EPIC BLAZE: Incredible Ways Statistics Have Been Used to Lie to You

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[@turtlemayhem39]

Simon's tenuous grasp on the horror that is the American healthcare system is always a delight.

[@Bagledog5000]

My mother in law has been in the hospital for about eight days here in Japan after an accident. Total cost for food, meds, daily physical therapy, an MRI et al is.................300 dollars. I mean I knew health care in the US sucked, I just didn't realize the extent of the sheer sonic suckitude until I came to a country that had decent healthcare.

[@Gorgotrove]

It’s not single payer, it’s not free market. It’s the worst traits of both.

[@isaacribeiro6823]

@@Gorgotrove is always like that is the same in portugal any company who is private/government gets the worse of both to the employers and the costumers. i like the "free market" but getting the socialism bs i just painful lucky iam in the uk where you can pay for it in advance and not be allowed to use it at least if free if you can use it, right?

[@jeremymizer8958]

I once drove 5 hours to Mexico with a broken (not horribly broken obviously) leg. Between x-rays, casting, etc even with insurance I'd be out a thousand bucks. Easier and cheaper to just take 2 sick days from work and eat tacos. I paid like $30 for the hospital visit, and that's only because I wasn't under Mexico insurance or something. Our system is a joke.

[@comettamer]

Truly one of the best parts of any of his videos.

[@gordonfan1095]

I love how Simon's made up Tucker Carlson impression was just a flawless Alex Jones impression

[@emilyrln]

Lmao same 😂

[@bullie86]

I think you mean Tucker Nelson.

[@BlueProphet7]

OMG it really was.

[@odyx0]

​@Romano Böllermann who ? He was deff talking about tucker Carlson. 😂

[@fixerupperer]

Was reading this comment as that part of video happened and you're correct. I wouldnt have made that connection as I believe I have a mental block regarding Alex Jones due to his voice making me nauseous.

[@jezlawrence720]

"In a london-wide survey of two people carried out last night, it was discovered 50% of the population is drunk, and the other half is 6 years old" Craig Charles' Almanac of Total Knowledge taught me everything I needed to know about stats in the media, and life in general. Everyone should have a copy.

[@Sanquinity]

This is why I tend to dismiss "studies" with tiny test groups before even looking into the rest of them. "Study shows people do X!" (Study involved 200 people in a single university, dismiss...) "Study shows adults tend to avoid Y!" (Study was done on 500 people in a single American state while making sweeping generalizations about all adults across the world... dismiss...) Etc.

[@marktwain622]

That kid needs to get to school, a responsible parent indeed.

[@emilyrln]

@@marktwain622 I think 6 years old is a bit young for night school…

[@DogFish-NZ]

I learned 9 out of 10 people actually enjoy gang rape

[@marktwain622]

@@emilyrln The early bird gets the worm.

[@victorcast2467]

Simon: Complains the video is going to be too long Also Simon: Makes it longer with 30 minutes of tangents

[@wyattfournier7661]

"This is the way" 😂

[@ilexater9556]

As is traditional.

[@ThBlckMrk]

Yeah far too many currently in my view.

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

More reading, less ad libbing...

[@RECTALBURRITO]

Yes, yes.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

If we had a periodical epic blaze, like once a month or something, I'd love that, even if it was only a quarterly special. GIVE US SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR, FACT BOI!

[@aelux4179]

Bump, deffo want at least a quarterly epic blaze

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

@@aelux4179 right?! That would be more than acceptable to most of us I think

[@arbusco]

I love the long ones, belong to great I listen to them while I’m working or in the yard or cleaning a house I love them all

[@clairekortbawi5659]

He is RIGHT, Peter!

[@brandonhinrichs4393]

They're the least watched videos. The numbers say that people stop watching after 30 mins. They might finish but the numbers say people rarely watch one video longer than 30 mins on KZbin before finding something else.

[@pirobot668beta]

"9 out 10 dentists surveyed..." is my favorite! Colgate sent out 15,000 'survey forms' for dentists to fill out and mail back. 14,950 forms got thrown in the trash, 45 forms were returned by dentists who LOVED Colgate products, 9 forms were returned by dentists asking Colgate not to send any more survey forms.

[@rhondasisco-cleveland2665]

Did you know dentists are supposed to have a huge suicide rate? Makes me wonder what they see, smell etc.

[@cradleofgoth]

Your math is a bit off. 9 of 54 would make it 16.67%. You meant to have 45 and 5.

[@quixomega]

My dentist told me that basically any toothpaste that contains sodium fluoride is going to work.

[@vylbird8014]

The other trick is multiple selections - give dentists a list of brands of toothpaste and get them to tick the ones they consider appropriate. Given that all toothpastes are basically equal in function and composition, any dentist who bothers to return the form will probably tick every box. Even the "nine out of ten recommend" claim can be applied to any listed brand.

[@DayneGodwin]

​@@cradleofgoth ah, we can just fudge that jn the graphs...

[@ComedorDelrico]

"Wouldn't you just go to the doctor for a breast cancer screening?" This is America, Simon. People can't afford to go to the doctor. Planned parenthood is free and easy to access.

