Can you tell the difference between fact and opinion?

[Michchamp]

The Pew Research Center just conducted a survey and found that a lot of Americans can't.

There's also a 10 question survey in the link so you can see how you do and how you compare to most Americans.

 

[sggatecl]

For those curious about the results but don't want to waste time:

 

[tomdalton22]

pretty stupid test

 

[tinselwolverine]

It is a flawed survey.

In the instructions it says to identify statement as factual “whether you agree with it or not.”

A statement that can reasonably be disagreed with is not factual.

A fact can be proven.

Most obviously the question about the US having the highest healthcare costs in the developed world can’t be proven to be factual at all.

There are numerous arbitrarily criteria by which the social cost of healthcare can be measured, not to mention the survey doesn’t describe what the developed world is and isn’t.

I’m sure there are reasonable units of measure within which the cost of healthcare in the US is lower than that in the other developed countries, whatever the survey means bye the ambiguous term “the developed world.”

I’m kind of paraphrasing from the survey, the language may not be identical but I am confident that my paraphrase has ostensibly the same meaning as the verbiage in the

 

[Gulo Blue]

"ISIS lost a significant portion of its territory in Iraq and Syria in 2017."


They call this a fact, but it's an opinion. What portion of territory is significant is subjective. They lost an amount everyone would agree is significant, but if they had lost less, at some point there would be disagreement.

 

[tinselwolverine]

"ISIS lost a significant portion of its territory in Iraq and Syria in 2017."


They call this a fact, but it's an opinion. What portion of territory is significant is subjective. They lost an amount everyone would agree is significant, but if they had lost less, at some point there would be disagreement.

That?s another one.

 

[Michchamp]

Look at the humblebrag from sggatecl!

Sounds like Gulo only got 9 out of 10...

that's okay Gulo. you're still better than like 65-70% of Americans. That's pretty good.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Look at the humblebrag from sggatecl!

Sounds like Gulo only got 9 out of 10...

that's okay Gulo. you're still better than like 65-70% of Americans. That's pretty good.

I did. I was 2nd guessing myself the rest of the quiz thinking about that one.

 

[sggatecl]

Look at the humblebrag from sggatecl!

Clearly I have peaked in life with this test. I needed everyone to know.

 

[tigermud]

The medical cost question triped me up I thought maybe health care was more expensive in Canada and didn’t give enough weight to “per person”

The isis question is fact trump did a great job getting out of the way and allowing Mattis to let our troops decimate those sob barbarians

 

[Michchamp]

I did. I was 2nd guessing myself the rest of the quiz thinking about that one.

Did you notice from the stats that people were likely to incorrectly view something as "fact" (and vice versa) if it lined up with their political views? This applied across the political spectrum.

FWIW, I got a 10 out of 10, but agree with you on the ISIS question. BUt then again, this one does confirm the above phenomenon. see Tigermud's post: he was SURE it was fact because that noted military strategist Donald Trump was overseeing the fight with ISIS... must be fact.

 

[tigermud]

How many caliphates they got left over there michchump I’d say trump mattis policy change was largely successful

They did in fact lose significant ground in 2017 thank you president trump

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/21/isis-caliphate-islamic-state-raqqa-iraq-islamist

The question is FACT

 

[Michchamp]

How many caliphates they got left over there michchump I?d say trump mattis policy change was largely successful

They did in fact lose significant ground in 2017 thank you president trump

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/21/isis-caliphate-islamic-state-raqqa-iraq-islamist

The question is FACT

ISIS is still around though... and gaining ground back, apparently. link.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Did you notice from the stats that people were likely to incorrectly view something as "fact" (and vice versa) if it lined up with their political views? This applied across the political spectrum.

I did spot that. I imagine a lot of thought went into picking questions that would be influenced by bias from both sides.

 

[tinselwolverine]

ISIS is still around though... and gaining ground back, apparently. link.

So what was your answer to the question? Fact...or opinion?

It seems there is room for argument?there not a fact.

I did ignore the obvious relativism of the question though, and realized that in the scope of the survey, the correct answer would be ?fact.?

 

[Michchamp]

So what was your answer to the question? Fact...or opinion?

It seems there is room for argument?there not a fact.

I did ignore the obvious relativism of the question though, and realized that in the scope of the survey, the correct answer would be ?fact.?

I answered "Fact" on this one, but I agree with Gulo that it was iffy.



All of it turned on the definition of "significant," which is subjective, but I was pretty sure they lost at least half of the territory they controlled over 2017, and "half" would be "significant" under almost any reading of that word.

 

[Spartanmack]

ISIS is still around though... and gaining ground back, apparently. link.

probably because we didn't give them all jobs (jobs that pay a minimum wage of $15/hour, of course).

 

[Michchamp]

probably because we didn't give them all jobs (jobs that pay a minimum wage of $15/hour, of course).

you must've got that line from your white trash buddies on breitbart.

 

[Spartanmack]

you must've got that line from your white trash buddies on breitbart.

still think you're not a bigot?


no, it came from Marie Harf, Deputy Spokesperson for the State Department and Senior Advisor of Strategic Communications to John Kerry. She was kinda like what Ben Rhodes was to Obama except she was even dumber than Rhodes if you can believe that.

I haven't read Breitbart since about a year after Andrew's tragic death - right around the time Ben Shapiro left when it was clear Steve Bannon was destroying Andrew's fine legacy.

 

[Gulo Blue]

I answered "Fact" on this one, but I agree with Gulo that it was iffy.



All of it turned on the definition of "significant," which is subjective, but I was pretty sure they lost at least half of the territory they controlled over 2017, and "half" would be "significant" under almost any reading of that word.

I read somewhere that ISIS expected to lose their territory and get driven to some small town where there would be an apocalyptic final battle. They believed in some prophesy about it. So they might not have thought any land lost was significant other than that town.



Except...they also lost that town in 2016. Sort of like a cult after missing on an end of the world prediction