Popular opinion

Popular opinion provides no support for the validity of an idea.

Mainstream news, social media and other sources that proliferate hundreds or thousands of opinions simultaneously may aid in breathing life into these ideas, but they almost never offer any data to support the central assumptions upon which these ideas are based. When data is offered to support a popular idea, the “data” is usually manipulated to uphold a previously held belief, not to further understanding of the subject.

It is important to remember the wisdom of Mark Twain before blindly believing that any particular data point is valid.

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” That is, you can make “data” say just about anything you want, and the person quoting these data points typically has an agenda that wouldn’t change regardless of what the data said.

If new data overwhelmingly indicated that white police officers handle altercations with black and white civilians equitably, do you think the Black Lives Matter movement would claim victory and suspend operations, or do you think they’d find another reason to fume about white cops? Reflect on that question honestly.

Millions of people now believe that we have an issue of “systemic racism” amongst white police officers in the United States. But before a handful of anecdotal (and controversial) instances in recent years, probably very few people believed this. The noise of a few voices amplified by modern communication technology has facilitated quite a conversion among the masses.

Do not misunderstand my point. The issue here is not whether Black Lives Matter is right or wrong, but whether or not mainstream opinion is any indication as to whether they are right or wrong. If new, conflicting data would likely have no sway on the opinions of an organization, they probably aren’t worth paying much attention. And that includes both sides of the political spectrum.

If Mark Twain was alive today, he’d probably reiterate another famous observation:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”