.S. a democracy is valid as our system does fall under the definition of a representative democracy.
The question is... is representative democracy a democracy? My understanding is that it is not. Like mock apple is not apple.
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@coliver said in Non-IT News Thread:
I'd be more apt to believe them if they could get the next 10 or 20 years correct, but none of the climate models are able to predict past events, let alone future ones.
Now that base, wth were people thinking?
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@travisdh1 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@coliver said in Non-IT News Thread:
I'd be more apt to believe them if they could get the next 10 or 20 years correct, but none of the climate models are able to predict past events, let alone future ones.
Now that base, wth were people thinking?
not much, obviously
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@travisdh1 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@coliver said in Non-IT News Thread:
I'd be more apt to believe them if they could get the next 10 or 20 years correct, but none of the climate models are able to predict past events, let alone future ones.
Now that base, wth were people thinking?
You may want to look at the research behind climate models. They have shown to be accurate in hind modeling. The only real complaint is that some have been a bit too conservative in their predictions.
