The Most Biggest Statistic of the Age: The Blippeninest of Blips

Last article was Baseball stuff, lots and lots of stats in those articles all the time. Me? I love numbers, baby.

A ways back, when I wrote a Rest in Peace article for the statistician Rosling, H.,

(this article: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.ca/2017/02/hans-rosling.html)

I was thinking that, for me, statistics started with O-Pee-Chee baseball cards and that really formed a love of stats for me. As you get older you start to apply this to other topics/fields in life. A statistical and rational based world view is a pretty good mental home base for a human being, I believe.

Once you have that base-setting world-view it starts to apply itself to other areas on its own I think.

I did an article I remember, around the Canadian election, that was a very stat-based look at the situation,

(this article: https://writingsonsubjects.blogspot.ca/2015/08/do-young-canadians-have-to-care-about.html)

There my point was that the 18-35 election demographic in Canada is so small that it is a niche market that no one needs to pander to in hopes of cajoling votes for their respective party.

What is interesting, and what today's topic is, is that this situation of Young People not Mattering in Elections is NOT the case for our neighbors to the south ... the good ol' United States of America. Young People in those demographics are a huge factor.

The following information is one of the most concrete displays of why the deeply polarizing political ideological wars are tearing up (and in my opinion RUINING) the internet....

This is the Age Demographics of the United States of America:

If you're new to stats and stuff, this chart is showing a pyramid of what age groups there are in the United States. The column on the left is Age and the thickness of the block is how many people there are of that age.

Can you see what I see? The 23 to 27 age group is the MOST LARGEST in the UNITED STATES! I never would have guessed that to be honest.  Do you see the dark blue extending off the end of the blue block for 25 years olds? That how many more boys there are than girls .... there's A LOT of people in their mid twenties in the ol' United States and there's a decent amount more Males than Females in that Demographic.

Did you notice something else about this beautiful info graphic? The second biggest blip in that block stack is 55 years olds .... baby boomers .... and they are aging and dying. They are climbing up that skinny funnel to 100 years old and the ol' diner in the sky, it's a sad story. It's a sad story.

In political terms though .... these two situations translate to political engineers/strategists as... "Hey, we're losing our aging fan base to the tests of time ... looks like were' gonna need a new fan base!"

As of now those mid twenty year olds don't give a fuck about dirty dumb politics. They are out rocking, rollocking, rock-n-rolling, and rip-rap-scooby-doo-boppin, they don't have time for caring about politics. But, those 25 year olds are all gonna turn thirty, feel all old and shit, and start to all of sudden become pretty political and start votin' like nuts.

Out with the old in with the new, as the old saying goes, ol' friend.


The Battle for the YOUTH of AMERICA

So, there's basically a long weird battle being fought to win over that meaty demographic of Americans aged 20 to 29 right now. When you understand this, a lot of the current political climate, I mean a lot, starts making a fuck-ton of sense.

Where does this age group attain information? Where do they congregate their ideas on politics? Where do they spend half of their waking hours with their eyes fixated to?

The answer to all those questions, ol' friend, is ... The Internet.

All political parties want to bring politics to this demographic whether they want it or not. Political advertising on the Internet has become a billion dollar industry. Many parties and organizations are fighting for the minds of the Youth of America. If you ask me, the war over the minds of America's meatiest demographic on the internet ... is getting ugly, stupid, and annoying. Annoying as fuck.

All internet venues have been deeply politicized. All of them. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and everything else. It's politics city on the internet now a days. It never used to be like this. Politic sites on the internet used to be laughed at as the babblings of old people and of whackoes ... now you can barely even have a scrap-booking blog or cooking-recipes blog without having to take some sort of side in the ideological war being dredged out.


Meet the New Ideological War ... Same as the Old One

America surprisingly hasn't changed much in 30 years.

Those baby boomer fifty-fivers? If they grew up in a big multi-cultural city and have had friends of different ethnicity since they were small children ... there's a good chance they are "Liberal" or "Democrat" or "Left Leaning."