[@user-lv7ph7hs7l]

Seriously not even camcer screening at a certain age is free at the hospital?? I think here they are mandatory starting at some ages. Even the dermatologist is free for melanoma checks and many basic public insurances don't or only partially cover dermatologists (usually only things that affect health, so cancer checks yes, treating freckles or acne not so much. Which I hate acne should be treated for free it can directly lead to depression, anxiety etc... ehich normally would be covered)... America is fked up, sorry... for instance I lost my fingertip last winter, well 90% anyway. Had it reattached, lots of treatments, x-rays etc... and about 25 visits to the doctor. Cost me 58€ and that was for the quarter and was for the entire insurance, the treatment was just covered. And I have the most basic shitty insurance out there, I don't particularily like it but I guess I should be thankful. Had to wait a long time in the ER but then again it was a big public holiday, some religious crap but basically similar to NY eve where everyone gets extraordinarily fked up so lots of drunk injured idiots that night. I was curious and checked, 50-100k cost in America uninsured to reattach a fingertip. 20 grand for amputating what's left... bloody hell... I got lucky but at first there was talk of amputation before the specialist arrived and said, nah, well sow that right back on, no problem. That would have been fun in America, I would have chosen amputation because 20k is just 10 years paying off, 100k would be most of my non retired years I still have... Though to be fair it's dependant on income and mine is seasonal. So I wasn't earning much money. 2021 I paid 200€ per quarter since I earned a lot more money. So it can get expensive on the other hand my insurance is for self employed people so it has lots of garbage caveats it's not the regular basic insurance for employed people, I think that's 50 bucks a month or thereabouts.

[@Cuendillar777]

How many primary care doctor's offices, anywhere in the world, have mammogram machines? Those things aren't cheap and putting them in every doctor's office would be a massive waste of money. It makes more sense for breast cancer screening to be performed at a specialized clinic, considering the infrequency of the needed testing for most women.

[@Boudicca527]

PP does not provide preventive care screenings or even free birth control. They stopped years ago. Any service they do provide is a sliding scale charge that is sometimes higher than a private physician. Local results may vary…. There is a free clinic locally but they are volunteer staffed and non affiliated to PP. That’s where you go but waits are very long.

[@AnemoneSilvermyst]

I've burned through almost all of the casual criminalist and decoding the unknown and now I've grown to love this channel. Apparently I'm just working my way through all of Simon's channels.

[@Skunk6977]

I’m not sure working one’s way through all of Simon’s channels and the content therein is actually possible. He seems to create content at a rate that defies the confines of time and physics within which the rest of us mere mortals are bound to operate. The Fact Boy operates outside of space and time.

[@jasontower1205]

His channels are perfect to just play through while I'm working.

[@amiablebee7318]

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[@hereticpariah6_66]

I read a book years ago called _"How to Lie With Statistics"_ ...it was an *eye-opener.* You wouldn't believe the crap that's pulled on you _every _*_day._*

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

I had an old boss tell me once "figures don't lie, but liars do figure" in regards to car salesmen, and it holds true for many others as well 😂

[@bayoubilly5176]

Pretty much any manager or salesmen can be placed there.

[@dfuher968]

Im an accountant with an economics degree, that included studying statistics. Basically, u can get statistics to tell any story, u want to, depending on how u collect the numbers, choose which numbers to collect, how u tally them, how u compare etc etc. 30 years later, and I never trust a statistic (or a poll) without first checking the methodology and sources.

[@lynnkay417]

That's pretty wise advice! lol

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

@@lynnkay417 it's held up well over time, that's for sure

[@Keyser___Soze]

@@dfuher968 well said and its so frustrating every time I here the news or anyone use these “statistics” “facts” and present them or phrase them in a very misleading way. Its crazy how often it happens. I could say something insane like “out of all the people in the world, people with larger hands tend to read and write better than people with smaller hands” Technically this is true but its because babies, toddlers and children obviously dont read and write well or at all but by the way i presented it I made it sound like your hand size correlates to how well you read and write when that obviously has absolutely nothing to do with each other. (This is an extremely stupid example. I was just trying to quickly make one up)

[@GrimGX]

My favorite statistics quote: “Statistics are like a bikini. They show a lot, but hide the important bits.”

[@brianheight]

11:54 here's when it's clear Simon lives somewhere with good health care!

