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.

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...