Those other baby boomer fifty fivers? The ones who grew up in a smaller rural area and lived a more secluded life from other ethnicities and different ideas? Chances are they are "Conservative" or "Republican" or "Right Leaning."

This is no different than the current 20-29 age group. The same divide exists there. Thirty years didn't close the gap very much and synthesize the two polarized entities. The 20-29 year old meaty demo still adheres to this basic split.

The current amazingly all-invasive on all-platforms ideological war over the minds of those 20-29 still use the same basic plot points as was used in the battle for the fifty-fivers. The talking points and plot lines are woven of the same old wool ... the same old cloth, old friend. The same old cloth.

To watch it play out on the Internet, as a passive foreign (I'm Canadian) observer, I think it's one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. It's vicious this ideological war over the fragile minds of America's Youth. It is.

It gets worse though.

As we've seen with those Facebook Russia news stories, foreign actors are trying their best to pull the horses of polarization in both directions. The interesting thing about those Russian fake accounts on Social Media reports ... is that Russia, and other foreign actors ... don't seem to care much about which side wins .... they just care about splitting the division as far as it can possibly go.

The Russian backed fake accounts were on both sides of the political spectrum ... and in all cases were on EXTREME ends. The accounts ranged from white nationalism, to arab terrorism, to black nationalism, and things of that extreme nature. One thing they all had in common was conspiracy theories and other garbage of that nature.

Now ask why? Why do foreign actors not care who wins this polarized war of the minds of America's Tommorow? Why? Because they know a weak America ... is a DIVIDED America. Plain and simple. They don't care who wins this silly little war ... they just want to tie ropes to horses, bulls, oxen, and try to pull each side apart as far as it can go ... like some sort of big dumb dirty Russian rectum stretcher.



What's The Take Away?

Alright, let's sum up, old friend...


1) America's meatiest Demo is aging and going to that ol' gas station in the ol' sky.

2) America's newest meatiest Demo is 20 to 29.

3) There's an extended and very annoying battle for the minds of America's 20 to 29 year olds being waged on all venues of the internet.

4) The battle is a familiar one that aims to cajole the minds of America's youth into a certain fan base.

5) Foreign parties are trying to deepen the depth of the wedge of the divide ... like some sort of gross Russian Rectum Stretcher.


Look, America, it's the Christmas / Holiday Season coming up ... the greatest time of the year. I know, America's 20-29 years olds, that there's a big internet war going on to stretch your mind out ... but you gotta keep your mind tight, old friend.

As for all of you narrative dealers, and scurvy poli-trick-or-treaters .... can you for ONE MONTH just please, please, please, PLEASE ... stop ruining the friggin' internet? Please.

America's Youth, listen, this is the beautifulest time of the year ... and I know there's horses and bulls and snakes and fire-ants and oxen pulling at the heart strings of your human mind everywhere you look .... but your mind can only stretch so far .... so take a break and put a little love in your heart, old friend.

Peace out n' Keep Your Mind Tight, America.

Do Young Canadians have to Care about Politics?

Election season is in full swing up here in the "coolest" (literally the coldest) nation on earth....Canada.

The leaders are debating the big issues on the television screens, such as their official stances on "TV Shows" and "Movies" and other fascinating topics....

Golly gee whiz....I love TV Shows too!

This is what we get in Canada, so all you people hating on Trump down there in the states....try and imagine how Howdy Doody our election is. You Americans should be grateful for the entertainment value and debates surrounding your elections. You don't want what we have, we have people with the intelligence of five years olds debating each other up over here.

"Golly gee...Do you love TV Shows Mr. Prime Minister of Canada?"

"Well howdidly doodidly ms. Reporter, oh yes, I most certainly do love Movies and TV Shows. Thanks you kindly for asking me that."

I would love to have the media circus of an American election in Canada, believe me, your shit is so much better than our shit...so don't take it for granted. Believe me, you'll miss the circus if it ever leaves town, even though you don't appreciate it now.

If one day the media circus surrounding the American election disappeared and was replaced with Trump telling you what his favorite kind of jam is and how much he loves going ice skating on the lake up near his house...believe you me....you'll be angry. You'll wonder why the circus left town and was replaced with this boring obnoxious drivel.