[@karenscheltema9671]

I'm a biostatistician and I commend you on everything that you presented. You did an excellent job talking about how easy it is to make up graphs to say what you want, survey response bias, sampling bias and just taking bits and pieces of data and coming up with your own twisted version of what you want it to say. About 10 years ago, I heard Rush Limbaugh say that more Americans were out of work than ever before. Well, duh. There are more Americans than ever before. Anyway, I wanted to add a few things. First, when evaluating surveys, it's important to consider non-response bias. No matter how hard you try to conduct a random survey, there will be people who won't answer the phone/email/mail or a followup survey after you're done with a call. Who is most likely to answer a customer survey - someone who's pissed off or someone who's really happy? And if we're talking about reviews that could have some type of financial impact, well.....there go the bots on Amazon and elsewhere. Secondly, when evaluating medical research, was there a conflict of interest? How were patients recruited? What was the attrition rate (the percentage who dropped out)? Was it the gold standard, a randomized double-blind study (meaning neither the patient nor the medical staff knew what the intervention was)? If it couldn't be a double-blind study because of ethical reasons or having to look at historical data, how were patient differences in the groups controlled for? For any study, it's important to know what variables are being controlled for, such as age, sex, pre-existing conditions, income or race (if either one would relate to the outcome). Also, when evaluating any research study, all results are predicated upon the idea that if you look hard enough, you will find significant results 1 out of 20 times. Is the researcher trying to look everywhere to find each and every significant result possible? If so, that's a red flag that maybe there's nothing really there. Has the research been published in a peer-reviewed journal? If so, how reputable is the journal? During the initial parts of COVID research, the speed of publishing research was of the essence so there were a lot of pre-prints. Now that rapid speed is no longer of the essence, but speed still is important, are other researchers finding similar results?

[@cherrydragon3120]

Call me stupid but what is a biostatistician?

[@chasefrancis8742]

Unemployed

[@susinator]

Rush Limbaugh, I'm glad he's burning in hell right as we speak. His lies are constantly being played in front of him, he knows he did wrong, he knew that his words hurt people, he knew that he led people to committing heinous acts of depravity in the name of a system that cares not for the common person. Sweet catharsis.

[@randomoverpopulatedworldid3286]

I would hope Simon wouldn't use non reputable journals.

[@randomoverpopulatedworldid3286]

And I agree rapid speech is not needed but speed is still important when thinking or feeling good enough to think clearly?

[@AngDevigne]

"You idiots! *Allegedly*" Made me incredibly happy. As a data analyst, I really enjoyed this video. More people need to understand how numbers (manipulated by people and computers programmed by people) can absolutely lie. Thank you 🙏

[@guldi3]

Famous quote from my past statistics teacher: "Only trust the statistic you faked yourself."

[@keit99]

I know that one in German "Traue nie einer statistik die du nicht selbst gefälscht hast" (never trust a statistic you didn't fake yourself)

[@nadyahristova7000]

16:40 Simon, the word you are looking for, is "logarithmic". Though you raking your brain for the word did give me a chuckle, been there too many times🤣

[@dwaynelangerhr6985]

The full quote - “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” - has been attributed to Mark Twain

[@mannacler]

Nearly every clever saying has been attributed to Mark Twain many of which he didn't say.

[@dwaynelangerhr6985]

@@mannacler Well I did Googled it that that was the response that Google said but the again Google does spread Misinformation.

[@datwongai3903]

@@mannacler "I never said that." - Mark Twain

[@cherrydragon3120]

@@datwongai3903 "don't know what you talking about." - Mark Twain

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

He was quoting Benjamin Disraeli.

[@mollywantshugs5944]

1:07:40 the prosecution office reps responsible should’ve been criminally charged. They intentionally misled a jury to send an innocent person to prison because that would win them the case.

[@b1646717]

"I have no idea what Tucker Carlson sounds like." What a charmed life.

[@unknowngamer37415]

He sounds like the kind of guy who would complain at M&Ms aren't sexy enough for him.😂

[@lordofelectrons4513]

" because I made that up" Simon FOX is notorious for that. Thus your impression is all the more accurate.

[@luxorien]

I've never been that great at math, but I came away from an intro stats course (taught at a very low level for us simpleton non-math majors) thinking that everyone should be required to take that class. When the professor explained the antics of the cigarette companies, I finally realized how little of what we think is true actually is. Love these long ones!

[@sarah70067]

where'd you find this?

[@Dylan-ln6qt]

You hear about this a lot in chemistry too, we looked at a research paper in one of my chemistry ethics classes that found secondhand smoke isn't a health concern; as for the sponsers of that "research" paper? Tobacco companies.

[@chlorineismyperfume]

Definitely. Knowing what to look for when reading statistics presented by anyone is key.

[@SEAZNDragon]

Calculus killed math for me but I regret not taking stats.

[@DogFish-NZ]

Statistically 9 out of 10 people actually enjoy gang rape.

[@Static-ash]

I love Simon's American accent. Especially when he's yelling

[@LisaBowers]

And the yee-haw! 🤣

[@personzorz]

IN THE NAME OF THE LAWD

[@dfuher968]

He does an epic Southern Televangelist 😁😁

[@theindigollama]

As someone from the southern US, he is pretty spot on for Southern Baptist preachers and televangelists.

[@Static-ash]

@@theindigollama I'm southern Midwest so yes I agree lolol

[@giantred]

"Turbo wheelchair or blind person stick" Simon, you sir are a gem

[@ComedorDelrico]

"blind person stick" was undoubtedly the best line of the video!

[@tylermoore5216]

Simons got the perfect KZbin enterprise. His scripts are incredible and all of his videos on all of his channels grasp your attention extremely well. Well done mate!

