Where's Old Pinky These Days?

[angrysoba]

Excellent example - cherry-picked data to support his claim.

No, it is in response to your claim:

it's suspicious that African genocides and conflicts are ignored.

But he is not ignoring them.

You also say:

And it looks almost racist to me to base your thinking on Europe.

But then you are upset that he inflates the figures who died under Mao.

Could you state clearly what your argument is?

To do this, I would like you to explain what you think Pinker's argument is and why you think he is wrong. Otherwise you just keep presenting a moving target, and it is tiresome having to correct you all the time, only for you to say you are talking about something different. If it is something nebulously metaphysical like speculating how rancid his soul is, it is not worth discussing.

 

[The Atheist]

But then you are upset that he inflates the figures who died under Mao.

I said no such thing.

Check it out, this is what I actually typed:

He clearly counts those starved by Mao...

I'll just leave it there - I see no point in continuing a discussion with someone who's blatantly making things up and attributing them to me.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Darat]

Can recommend his recent BBC series - does what it says on the tin.

 

[Jono]

There he was only a few years back explaining how the world was so much better than it had ever been.

Yes, not only he but tons of experts in economy, health, living standards and quality thereof. In fact, he's arguing on behalf of the data as a general trend over the past five centuries.
They are not predictive of the future like so, rather just an *actual* recognition of that the data says, something that both uber right-wing and nutty left-fringe appear oddly inoculated against.

I guess this is why they concocted the oxymoronic term of "radical centrist".

Rwanda (1994, 500,000), yet again goes on the lowest estimate.

No, he uses the most agreed-upon estimate. As your own link says: "the most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 662,000 Tutsi deaths"

If you add a million here or there, as horrible as might sound it... makes next to no difference statistically and he demonstrates the proportional variance, percentages *and* numerical values six ways from sunday in not just one but *TWO* of his books (I've not read Rationality yes).

For somewhat related responsa by Pinker on these notes, here's a few:
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2019/01/29/a-response-from-steve-pinker-to-salons-hit-piece-on-enlightenment-now/?fbclid=IwAR3ytENiC-tViE46EXevO53nyNolbDkMTIFJtUXC9HzV7mRKtLU1i21AGcQ
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2019/01/31/is-the-world-really-getting-poorer-a-response-to-that-claim-by-steve-pinker/
https://quillette.com/2019/01/14/enlightenment-wars-some-reflections-on-enlightenment-now-one-year-later/