The thing that gets my goat the most about the lame-wad Canadian election is that people get on my case for not taking this boring garbage seriously. I've never voted in my life, when I turned 18 I felt like I should vote but when I did go to vote I'd end up writing in old Expos baseball players on the ballot when I got to the booth because I didn't know what else to do.

When I tell people that I don't vote, especially old folks, they tend to get bent out of shape over that. They look at me like I'm some sort of social pariah with no brains for not caring about Canada's lame-wad political farce. I'm not even a "young voter" anymore and don't vote so it's like a double-faux-pas apparently, but I'm a chronic non-voter and I doubt anything will ever change that.

Alrighty so, I'm gonna harness the power of statistics in this opinion piece to try and show why the fuck I don't need to give a fuck about these dumbass leckshuns at all.


Young Canadians...Does your vote even Matter? 

Ok, first off we need to look at Canada's age demographics before we talk about anything else. This next link shows out of the 35.5 million dudes/chick/n' trannies that live in golly-gee jolly-gosh Canada what age group they are:

Stats (bad as) Can: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo10a-eng.htm


Young voters I will classify as being 18 to 30. Let's take a nice round number like 7 million to quantify "young voters" okay?

Now how many "old voters" are there? People from 31 to Soylent Green years old? Let's round it to a nice number like around 22 million.

Let's say 29 million people are voting age in Canada and young voters are 7 million of them. How is that on a pie graph? Let's take a look-see:

Beauty graph eh?

Now, it seems Young Jabronies are a pretty small piece of the votin' pie. It looks like Soylent Greeners are actually a big green Pac-Man like creature that is devouring Young Jabronies according to the data.

If you aren't familiar with statistics and sample-size and things like that... this might not have an effect on your young mind. I don't want be bursting bubbles up in here but this data is suffice to say that for every 1 vote the young people demo have...oldoes have 3 votes. 

Soylent Greeners have 3x more voting power than Young Jabronies do.

Speaking in realistic terms, young voters are a niche market that's barely even worth catering to for someone trying to win an election. From a strategic standpoint that's the reason why the Red Party (Liberals) have sunk down to third place in the polls. They are trying to get young voters to vote for them and young voters is a niche market not even worth investing any time in to try and cajole.

When Justin Bieber or Justin Timberlake or Justin Trudeau or whatever the fuck his name is...goes on TV and talks about smokin' blunts and takes his shirt off to do boxing promos...all it does is turn off almost 75% of voters in order to cajole less than 25% of voters. It's a horrible strategy, whoever the Liberal strategist is...that person should be let go and fast.

From the data we can clearly see that Young People's voting power is not enough for anyone to take seriously and thus when Young Jabronies pretend they are important it's just annoying and dumb.

A Four Hundred Million Dollar Boring-Ass Dog and Pony Show

Next off, let's rap loose a little bit about money. This election as everyone knows is the most boring, howdy-doody, offensively condescending, loser-filled, freak fest LOAD OF NONSENSE on the face of the planet that no one with half a brain would pay any interest in...

....and yet...

Experts and members of Elections Canada predict this election will cost tax payers 400 million at the least. Now, American readers have to remember that Canada isn't a big deal like the states is and maybe that number doesn't seem large but if we look at population and GDP, we can see that Canada is such a miniscule region that this amount of money is a pretty large sum.

USA Population:  320 million

Canada Population: 35 million

USA GDP: 17 trillion

Canada GDP: 2 trillion

Canada is not a big Juggernaut of a nation by any stretch of the word yet its Elections cost their citizens 400 million dollars each time they engage in these shenanigans. It's not big enough of a Country to have such a long and circus-esque election season.

On top of it all, the 400 million price-tagged show payed by tax payers... IS NOT EVEN ENTERTAINING AT ALL! It's lamer than fuck. It's more boring than shit. It's something only the most mentally-neglected loser could find entertainment value in. It's atrociously boring.