[@matthewmartin1862]

Trucker in America and a big fan of yours. I love these longer episodes, they make for great listening on longer hauls. Keep doing what you do!

[@cherrydragon3120]

Is nice to have something on on the background. Either at home when gaming, or on the road when driving.

[@Yourmomma92]

Thanks for your hauling!

[@matthewmartin1862]

Thanks guys, it certainly is nice. Music gets old. And @matteapayton921 that means a lot, truly thank you. I was hauling toilet paper across country at the time, now I haul heavy equipment for construction

[@Yourmomma92]

@@matthewmartin1862 we need to remember as a scociety that y’all are the blood of this country! If you got it a trucker brought it!

[@bmattison]

My dad used to say, "Figures don't lie, but liars figure". I learned later in life that it was an older saying.

[@j2397]

Can't get enough of his "Angry Bad American" impression. Sounds hilarious and spot on.

[@laurenlauren2847]

This video reminded me of this quote: "Glaube keine Statistik die du nicht selbst gefälscht hast" Which translates to: don't believe any statisic you haven't forged yourself.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

9:05 - Chapter 1 - May contain graphic violence 15:55 - Chapter 2 - Drop the base 29:15 - Chapter 3 - The cherry pickers 37:15 - Chapter 4 - Sample of brown sauces 48:05 - Chapter 5 - Extra sauce 1:02:25 - Chapter 6 - Becoming another statistic 1:07:45 - Chapter 7 - Reading between the lines 1:14:15 - Chapter 8 - The last portion of pie

[@waren78657]

Whistleverse, great name for all that channels

[@DeronJ]

41:43 Simon talks about starting a channel about cats. (The sentence above has more to do with lying by quoting out of context than lying with statistics, but it still felt appropriate.)

[@Darth-Claw-Killflex]

Did you receive enough validation?

[@maralorca6518]

Thanks

[@felicitybywater8012]

In Australia, the crowd responsible for fining lying advertisers was called Consumer Protection but is now called Fair Trading. There's also an annual Shonky Awards.

[@sonuvabitch]

Shonky award goes to Simon's Aussie impression and repeating the myth of our love for Fosters. In case anyone is reading this, nobody here ever drinks Fosters. Think I've seen it in a bottle shop once, in a dusty corner. It's all marketing. You'll never see an Aussie drinking one in Australia

[@phils4634]

@@sonuvabitch It is interesting to see how many Aussies prefer Corona, which does seem to be a VERY popular bottled tipple, along with other "foreign" beers such as Tiger, Sapporo, Chang, Singha (not surprising seeing as these are popular Tourist destinations)

[@nroke1684]

Simon's "angry racist southern preacher" is way too good.

[@regularperson7]

As someone that drives for a living and consumes too much content I love the longer episodes across all of your channels. I actually hate true crime stuff but really enjoy your channel casual criminalist.

[@anarchyantz1564]

I saw Danny's tweet about this earlier today and was very happy to hear it! As much as we love seeing you push through horrific murders on Casual Criminalist this must be a nice break for you!

[@ericgranberg7971]

I miss the scrip slaps and yelling

[@DFSJR1203]

Danny you are a legend. Keep up the good work. Simon loves this type of epic video. Just listen to him. He's back to his old self. Now we just need him standing and doing some script slaps.

[@1st2nd2]

#BringBackScriptSlaps #bbss #BringBackRoamingBusinessBlaze #bbrbb

[@user-xb7tb9rz4j]

There are no script slaps as Danny is no longer allowed paper for safety reasons.

[@jamesabbott6425]

@@user-xb7tb9rz4j ever since Danny saw what prisoners had managed to make out of paper.

[@Kaotiqua]

Also more cocaine.

[@SeanNyte]

Please make more Epic Blazes! These are seriously my favorites... The Tangents and Topics are so easy to get sucked into... One of my absolute favorite KZbinrs out... I've been binge watching your videos over the last few months...

[@anactualprayingmantis5054]

The reason women get cancer screenings at planned parenthood is probably because it's free even without insurance. At least it was when I used to go for all my gyno needs. Then they shut down all the planned parenthoods in my area

[@AdamMansbridge]

The graph with the Y axis that goes 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10 000, 100 000 etc has a logarithmic scale. It makes an exponential curve flat and squashes massive numbers Graphs of covid cases are often presented like that to show covid when it's uncontested, doubles the number of cases each 2 days, going from 1 case to a million pretty quickly

[@ShaggysMovingPictureBox]

I was going to suggest order of magnitude

[@AdamMansbridge]

@@ShaggysMovingPictureBox yeah graphs like that do an excellent job of showing things that grow by orders of magnitude Covid, for example, when uncontrolled doubles the number of infections every 2 days, and a logarithmic y axis turns that into a straight line

[@jwhitely7]

The editing on brain blaze is always top notch! I'm always excited to see how Simon gets turned into a meme

[@badluck5647]

Sam gets paid to make his boss look like an idiot. He is living the dream.

