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A comment on More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding. Parent comment

Re:More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic stat... by HPsquared on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @03:36AM (#49445279)
It's the mathematical version of learning rhetoric.

Rhetoric teaches how to argue with words. Statistics is the same, but with numbers.

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Re:More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic stat... by lo_zamoyski on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @06:23AM (#49446584)
Not quite.

Rhetoric is persuasion under the presupposition that what you are trying to persuade someone of is true. Sophistry is indifferent to the truth and is merely concerned with results. Rhetoric respects the humanity of the interlocutor. Sophistry seeks to exploit him.

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Re:More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic stat... by hinkley on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @10:39AM (#49450028)
No longer true. Rhetoric is now an epithet and when used as such means sophistry. Most people use it as an epithet.
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