It's an atrociously boring 400 million dollar rinky-dinkin' Dog an Pony show that tax payers have to pay for. It's offensive by all accounts.

Conclusion

Look Young Jabronies of Canada, for you people to invest even one iota of care into these election proceedings is a gigantic mis-use of your time. For every second of care you're currently investing into politics...please take that time and invest into learning a skill, learning a trade, advancing your understanding of mathematics, read a book, write a book, go visit your grandma in the hospital or old folks home, join a rock and roll band, write a rap, preform some rap, learn how cook, etc. etc. etc.

Basically anything you do with your time, Young People, is better than wasting your time caring about politics and this lamewad of an election. There's serious problems in the world today, you can change things. You can become inventors and tech experts. You can become doctors. You can volunteer and feed the hungry n' thirsty kids of the world. You can do shit that actually isn't stupid. Your time has value.

For a young person to convince themselves to care about politics is the corruption of a young brain. It is the waste of a young person's brain power and its time here on earth...it really fucking is. If any Soylent Greener calls you dumb or uneducated or socially unresponsible because you don't vote...next time...tell that Soylent Greener to go take a bath because they smell like an old person and are disgusting. 

And, as for Americans angry over the media circus of their elections and wanting it to be toned down. Be careful what you wish for, guys. Be careful what you wish for. Put yourselves in a Canadian's boots and just try to picture for one second the topics our 400 million dollar freak show covers....

"Mr. Leader what is your favorite kind of Tim Horton's Donut?"

"Honorable Member of Parliament...what kind of ice cream do you like?"

"Prime Minsiter of Canada...what color in the Smarties box tastes the best in your opinion?"

"What is your official stance on Movies and TV Shows?"

If you Americans had to be in our boots for even 5 seconds of this you'd literally kill yourselves. You wouldn't be able to handle this level of howdy doody, you wouldn't. Believe you me....you'd go crazy having to listen to this shit, man. No joke.



End Note: I think the template media-character the Canadian politicians go with is the "innocent retarded child" character. Good examples of this are Andy Merrill's "Brak" character or John C. Reilly's "Steve Brule" character. It's un-comprehensible to me how Canadian politicians go with this as their default image. Apparently the minds of Canadians is comparable to a mind of a 4 year old if these are the personas our politicians think we will relate to.

Political Bunk 101

I took a political science class at school one time and received a grade of 17/100 in the class. I think some of the things I wrote about in the essay questions weren't that bad and I probably deserved at least a 30% grade if not a passing grade. The only question I remember getting right on the exam was the one that wasn't a flexible answer, the question was "what do the acronyms WMD and MAD stand for" (answer: Weapons of Mass Destruction and Mutually Assured Destruction). Every other question I got a smooth zero (0) on.

Words...on a line. Ok. There's a "Left" and a "Right" side...ok I see....I think?

The main point of contention that I had with the teacher was that Communism was not the opposite of Fascism. People seem to think in "political science" that these are polarized opposites but they are not. Here, let us count some of the ways that they are "different":

-In a communist society the government comes before the people while in a fascist society the government comes before the people.

-In a communist society the government owns all property and the citizens own nothing while in a fascist society the government owns everything and the people own nothing.
 
-In a communist society the head of state has total control while in a fascist society the head of state has total control.

Sarcasm aside, they are not very different at all. In fact to reduce it to it's simplest terms, I'd put it like this: "Communism" and "Fascism" are just fancy words to dress up your dictatorship to make it seem like it's some hip shit that's gonna be good for your and my future.

The two main historic examples that we can draw from are Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Nazi Germany...two of the worst dictatorships in history.

Nazi Germany is the one the stupidest things that ever happened in human history. Through extensive propaganda and nationalistic fervor, one of the most dangerous governments formed into existence. You really have to wonder how a whole society of people put up with this, not only put up with it mind you...but thought it was in their best wishes. Hitler convinced the people with very very little too. If you read his "work" Mein Kampf, right off the bat you can see how ridiculous it is...none of his proof for eugenics or any other bullshit he's trying to prove makes any sense at all.