[@alexiskaas907]

Hearing Simon be so proud of his Merit for looking up a quote after school. Precious.

[@ragdolltech3526]

Cat Channel: Just get a cat for the office, and make a channel dedicated to all the bloopers it creates!!

[@dj-jn7qs]

I never understood the term nerd until now. It's Friday night, and I loved this episode about stats. Keep these coming, I love these long big brain episodes.

[@pigems9162]

You should make a new channel called Memology, where every episode is about the history/explanation of how all the best memes and gifs came to be.

[@samdp42]

One day I looked up how memes started. I got as far back as a news paper from the 1920s before I gave up. Needless to say, I would watch this shit out of this. Simon demanding specific memes is my favorite.

[@TheVirtualObserver]

That's basically how Lemmino started. Way back when his channel was known as Top Ten Memes. 😅

[@LeadTrumpet1]

Mammograms can be incredibly expensive if you have an older health insurance plan in the US that got out of providing preventative healthcare in full. Planned Parenthood provides essential services for those who are uninsured or underinsured. Part of the reason for the decline is the ACA passed in 2010 and the preventive services coverage requirement went into effect right away. Plus the Medicaid Expansion and the Healthcare Exchanges made screenings at a private OBGYN more accessible.

[@SamCoyle-cc6kv]

Simon, you keep making these long ones. And we will keep on clicking on them. I've watched this 12 or 3 times already.

[@sirrichiofawesome9617]

One of my favourite statistics is by a statistician demonstrating how statistics can be used to manipulate. They showed graphs like divorce rate in Maine vs margarine sales, cheese consumption vs deaths by bed sheets, and Age of Miss World vs deaths by hot steam. The graphs did show a trend in all these cases, as one went up and down so did the other. Obviously there is no correlation between them, but it demonstrates that just because two things rise and fall at the same rate it doesn't mean that one is effecting the other.

[@audreymuzingo933]

"Obviously there is no correlation between them" --actually their simultaneous up/down movements ARE a correlation; that's all correlation means. But yes, it doesn't mean one is affecting the other. The simple way to phrase it is: Correlation doesn't equal causation.

[@DogFish-NZ]

9 out of 10 people actually enjoy gang rape

[@tubensalat1453]

My favorite statistic is that in areas with a higher stork population birth rates are higher: clearly proving that storks bring the children!

[@emilyrln]

TIL there are statistics on deaths caused by bed sheets. _The more you know!_ ✨

[@emilyrln]

TIL there are statistics on deaths caused by bed sheets. _The more you know!_ ✨

[@djgeorgetsagkadopoulos]

I have had personal experience with statistics in the past due to my preofession (Surveyor/Land Engineer). The biggest issue is to "ask the data the right question" in order to get the "correct" result. And I'm not talking about actually wanting to manipulate/bias the data. I remember that during university my class was split in 10 teams and each team were given the exact same data to get some statistics out of them. Each team choose it's own way to process and interpet the data. The results in all cases were different among the 10 teams. For the most part there were just small deviations, but on a few key areas of the study, there were significant differencies between the results of each team. Therefore, even an honest approach can yield "wrong" or missleading results.

[@Kaotiqua]

He failed to impersonate Tucker Carlson- but totally channeled Alex Jones without realizing it.

[@chasefrancis8742]

You all are unhealthy in your obsessions.

[@GwenFleetfoot]

this was great because I watch these on my lunch breaks and sometimes there isn't a new blaze to watch, so when theres an hour and a half long episode that means I have three lunches worth of entertainment for the price of one

[@sabrinaschell4938]

Simon, fyi, Planned Parenthood is an extremely low cost women’s healthcare provider. So women go there for STD checks, breast cancer screenings, annual Pap smears, cervical cancer screenings, prenatal care, etc. because it is much more affordable than a typical OB/GYN office. I used to go there for birth control and UTI tests in college when I was super broke. That’s why it’s so important for American women. MOST of their patients on any given day are NOT there for an abortion.

[@xessenceofinsanityx]

My statistics teacher opened her first lesson with a giant slide saying 'NO PIE CHARTS' she covered most of the issues you mentioned in the video, but she REALLY hated pie charts 🤣

[@audreymuzingo933]

I would pose that there's no better graphic for percents than pie charts, but obviously they're ONLY for percents, and the slices damn well better be the correct size. Such a frustrating number of my 10th grade science students failed to get one or both of these stipulations, that I can actually appreciate your teacher's total ban on pie charts.

[@Alexa-eg9wy]

Was it because as humans, we’re terrible at understanding the change in area between two of the same shapes? It’s the same reason we don’t use scatter plots with circle size scales by one of the parameters.

[@dkhnova]

If your data adds up to 100%, pie charts make that clearer than most other types of charts.

[@chasefrancis8742]

Pie charts are GREAT visual representations of fractional wholes. Wait, you just accept what you're taught from people whom have never actually applied those theories they feign to be such authorities on?

[@dkhnova]

@@Alexa-eg9wy I even think this is quite debatable. It's pretty easy to look at a pie chart and see if one of the slices is 25% or 50%. It's much like imagining a clock face and being able to pick out 12, 3, and 6.

