Most people think the U.S. crime rate is rising. They're wrong.
1ft.io
Almost 80 percent of Americans, and 92 percent of Republicans, think crime has gone up. It actually fell in 2023. An expert blames a familiar culprit for the mistaken impression.

Original link

If people aren’t panicked, they wouldn’t elect panic-pandering politicians, so there must always be a panic — crime, drugs, commies, libruls, etc.

  • TokyoCalling@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    6 months ago

    Beliefs are, essentially, opinions that people hold to very tightly without any evidence to support them.

    Folks believe in gods, aliens, ghosts, trickle-down economics, eugenics, and all sorts of interesting things. They believe that crime rates are rising in exactly the same way.

    While it is possible for someone to have a change in their beliefs, that change does not come easy. Certainly it does not come by presenting them with data that contradicts. Our best chance to change mistaken beliefs is in a dramatic and shocking event. The nature of a suitably dramatic and shocking event to shift a belief in the rise of crime eludes me completely.

    Which gives us only plan B in two parts:

    1. present younger folks with the actual information and help them avoid falling into the collective delusion
    2. wait for older folks to die.

    It occurs to me that we could speed this up by killing all the older folks, but that would obviously have an impact on crime statistics.

    • GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      6 months ago

      There is an old German (?) quote:

      “Progress one funeral at a time.” that fits with what you are saying.

    • Mango@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      And how do you go about deciding which information is true and which is to keep you in line?