Basically, Hitler read two books in his life I think (judging from the lameness of his shtick)...he read a book about the history and folklore of India and then he read the philosophy writings of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. I know he read about India because half of his shtick is ripped off from Indian culture, his dream of the "Aryan Race" is directly taken from theories of that era of how a group named the "Aryans" supposedly conquered Ancient Harappa India and ushered in a new period,

"The Aryans, or Vedic civilization were a new start in Indian culture. Harappa was more or less a dead end (at least as far as we know); the Aryans adopted almost nothing of Harappan culture. They built no cities, no states, no granaries, and used no writing. Instead they were a warlike people that organized themselves in individual tribal, kinship units, the jana. The jana was ruled over by a war-chief. These tribes spread quickly over northern India and the Deccan. In a process that we do not understand, the basic social unit of Aryan culture, the jana, slowly developed from an organization based on kinship to one based on geography. The jana became a janapada, or nation and the jana-rajya , or tribal kingdom, became the jana-rajyapada, or national kingdom. So powerfully ingrained into Indian culture is the jana-pada , that Indians still define themselves mainly by their territorial origins. All the major territories of modern India, with their separate cultures and separate languages, can be dated back to the early jana-padas of Vedic India."

-http://public.wsu.edu/~dee/ANCINDIA/ARYANS.HTM

So that fucking guy read about some lizard-brained mongoloid bullies who turned India into a wartorn dictatorship and thought it would be a good idea to try that in Europe. He stole the name "Aryan" and also the Four Sevens symbol (or swastika as the nazis called it) from Vedic India. Then he read Nietzsche's theory of Ubërmensche, completely missed the point, and used it to fuel a pseudo-scientific eugenic fervor...and that's all it took to win over the German people. Fuck. That's sad. You gotta keep your mind awake.

Stalin's USSR is one of the stupidest things that ever happened in human history. Through extensive propaganda and nationalistic fervor, one of the most dangerous governments formed into existence. You really have to wonder how a whole society of people put up with this, not only put up with it mind you...but thought it was in their best wishes. Stalin convinced the people of Russia with very little too. He simply took credit for a mass workers revolt (the real credit lies with the millions who took up arms against their oppressors), changed his name to "Iron" and then proclaimed himself leader. He only read one book, Karl Marx's "Das Kapital", totally missed the point of what Marx was trying to say, and used it to build his propaganda template. Oh, and he ordered the deaths of an estimated 20 million good folks too...which is not very polite.

Pretty similar I must say.

So what should be the "opposites" that we think about when it comes to politics? A good one proposed is Free Society vs. Totalitarian Society. A free society is where information is free to all people, and they are encouraged to think, invent, and create. While on the other end, the opposite of a free society would be a lizard brained mongoloid totalitarian dictatorship.

So if you are thinking that you should be "left wing" because it is the opposite of being "right wing" then please consider that communism and fascism are just words...and so are "left" and "right" for that matter.


After Thought (Jan. 19, 2012): I mentioned that Hitler likely learned of the "Aryan Race" from Indian History books, yet it appears he more likely found out about that silliness from the writings of the horrible woman, Madame Blavatsky, who wrote in her stupid books about this. She also used the 4-sevens symbol in her logo. The Nazi party in general were really into every kind of stupid and childish ways of thinking.

Three Good Sarcastic Essays from Somewhat Different Eras.

Sarcasm is a tricky little human device, in speech and human-to-human conversational relations it is really annoying for the most part, but in writing (if done with subtlety) it can produce interesting results.

Example 1: A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (circa 1729)

Swift is trying to address the problem of poverty in Ireland and how it should be solved. He opens by explaining how difficult life is for many children who were born into poverty, and comes to the conclusion that the best thing for everyone involved is for the rich to eat these poor children...

"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ...”

"I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children."

