aebletrae

How are you at thinking about years, decades, and centuries?

If we take it step by step:—

• 10 years of a century is ten years out of a hundred.
• 10% is ten out of a hundred.
• So 10 years is 10% of a century.

Looking at the same thing another way:—

• 10 years is a also a decade.
• There are 10 decades in a century.
• So one decade is one tenth (1/10) of a century.

Bringing in the comparison from earlier:—

• 90% of a century is 90 years, or 9 decades.
• 9 decades is nine tenths (9/10) of a century.
• 110% of a century is 110 years, or 11 decades.
• 11 decades is eleven tenths (11/10) of a century.

Are these familiar enough to make sense as a parallel, or just further irrelevant confusion?

But, but... percentages are already fractions. Per cent = "out of a hundred".

The % symbol even looks like a fraction to remind everyone.

Now, simplifying fractions from 90/100 to 9/10—in spite of it literally being removing a zero from each side—does seem to cause some real problems.

According to Wikipedia, the idea is thousands of years old.

But, worded that way, your point is going to get you into difficulty if you try making that argument with a liberal who fancies themself trained to handle data, and I'd prefer it if you weren't caught off guard like that. You might still waste time clarifying with me, but at least I'm on your side.

Yes, comparing good thing of group 1 to bad thing of group 2 is as disingenuous as comparing bad thing of group 1 to good thing of group 2.

But comparing atypical good thing of group 1 to atypical good thing of group 2 is also fraught with problems, even though—and especially because—it looks like it's legitimate, since it can be described as a like-for-like comparison. This is, for example, how Dubai tries to gloss over its problems: by playing up the fact that it's a modern city just like any other.

The flaw of Art Candee's comparison isn't that it's disingenuous, even though the point (jingoistic supremacy) being made with the flawed comparison certainly is. As far as the comparison goes, the real problem is only that the samples aren't representative.

And comparing modern things enjoyed by a minority in two different places is also unrepresentative. It's very much a false equivalence, every bit as much as comparing terrible things suffered by the worst off in two different places.

To stick with the specific example of Vietnam and the US, these two places really do have genuine differences, as comparisons of representative samples will demonstrate. To compare them on a like-for-like basis, you have to pick and choose your samples and, in doing so, you introduce selection bias, undermining the validity of the comparison. It suggests a sameness that obscures the broader reality.

It's not that you can't, or shouldn't, point out the successes of various groups in their defence. I agree that doing so is important to counter the opposing narratives. But when you do, you shouldn't call them "completely appropriate" "like for like" comparisons because, statistically speaking, they aren't appropriate at all.

TL; DR

When out in the wild, avoid defending your counter-comparisons as "like for like". Instead describe them as highlighting the selection bias of the original claim. You'll keep a couple of gotcha libs at bay that way.

This is all true but...

You have to compare like for like.

In order to avoid creating false equivalences, you have to compare representative samples.

The average American does not live in a shiny NY apartment and commute by metro, but the average resident of Vietnam isn't living in Ho Chi Minh City either.

A Taxi Driver is focused on criticising the authoritarian government of the South in the 1980s. It has the media blaming the uprising on the North, though the film has already shown that to be untrue.

Certainly there's going to be antipathy in some things. The Spy Gone North deals with that head on. But there are plenty of examples where it just doesn't come up at all. It's not like the prerequisite nudity in every single French film.

The Handmaiden and Queen Woo don't, though being set in earlier times does make it a lot harder.

Special Delivery treats the North as somewhere to escape from but isn't harsh on citizens. Pyramid Game is critical of South Korean society and I don't remember the North being mentioned at all. Not sure that it comes up in Barking Dogs Never Bite or Memories of Murder either. Escape From Mogadishu deals with North Korea quite extensively and is kind of even-handed.

Double Indemanatee is a 1944 film noir starring Beluga Stanwyck and Fred MacMereswine.

Since they said "newspaper", they might have meant US protests expose a 'failed state' as officials resort to blame game

Is changing the zoom level (Ctrl-+ or Ctrl-[scroll wheel]) an acceptable solution?

That's why I remembered it.

there is no known life existing without them????

Prokaryotes do not have mitochondria. Prokaryotes outweigh animals about 40:1, so we shouldn't overlook them.