[@williebauld1007]

A Blaze session and Cas Crim, both on a Friday night, you are spoiling us TangentBoi All hail Danny king of the Blazement!! You have given us an epic feature length Blaze yet again, thank you squire 👌👍

[@alanareid3747]

And a new Decoding the Unknown just came out! Christmas came early apparently!

[@williebauld1007]

@@alanareid3747 oh he definitely spoiled us! DtU is a great channel to!

[@TallGermanBoy]

The editor deserves a medal for this

[@rietbergamber852]

I study psychology and can back up how tricky statistics can be 100%. It's not just the graphs and numbers, there is so much manipulation you can do to make your results seem significant by applying different tests, whether or not you standardize results, how many variables you measure, etc. The craziest one to me is you can literally just decide where to put the threshold for significance. Sure, the standard probability value considered to be significant is anywhere below 0.05, but you can literally just say "nah, imma use 0.5 instead" and your results would technically be significant. This is why it's super important to check reliability of your sources. Just because it's a "scientific paper" doesn't mean it's a good one.

[@phils4634]

This is also why Clinical Trials data can be at least misleading, and there have ben enough cases of useful drugs being ditched, whilst less than useful (possibly borderline hazardous) drugs manage to reach the Market. Population results do NOT reflect INDIVIDUAL outcomes, and this is a problem with new drug development, especially of drugs we need rather than like.

[@Count_Smackula]

One hundred and eleventeen percent of EPIC BLAZE viewers want MOAR script slapping!

[@rebecca7948]

Looking forward to your new cat channel Simon! Also that was a great episode thanks Danny and Sam!

[@pythonbeatle]

simon needs a goat channel so he feed the goat danny's epic blaze sctirpts. of course after they are read

[@cathyjful]

asmr script eating goat channel....the world needs this! 😄

[@dfuher968]

Script eating goat needs to be a 24/7 live stream!

[@AtomicTungsten]

The best "so that was a fucking lie" ever. I did a genuine spit take.

[@perrydowd9285]

Please please make it a talking cat channel. Get a talking cat co-host. Show those WF guys what Simon's Cat can do. 🐠🐈

[@rachelthebob]

Planned parenthood mostly serves low income women as their only Healthcare. Many cannot afford to be seen by a traditional doctor. So PP serves them to keep women from dying of preventable cancers.

[@stewartthorpe2533]

Simon, I took a self poll and it came up with 100% support for you doing a cat channel

[@cleoldbagtraallsorts3380]

I could believe that! 🐈🐈‍⬛

[@logangamble1890]

As someone who did in person surveys for the same government agency which does census for years I was always slightly surprised on how honest people are. Income, drug use, sexual history, eating patterns, and all other aspects. But that's also for the actual government not random survey company. A large section of the government with experts creating the surveys and those that do the surveys receiving several days of training for each survey.

[@GideonFrazier]

Aside from the Awesome blaze formula, this is actually a great informative resource to help people who aren’t good at recognizing bias and misinformation. More people should watch this, not just because I’m biased to factboi and the blaze trio, but because it could actually help people.

[@bayoubilly5176]

The problem is not the ignorance but the purposeful nature of it. They don't want to learn. They want what they "know" to be right.

[@GideonFrazier]

@@bayoubilly5176 idk I like learning

[@bayoubilly5176]

@@GideonFrazier as do I. Most don't and it's fairly obvious. Even a lot of lefties. However they are at least less harmful in general. Gotta lotta trumpies in my family. Always love em but they have zero interest in critical thinking , debate or fallacies.

[@bayoubilly5176]

@@GideonFrazier as an afterthought we could robot chicken them with brainblaze. But that might have unforeseen consequences.

[@Khaldryn]

I want a Simon Whistler CatsBlaze Channel! Let's go, make it happen, you legends! #CatsBlaze

[@cleoldbagtraallsorts3380]

I would definitely watch it! 🐈🐈‍⬛

[@DannyHeywood]

"Muuummmm!? Jimmy Savile is trying put my seat-belt on again!"

[@uniquefreak37]

I am so jealous that Simon has managed to live his entire life without ever hearing Tucker Carlson's voice.

[@danieljob3184]

Yes, it wasn't until I saw him in action that I realised Will MacAvoy is the anti-Carlson.

[@christopherpage2622]

Where do you listen to your news?

[@LaunchPadMcQuack4Hire]

The only one with a more annoying voice is Ben Shapiro 😖

[@amberlexicon]

Blissful I'd imagine 😂

[@NathanTarantlawriter]

LOL that was my first thought too.

[@cuttwice3905]

"How to Lie With Statistics" by Darell Huff is the best book on the subject and has been since 1954. My dad made me read it before I went to High School. A 200% of 0 is 0. 200% of 1 is 2.

