In a presumably futile effort to change their minds by learning how they think, I periodically try to figure out the left-wing mind.
Why, for instance, do some people believe in Keynesian economics, when it is premised on the fanciful notion that you can increase “spending power” by taking money out of the economy’s left pocket and putting it in the economy’s right pocket?
I actually think part of the problem is that folks on the left focus on how income is spent rather than how it’s earned, so I sometimes try to get them to understand that economic growth occurs when we produce more rather than consume more. My hope is that they’ll better understand how the economy works if they look at the issue from this perspective.
But I’m getting off track. I don’t want to get too serious because the purpose of this post is to share this satirical look at the how leftists rationalize their anti-gun biases.
Let’s take a look at two cities that are quite similar in terms of demographics and income. But they have very different murder rates. Your job is to pretend you’re a leftist and come up with an explanation.
To be fair, we can’t rule out cold weather as a possible explanation given this limited set of data.
For what it’s worth, however, scholars who actually do real research, like David Kopel and John Lott, reach different conclusions.
Returning to satire, the Houston-Chicago comparison reminds me of this IQ test for criminals and liberals.
And since we’re having some fun with our liberal friends, let’s close with this comparison of liberals, conservatives, and Texans.
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I knew it! Canada must have their streets covered in red! D:
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[…] An Inside Look at Left-Wing Social Science Gun Research […]
Either cold weather causes murder, or Chicago needs to increase the number of hispanic residents in proportion to its total population.
Its quite easy, its this phrase that goes a little like this:”Correlation does not equal causation”
On Keynesian economics, its about the government spending money because businesses and consumers are not.
[…] Dan Mitchell offers a good example of how left wing social science gun research works. […]
[…] An Inside Look at Left-Wing Social Science Gun Research […]
Mark – perhaps you’d like to support your assertion that John Lott “makes up his data”. And by support I am asking for weblinks to legitimate academic review, not some liberal blog.
Listing John Lott as a scholar who does “real research” is deeply funny. Guy makes up his data and uses sock puppets (Mary Rosh) to defend his made-up data.
Frankly, it makes me think less of you and your arguments when you cite him as a serious source.
Chicago has one and a half times more homicides than Houston.*
I enjoy satire as much as the next person, but I must express a concern with the chart. There is no mention of population density on the chart. Chicago had two and a half times more homicides in 2012 but had almost four times the population density.
Houston: about 3,000 per square mile
Chicago: about 11,500 per square mile.
Food for thought.
That’s it, cold weather is the problem.
Reblogged this on Paul Brodie and commented:
Statistics are wonderful. Simply wonderful. Oh, and satire, too.
Reblogged this on Gds44's Blog.
There was a good article in Newsmax. In the article they told the story of our nations Capital. Washingtion, DC gun violence escalated after the gun ban was adopted in 1976. DC rivaled Chicago for the murder cpital of the world. In 2008 after the gun ban was struck down, gun violemce dropped sharply.
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Dan, but that will put a crimp in the whole “global warming causes murder” theory recently put forth by some gun banners!
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