Melpomene

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Vaccine deniers are idiots, so I have no issue blocking conspiracy porn. However, blocking people from finding and discussing legitimate health related issues like long COVID is ridiculous. This feels less user-driven and more political… we’re entering US election season and a resurgence of COVID would not play well with the incumbent’s numbers.

Not saying that the incumbent is forcing anything… but tech companies (Twitter aside) do seem to lean left.

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Why use yearly salary? You’re not paid once a year, are you? Most likely once a month. Referencing monthly salary makes much more sense.

Except plenty of people don’t get paid monthly? I’ve been paid weekly, every other week, twice a month. I’ve been paid daily, I’ve also been paid per project. Once I was paid whenever i asked. Focusing on yearly salaries offers a convenient reference point.

Unionization is good, but some unions are terrible. The Dept of Vets Affairs union comes to mind, there.

1. Truthout failed to disclose that the data was skewed toward existing union members, presenting the data as general support versus support among a dataset skewed toward existing union members.

If I claimed “50% of Kbin users want to hang out with Melpomene” but my dataset is heavily skewed toward people who already expressed interest, that would be dishonest.

1. The AFL-CIO did not disclose the dataset used, instead presenting the data as generally applicable. They presented the data as a poll of “registered voters” versus "registered voters, AAPI members, and union members with oversamples of under 30, AAPI voters, and union members: which necessarily skews the results to be pro union.

If I claimed “Green party candidate polling at record numbers” but my dataset oversampled climate activists and registered Green party voters, then the applicability of my poll to the general population would be suspect.

1. Of the three, the GBAO seems to be honest about their poll as the sampling method was disclosed. Not their fault that the AFL-CIO and Truthout misrepresented the data.

It is absolutely reasonable to question the accuracy of the poll here, as it was commissioned for a particular purpose. It doesn’t mean the poll is inaccurate, necessarily. But looking at other. similar polls suggests that their sampling group was heavily skewed toward people who were already inclined to support unions.

The most reasonable take here would be “among those who are already inclined to respond to a DNC adjacent pollster, union support is high.” Which I think we already knew.

Edit: From the org itself - GBAO conducted a survey of 1,200 registered voters and oversamples of voters under 30, AAPI
voters, and union members.

Calling out potential conflicts of interest and the risk of biased data is always important, whether we agree with the conclusions or not. Those who take offense to that fall into the “agenda before facts” category that a certain buffoon of an ex president so enjoyed occupying.

Edit: I’d be interested in hearing what you think “my” sources are. Might surprise you to find out that I strive to read stories from multiple perspectives, especially where the stories themselves are subject to spin.

This is interesting, but I’m not sure how much weight I’d give to a poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO (an organization that benefits immensely if the poll is pro-union) and run by a polling organization styling itself as the “Democratic pollster of the year.” Truthout has also failed fact checks on MBFC and has been noted to “publish misleading reports”, so I wonder how much rigor they put into vetting this poll.

This is not to say that unions are bad or supporting unions is bad. But if we’re going to call out biased sources and questionable approaches, we should do regardless of whether we like the conclusions.

Sources:

https://twitter.com/GBAOStrategies (for GBAO taglines)

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/truth-out/ truthout record (failed fact checks, bias, misleading reports)

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Linux user here, also once upon a time a Windows admin. I think the most difficult thing for most users is not that Linux is difficult, but that it is different.

Take Pop_OS for example. For the average “I check email and surf the web” user, it works wonderfully. But most people grew on Windows or Mac so its just not what they’re used to. Linux is kind of the stick shift to Windows and Mac’s automatic transmission… its not hard to learn, but most folk don’t choose to make the effort because they don’t need to.