[@RyuRaeArashi]

You know what's even more screwed up about the fox graphic regarding welfare, the fact that there's so many americans working their asses off that still qualify for welfare because of how screwed up the job/housing market is in general here. People being forced into working multiple part time jobs vs being able to get a full time job, because businesses want to avoid paying out benefits. Working multiple part times but still qualifying for food stamps or health insurance assistance. It's so screwed up, and if anything a higher number of people on welfare should be a glaring indication of how broken the job/housing system is here in general. People work hard and still can't afford to live.

[@vylbird8014]

No mention of picking the extreme. That one's loved by headline writers. "Children exposed to as much as ten thousand times the legal toxin limit!" not mentioning that the survey happened to include a child who played in the old waste pond at a toxin factory.

[@bronhaller]

Looking forward to seeing Simon's new channel: reading Creepypasta while surrounded by cats

[@seaniburg3778]

I would probably watch this just to see him lose his shit around the cats.

[@Ihasanart]

YES! I had missed the old epic blazes, good to see another one, please make more!

[@ballamoto]

@16:50 LOGARITHMIC Simon, LOGAARRRIIITHHMMIIIIC!!! 😂

[@BreakfastTacos]

Benjamin Disraeli is credited with having said that bit about lies, damned lies, and statistics...

[@someone56243]

Sam, Danny, Simon this was perfect timing for me, thank you all. Trying to give up cigarettes, (lost count of how many times I've tried) and this is the fun distraction I needed, today's been rough.

[@aaronaaronsen3360]

Stay strong !

[@antiisocial]

Good luck, dude. You can do it! It took me a while as well.

[@spookybeatrix7242]

Keep on quitting - one second at a time if you gotta! And don't forget: if you give in, you'll have to quit all over again! Stay the course! Sending support and strength from another quitter (I'm 5 days quit, this time) 😉

[@someone56243]

@@spookybeatrix7242 and Antisocial thanks for the support, using patches but you guys get it, that gnawing feeling, crawling in your skin feeling you get. Trying to avoid people because you're having moment but needing people when it passed, but they're gone.

[@someone56243]

@@antiisocial see a bottom post for your response too my friend

[@liamglasel]

When are we getting a long form blaze? I want a 16 hour epic of Danny harassing Simon mentally and Sam making 6 millions memes out of it *insert nuclear Simon AAAUURRGGHH here*

[@Poonkaans]

Simon and all the edits had me cackling. Think I learned things too. Love it!

[@lotharbeck71]

Regarding the welfare vs. full time work graph-- I was receiving benefits WHILE working a full time job. God, I hate Fox "News"

[@flyinyeti]

The only Channel Simon doesn't have but needs... A CAT CHANNEL

[@runed0s86]

Yeah but that would draw traffic away from epic blazes! He needs a lap cat and a shoulder cat for these videos. It'd get more audience retention, at least.

[@rachelb4398]

@@runed0s86 I agree. Then he could pet them while he reads

[@dunxy]

😺

[@cleoldbagtraallsorts3380]

It would be incredibly popular! 🐈🐈‍⬛

[@roeb4209]

There was several times Simon talked about Danny being trapped in the basement so I would make a reference to what society invented chains and I still chuckle to myself about that love this channel

[@paulstewart6293]

A few years ago on France Inter, a governement scienist said that alchohol and drug use were involved in most fatal road accidents. But they had never tested positive for cocaine. Now that's a statistic!

[@TrexelCat]

Mark Twain popularized the saying "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." He attributed the original quote to Benjamin Disraeli, though no evidence can be found that Benjamin Disraeli ever uttered those words.

[@doctorlolchicken7478]

Danny, thanks for bringing Brain Blaze this subject. I teach statistics and for years I’ve been collecting examples of misleading statistics. I’m happy to report that in the last 15 years awareness of these tricks has skyrocketed, although people are very selective about when they question the data due to their inherent biases. I also find that these tricks appear to be more common now, and dare I say seen as more acceptable. For example, many of my examples from before 2012 are from Fox News, but from that point on there is a gradual increase in everyone else doing it. Even supposedly serious scientific subjects are not immune. There are just as many pro-climate change fake stats as anti-climate change - the difference is that there are way more reliable stats for climate change. Even the chart used in this video to provide a more accurate view of climate change is biased because it shows the change in average temps over a period, and if you widen that period by extending it further before 1900 the average goes up, which makes recent temp increases seem less dramatic. In essence, the period was chosen to provide the biggest difference between low and high temps. Sure, it’s less blatant than the climate denier chart, but it’s essentially the same trick only more cleverly presented. The bottom line is that awareness is good because the tricks are on the increase, the problem is that people only engage critical thinking when they disagree with the message. Also, fact checking is just another element in the world of misleading the public and deserves its own Brain Blaze.

[@bobfoust8700]

I know I'm late to the party, but just wanted to say that among this absolute gold mine of fantastic points, your second to last one about people only engaging in critical thinking when they disagree with the message cannot be overstated. Well stated across the board.

[@abrahamhwang1422]

Simon, doing longer blazes does not necessarily mean that you do less scripts. Just flog Danny and yourself harder to keep up the pace

[@kimberlykasupski6498]

He has to pay more for more work, which means less money to write/edit other scripts.

