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Comment by jqpabc123 | Hacker News Reader

Not to worry, the emperor will fix it --- by replacing the people who compile the numbers.

Any disagreement is a "hostile and political" act subjecting you to deportation without due process.

It's 50/50 on this possibility. There's an interview trending right now where the host is repeating to the 47th resident that "no what you say is not true, the evidence was faked/photoshopped" (and DJT had nothing to say beyond "why are you not saying yes to me, I'm potentially making you promoted and you're not being nice enough to me"). Chances are that people see that there are no clothes and won't bend over to sustain the lies.

ps: article link https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-melts-down-at-bei...

direct youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am-Xs4Dug1o

That was a mind breaking interview fwiw. It really seems like the right wing is unable to keep track of the lies, and are self deluded by their ecosystem.

What do you expect to happen when you have a compulsive liar say whatever is on his mind and then an entire ecosystem repeating what he said as if it were fact.

They tried to make a 3rd reich sequel but like all sequels, it's not selling well.

They don't need to keep track of the lies. That's part of the power of flooding the zone. It also helps because there is always something their supporters can point to that they like. It literally doesn't matter how contradictory the statements are. These are people who elected someone who promised both massive tariffs and to lower the prices on goods.

I remember when we used to make fun of the Iraqi information minister. Never understood why or how he could be such an obvious liar.

Now we know what circumstances led to his position and performance. Now we Americans are familiar with the new situation.

We are definitely entering the era of Newspeak and Thoughtcrime. :sad:

I think this isn't a real concern, but there is going to be a shortage of workers that collect the data in general which could affect the numbers. OddLots covered this for Bloomberg https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-of-americas-most-...

"We found the department of economic reporting was full of wokes..."

Just wait for the sniffling Marc Andreeson to tell you how it's just time to build now and it's all smooth sailing and blue skies.

To be fair, the government has a long history of changing how key metrics are measured to suit their needs. The CPI is pretty consistently changed to keep inflation rates roughly on target.

I think that's far different that what's happening today. The other day Amazon was accused of being hostile and "political" for simply showing tariff costs in a price breakdown.

“To be fair”, ok provide data. Do you have evidence that they consistently changed metrics to keep inflation on target? I only know of one change in the recent years and I don’t know if that even went through.

Examples? There are definitely complaints about how CPI is calculated (particularly that it does not include housing), however it's not consistently changed.

To actually be fair, you'd assess the level of politicization of the numbers the government produces.

While it's true that both 10 != 0 and 100 != 0, you are certainly off track trying to equate 10 and 100.

I think this might be my favorite comment of all time.

I think it’s called “false equivalence”. I do prefer the mathematical form though.

It's the math version I hadn't seen before. I saw the comment shortly after I made basically the same comment with way more words. Sadly, even in it's simplest form, I'm sure the people that most need to understand it, will still refuse to accept it.

How do you explain a large deviation in magazine prices as listed in the CPI compared to the actual prices printed on the cover? Or swapping out steak for lesser cuts or ground beef?

You can claim that my assumed intent behind how the CPI is adjusted over time is a false equivalence. I'd argue with you there, but what absolutely is false equivalence is a pound of steak and a pound of ground beef.

> To be fair

No, you're not being fair.

You're being disingenuous trying to equate changing the CPI with a dictator firing people for presenting numbers not consistent with his lies.

Recent years don't make a "long history".

The earlier you course-correct, or OTOH deviate, the more outsized the effect on your destination.

Remember when GNP was fired and replaced with GDP? And how it got that way?

That should be easy to pinpoint.

If not, you pretty much had to be there, and it would take some math back then that wouldn't do you any good at this point now.

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