Someone who maths, please correct me if Im wrong (I do not math so good when awake for so long), but that non-religious Americans are more ethical regarding CIA torture story/graph/poll thats floating around, very self-congratulatory-like in Atheist Land, is more than a bit misleading. The vertical bar graph pictured in the MSNBC link accurately shows the WaPo/ABC poll results for race/religion (there is no purely religious category). Note, however, its a very pale representation of American religion. Why? Im not sure. But the MSNBC report states: In fact, looking through the poll’s crosstabs, non-religious Americans were one of the few subsets that opposed the torture techniques – and that includes breakdowns across racial, gender, age, economic, educational, and regional lines. The non-religious are effectively **alone in their opposition to torture. [That double-asterisk is in the article, and as far as I can tell, it does not refer to anything. So... WTF with that?] If you go to the WaPo page where the poll results live (incidentally, perhaps cynically, I may note is not directly linked at MSNBC, but found in the Religion Dispatches piece they do link to), you can break down the poll along demographic lines, including race (without religion), and it reveals a slightly different story (horizontal bar graph pictured in comment below). While the no religion group still boasts the most ethical result with 41% saying CIA torture was justified, theyre followed closely by **Non-white** at 47%, and Hispanic at 44%. Oddly, the no religion group conversely clocks at 53% unjustified, and on the flip-side of the purely racial breakdown, **Non-white** at 43%, Hispanic at 43%. This means that only 6% of no religion had no opinion, while 10% of **Non-white** had no opinion, and 13% Hispanic had no opinion. Reasons for the relatively large no opinion discrepancy between no religion and all non-whites is a matter of speculation, though having no opinion on such a morally weighty issue could be seen as tantamount to condoning it. Is that fair? I dunno! But I do know that it matters whether or not you report the justified number or the unjustified. So theres some spin going on here. A lil skeeeewwwwwed. But what cant, and shouldnt, be spun is how horrible white people are. Broken down purely along racial lines, 66% of white said CIA torture was justified, only 25% said it was unjustified, and (maths...) 9% had no opinion. Adding religion does indeed give white folks bigger torture-boners, so its not that this poll is entirely without merit or anything. Im just kinda confused why its broken down between race and race/religion. Im also too tired to brain whether the quoted MSNBC bit above (with the mythical **) is truly accurate. Anyway, thats some Facebook-quality analysis for ya. Maybe I derped it good. I dunno. Theres many other breakdowns, too, but brain... tired... math.. noooooooooooooo.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 23:59:12 +0000
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