Monday, August 28, 2017

I see smart people showing off their intellect. Their superior logic as
backseat drivers with zero real information.

It's easy to make logical deductions based on your own preconceptions. There's
a reason that modern science prizes experiment above all else. I refute you
thus: Houston knows how many people die in evacuations. We know what would
have happened if we'd all decided to put close to seven million people on the
road in August.

And then dropped a hurricane on them. Look up the Rita evacuation before you
start telling me about how much smarter you are than the people who've actually
run the experiment. Learn a little humility, oh great internet commentators.

I see preconditioned responses. "Blue Teams can't handle this..." and "this
proves my ineffable ability to read the abstract of someone else's paper about
X (or Y or Z) and misapply their results to whatever I want..."

It's called cherry picking, and it doesn't make your conclusions follow. Shut
up about it for once. Learn that the first reason there is noise on the
airwaves is because you're contributing to it by running your yap. I refute
you thus: You've picked the data to support your conclusion while ignoring
that which contradicts your preconceptions.

I see people doing something remarkable. I've seen every named storm and
unnamed Gulf hiccup to hit the Gulf coast since the early 70's.

I can promise you, the response to Harvey has been extraordinary, especially
given that this is a cat 4 storm that's been stalled in place for four days
now, and is working on putting 50+ inches of rain into a 300 mile wide
stretch. That only two or three people have died so far is something so
remarkable as to approach the miraculous.

I refute you thus: Don't get in the way of the people who are doing the job,
and for damned sure don't be too busy running your mouth to know when to shut
up and learn something. It's possible that the people who do just might know
something the people who talk don't.

The internet has a tendency to magnify the voice of the talker at the expense
of the doer. If I have any goal as a writer, I guess it's to put my stake down
and do my best to write stories that matter for the daughters and sons of
Martha. I see Harvey. May I always remember what I've seen and learned.

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Please keep it on the sane side. There are an awful lot of places on the internet for discussions of politics, money, sex, religion, etc. etc. et bloody cetera. In this time and place, let us talk about something else, and politely, please.