this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] andyburke@fedia.io 3 points 6 hours ago

Everyone here talking about the minority groups when I think the real story is people thinking 1/5 Americans are making $1M/yr.

What are these people smoking? I need some.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 12 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (4 children)

........ Honestly, this isn't too surprising with how saturated the media is with minority groups. Almost every show I see on various streaming products ends up having heavy LGBTQ+ plots rammed in, trans characters showin up, always a multicultural combo of characters and fewer and fewer generic CIS white people. When the media is constantly blasting you with minorities and minority issues, in a highly biased way, it's totally not surprising at all that people would start thinking they're a way bigger slice of the population.

Like someone once pointed out that there were more airplane pilots in North America than trans people. So imagine if every TV show you watched, suddenly had an airplane pilot show up and talk about airplanes a bunch, had whole episodes dedicated to his occupational trauma, regardless of what the main plot of the show may be. That would be more representative of the general public, than having trans people in every fucking show going on about trans trauma.

[–] villainy@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

You're right! They should bring back Wings!

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 9 points 16 hours ago

I agree. Undoubtedly someone is going to get very mad with your opinion and intentionally miss the point. Representation is fine. Shoehorning a specific minority into every plot line then beating the viewer over the head with the most juvenile and hamfisted messaging imaginable isn't helping anyone. It just makes for bad content. We have many examples of women and minorities in movies and shows written well for decades. It's only quite recently that writers appear to value representation and ideological messaging over the story, and I think for that they deserve criticism.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 11 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

its called corporate virtue signalling, or rainbow capitalism, alot of people complained how it ruins shows, and i do agree, its a distraction from poor writing and plots.

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 8 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

It's also used as a deflection of criticism. "Oh you don't like my show? Racist! Homophobe! Transphobe!" These accusations used to work quite effectively but they were so overused that people have kind of become numb to them now.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 3 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah -- agreed. I tried watching "The Magicians" because it was highly recommended. No CIS white male characters in the show really. They had a white bisexual guy who spent a lot of time sleeping with gay dudes. Wasn't much of an issue / commented on for the first few seasons, and it was 'ok' viewing, if sorta stupid. But then in season 3 and 4 they were super heavy handed in breaking the fourth wall and saying cis white guys who identified with just that one bisexual white guy character were being racist/sexist for not looking at other characters, in part because that character gets killed off in season 4.

Why they thought that their cis white guy audience was going to identify with a bi-sexual neuro-divergent sort, one who'd spent like an entire (time loopy) life time with his gay lover, I'm not sure. But the heavy handed 4th wall breaking to talk-down to that audience demographic did end up making me not bother with seasons 5.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 27 minutes ago* (last edited 23 minutes ago)

seems like a terrible shows, if it only revolves around bisexual/ straight porn fetish tropes, and now about "magicians". Old trek knew how to make it subtle and not ruin the plot(though they were well aware of overly sensitive audience in the 90s,) they did in a way it dint affect the plot, arcs. nutrek is all that, kurtzman ruined it.

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It seems you weren't the only one who didn't like that. The show was cancelled after season 5. We see this again and again. The Rings of Power. Sex Education. She-Hulk. Willow. Velma. Doctor Who. Ms. Marvel. Batwoman. The Wheel of Time. Writers who don't respect the source material, or think movies and shows are a soapbox instead of a medium for entertainment and creativity.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 16 minutes ago

ISAIP basically became a virtue signalling show in the recent seasons, it was so cringe, let alone the actors are all wierd now too rob and kaitlyn.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Every show and movie has become a preachy soapbox. It's fucking tiring and you just want to turn it off because you suddenly get slapped in the face with irrelevant "causes" instead of just zoning out and being entertained. The suspension of disbelief gets exhausted at yet another 110lb hottie thrashing a 6'-4 steroid monster that could backhand her across the room in real life.

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

People think 30% of the U.S population lives in New York?

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

Sometimes you see data and just know that the methodology had to have been shit.

The average response thought 30% of the US was in NY?! No fucking chance.

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

That's what actually brought me to the comments. The fuck? OK, so now NYC pop is about 10mil, non-NYC NY is about 10 mil, and non-NYC NYC metro is about 10 mil. How do you get even 30 mil to represent 30% of 350mil? Confuse it with the Iranian population of 92mil? And 30% is the average of the responses!

