Political Math

What's that overused quote? "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Can you believe it has its own Wikipedia page?

But how do they lie? I think there are two main ways:

• Flat out making up statistics, just like 96.7% of statistics are (Note: Source not cited).
• Misunderstanding and false framing.

It's hard to do much against the former (except basic fact checking), but the latter issue can be resolved. Interpreting what a statistic actual means, and not letting someone tell you what it means, is a very important skill. It is also vital to be able to dig into the details that are being neglected. Statistics are easy to abuse. Models are even easier. And machine learning/big data/neural networks are basically a carte blanche to say whatever you want and have a big smart looking thing support you.

I aim to shed a light on some of these lies, half truths, and misleading statements.