[@runed0s86]

@@kimberlykasupski6498 Danny gets paid in whatever scraps that Simon throws into the food waste bin in the kitchen... Are you calling Simon fat? I don't think he needs to eat less of his dinners...

[@mnichols1979]

Your Tucker is actually a pretty good Alex Jones. Lol

[@V3RYG00DS1R]

"They exchanged their car for a tandem bicycle, and I cut down to burn just a couple of tires a week" clever, Danny. Very clever 😂

[@mittmattmott1982]

Simon: I hope this isn’t too long, I have thins to do! Also Simon: 5 minutes of tangent in the first 10 minutes! P.s never change, I flipping love it!

[@DizzyedUpGirl]

11:51 Well, since Planned Parenthood is specialized in OBGYN medicine, they do cervical screenings and mammograms. You can also get your birth control there. It's a specialized one stop shop.

[@williamferguson5404]

FYI: Danny is correct that murders increased in Florida following the passage of the "Stand Your Ground" law is because many defendants failed to convince the court that they were, in fact, standing their ground.

[@1TakoyakiStore]

This would be a once a year thing but I think it would be hilarious to do a Brain Blaze livestream between 4 to 6 hours. Perhaps a new years event?

[@1TakoyakiStore]

Just various writer ramblings about any topic. 1 writer has to write long enough for Simon to read it aloud for an hour. Inspired by Linfamy's livestreams.

[@AndrewMitchell123]

yes, that would be amazing

[@shaness112233]

Simon does scripted (or in this case, semi scripted) content exclusively. I can only imagine that he doesn't want to try to break in to the streaming scene at all, it's a lot of work to actually get people to show up and the man already works on at least ten channels.

[@1TakoyakiStore]

@@shaness112233 He has streamed before, twice to my knowledge. Once for a podcast with a fellow TIFO creator (brain food or brain scoop?), and another for a video game a few years back.

[@Arkaaito]

​@@1TakoyakiStore There were actually two video game streams for Some Wacky Vehicle Physics Game, and one for The Game Which Shall Not Be Named But Sponsored Every Available KZbinr A While Back. (There were also at least two videos where he played Papers, Please! -- but they were prerecorded and not streams, or so the Live tab tells me.)

[@atomicphilosopher6143]

I'm sure it's come up, but you can't have a 200% increase from 0. Going from 1 to 3 would be a 200% increase but going from 0 to 2 is just an increase of 2 because 200% of 0 is still 0.

[@jenconnolly37]

OMG!! Thank you!! I work with my science students about all of these errors/bias. I love telling them that without a Y-axis, you are just drawing a squiggly line! I can't show this video to my middle schoolers but I will make note of the names for the errors/bias. Thank you! These things drive me crazy!!

[@JK-gm6kk]

Holy shit, the 2 record books. That dude is either super successful, dead or in jail

[@walterrandall3951]

Simon is a) from the UK, and b) lives in Prague, but is still completely aware that Florida is completely bonkers. Florida's brand of crazy knows no borders.

[@adenkyramud5005]

Florida man videos are always super popular, and I think it was on top tenz where he made a ton of videos on Florida man even before he started blazing so it would be hard for him to not know 🤣

[@GuntherRommel]

Oh my god. Simon asked for a meme and Sam actually put it up. Thank you, Sam. Not all heroes wear capes (allegedly).

[@willsrandomartwork]

I personally cannot wait till we get the new KZbin channel "Simon Whistler Presents Cats"

[@lastlight4252]

That was great! The point, the simple point, of a pie chart is that the total must add to 100%. Bar graphs can be used in various ways depending on the axes.

[@briangallagher8881]

My god over an hour of epic epic blazing. That's my listening sorted for work over the weekend 😎

[@finalfalcon7368]

Thank God these are back. I love the epic blaze with its equally epic intro.

[@donaldcolbert8317]

Can't wait for Simon's new cat channel!!!

[@jypsridic]

I just came back because when I left this video I realized that you were talking about people leaving when a video gets too long. I'd just walked back in from a different part of the house so the length and subject had nothing to do with it, just hit funny.

[@Im-Not-a-Dog]

Theory: Simon has started sitting because his Bionic Ass is breaking down and he's still waiting for the replacement.

[@personzorz]

That's also the reason for the big microphone

[@ilajoie3]

Making more channels is always the best idea fact boy. I'm subscribed to all of them, including the ones that haven't uploaded videos in years

[@Yatezylad]

'Most of you guys are incredibly bright because you're watching me.' Not only 100% real true facts,but also Simon calling his chained-up writers incredibly intelligent

[@chadm2842]

The decline in cancer screening / preventative services starts dropping in 2009... After Obama lifted the Global Gag Rule. Then in 2010 after the Affordable Care Act provided not only a means for health insurance to many that never had it, but also required insurance plans to cover birth control, CANCER SCREENINGS, and PREVENTATIVE SERVICES.

[@chillausmc]

Truly epic. Loved every second of it and had to rewind this one a bit just to get another view of the graphics. Thanks team, keep it up.