[–] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Holy, holy, holy...they actually thought 21% of people are transgender? 1 in 5?? The only thing this proves is the polled Americans are stupid AF. 🙄🙄🙄

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 18 hours ago

seems like they polled mostly boomers or conservatives.

[–] mimic_dev@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They think almost 25% of people are trans?? Jesus fucking christ

[–] kayohtie@pawb.social 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It explains so much when it's played up so heavily in talk shows, despite the reality always having been very minor. Honestly I didn't realize me being gay was that much of a minority either. I kind of wish ADHD had been one in the list; if I remember the reality is like no more than 3-5% of the population but people assume it's over diagnosed as hell and like...not really. Maybe when there was the initial "rush" of sorts for parents during the 90's because of it seeming to help "unruly" kids, often just meaning imaginative or creative. In my case my parents didn't even know until my kindergarten teacher told them I should get evaluated, and yep.

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[–] sircac@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

I think this bias happens a bit anywhere where there is a limited range to opinion about, may be the interesting part is where is the tilt point, with the corresponding error estimation...

[–] teolan@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Americans believe a single city (New York) represents 30% of the American population?

[–] darthelmet@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

I was kind of curious if this was close to true in any countries with higher urban population densities and the first one I checked was Japan since it has a rural depopulation issue and Tokyo is a pretty populous city and… it was right on the money. Japan’s pop is ~124 million and Tokyo’s is ~ 37 million. So roughly 30% of Japan’s population lives in one city/metro area. Not that this means anything for US population distribution, but I suppose it’s not THAT crazy to think the numbers could be in that ballpark if you weren’t really thinking about it too hard.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Forget that. They think one out of their first 3 friends they have is gay. Assuming they're straight that means 50% of their friends are gay. Fuck that means they think 25% of their first 4 friends are trans.

Math is not their strong point apparently

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[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Okay but Americans are numerically illiterate.

[–] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 1 day ago (9 children)

3% Atheists is such a bullshit number. There is a famous Pew poll, where they asked people two questions side by side, "are you an atheist" and "do you believe in any god", and 4% answered no to the first one and something like 20% answered no to the second one.

[–] DaedalousIlios@pawb.social 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think "atheist" carries the connotations of being irreligeous, not just not believing in any gods. So some people may not believe in any gods, but maybe they do have some kind of spirituality, or believe in ghosts or something. Buddhism as a religion doesn't mandate God-belief, though some schools do interact with devas. I'm unsure if any other religions don't require gods to work, but even if they exist, I imagine they and Buddhists, despite not believing in any gods, will be very hesitant to describe themselves as "atheist."

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[–] mgtzbos@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (3 children)

How incredible to see the effect of political messaging on citizen/voter perception. It is that the exaggerations, lies, and outrage marketing clearly have an outsized effect. I wouldn’t say the US population is dumb. But I would say the manipulation of perception is too much for the average person to do their own research and come up with unbiased facts.

***To those dismissing this based on inconsistencies between topics, you can’t make those comparisons. There is some blending of data in the methodology that is appropriate in order to look at the range. This is only about the gap between perception and reality, and a stack rank.

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[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hold up.

83% have a driver's license but 88% have a car?

So 5% of Americans either have a car for the hell of it, or they drive without a license?

And there's only 3% that are atheists? More people drive without a license than are atheists?

Excuse me?

If these numbers are correct, the US is more fucked than I thought.

[–] JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Its possible they have lost their licence and still own a car, or the car is just in their name.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

I hear you, but 5% seems high for that.

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (4 children)

they estimated 21% of the population are trans, lol I wish 😂

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

I mean I guess you're joking, but nevertheless I think it's a bad thing to hope that every fifth person gets born into a body their mind doesn't agree with.

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

eh I'm trans, and now that I've transitioned, it's largely a neutral experience, neither good nor bad, it just is. But in my comment I meant that I think society (broadly) wouldn't be nearly as transphobic if every 5th person was trans.

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[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

30% Jewish, 27% Muslim, 58% Christian, 33% atheist. A very odd mix to estimate.

[–] formergijoe@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Well only 8% of the population lives outside California, Texas, and NYC.

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[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 day ago

What morons did they ask? Holy shit.

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