This obviously created quite a stir when released, he's recommending that the best way for rich landlords to get rid of 120,000 children is to eat them. The reaction of people who read it was to hate on him and say he's a maniac but the important thing is that they read it to begin with. He provides very important data in the piece on poverty and on how landlords and tax collectors are "feeding" off of the impoverished population. The baby-eating part is just to sensationalize it and gain readership to what is essentially an eye-opener on how the very rich take advantage of the poor. He gained a lot of negative attention surely, yet it remains relevant all the way to today and has it's place in history.

Not 100% true but food for thought...

Example 2: Kill the Poor by Eric Boucher (circa 1980)

Efficiency and progress is ours once more, 

Now that we have the Neutron bomb 

It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done
Away with excess enemy
But no less value to property
No sense in war but perfect sense at home

The sun beams down on a brand new day
No more welfare tax to pay
Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light
Jobless millions whisked away
At last we have more room to play
All systems go to kill the poor tonight

Behold the sparkle of champagne
The crime rate's gone
Feel free again
O' life's a dream with you, Miss Lily White
Jane Fonda on the screen today
Convinced the liberals it's okay
So let's get dressed and dance away the night

While they...Kill kill kill kill Kill the poor...Tonight!

The template for this piece was obviously Swift's A Modest Proposal yet it is interesting that it was met with the same reaction almost three hundred years later. The piece is 100% identical but just revamped for a new era it seems. No one said, "oh wow this is a sarcastic eye opener on the current political system much very similar to an essay written in 1729," in fact the reaction was even worse than 1729, Boucher at one point was even put on trial by his government for this and other material for the crime of "distributing obscenity" and accused of poisoning the minds of the youth. It's strange that 300 years later this re-issue of Swift's sarcastic critique was met with more hostility than it was in 1729.

Media: Boucher on British TV.....Boucher on Oprah w/ Tipper Gore (this is really good).

Example 3: Various Essays by High School Student Peter Nguyen (circa 1999)

This Nguyen character is far less known than the previous two but I think his writing deserves to be remembered as well. His essays took the internet by storm a few years ago (or by gale maybe...not storm), and they are something (see the rest here).

Now, before I make my point let's reduce some obvious error bars and state some obvious counter points. First, these can very possibly be fake, and someone just put red pen on it to look like it was submitted in a classroom. Also, this can be just a form of "self sabotage" and these essays are not important at all. Self sabotage is basically when you purposely don't try so you can not feel the effects of failure ever (i.e. "I know I didn't get X but it's just because I wasn't really trying..."). These essays may be subject to both and that could discredit my following point, but let's hypothetically say that they were neither fake nor self-sabotaged in order to argue my following points in safety.

The environment of the school system Nguyen was in was a very odd one for two reasons. Since the mid 1990's students all have access to the internet, and teachers in the US are given bell curve incentives.

What do kids do with the net? They "research" and then they switch some words around so it doesn't look too "researched" to their teacher.

What are bell curve incentives? Everyone goes on the curve and their grades are dished out by what piece of the curve you hit. The teachers themselves are evaluated for job performance how good their curves are, meaning they get raises and benefits for good curves. That is a conflict of interest as teachers pass everyone and edit marks to even out or fancy-up their respective bell curve to achieve higher pay and climb the pay scale.

So let's put two and two together why don't we? Thirty students go on Wiki or some other site and "research" their essay and then thirty students turn in basically the same essay to the teacher (some with better grammar than others being the biggest difference)...the teacher then assigns them to the bell curve...the ones with the worst grammar go into 60-65, then with bad grammar they go into 70-80, and the ones with excellent grammar get the 85-95 slot. Everyone passes and the teacher looks good for his/her evaluation...and everyone is happy.

Then a Peter Nguyen comes along and throws everything out of whack, where does this fucking shit fit on the bell curve? Nowhere! Getting his essay on that fucking curve is like throwing a brick into a washing machine The teacher doesn't want to fail him because it'll fuck up the curve and he/she can't pass him because he'll have proof that anyone can pass. This crazy guy is daring the teacher to fail him. Why? 

The interesting thing about Nguyen is you can tell from his writing that he is creative, original, and intelligent...so why is he daring his teachers to fail him? Is it in itself a sarcastic critique on the bell curve system in American schools? Could be...