Interesting Links for 21-02-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Placebo's Brian Molko Charged with Defamation of Italian Prime Minister (For pointing out that she's a fascist)

(tags:italy fascism )

2. 23% of the US population are LGBT

(tags:LGBT USA )

3. Meta claims torrenting pirated books isn't illegal without proof of seeding

(tags:copyright Facebook intellectual_property books bittorrent )

4. New Avatar Last Airbender Show 'Seven Havens' Ordered, Set After Korra

(tags:tv avatar GoodNews )

5. Why People Read Wikipedia Pages for Horror Movies (this is me!)

(tags:Wikipedia horror movies psychology viaSwampers )

6. Romantic relationships are more important for men than for women

(tags:relationships gender men )

Comments

[nancylebov]

2. No, it's 23% of Gen Z.

[andrewducker]

Unless there is something in the water which is turning people LGBT, that 24% illustrates that *at least* 24% of the population is LGBT, and that Gen Z are more comfortable expressing that to pollsters than previous generations are.

Unless you can think of another reason why Gen Z might be more LGBT than previous generations?

[nancylebov]

There might be something in the water (endocrine disruptors). Or, which seems more likely to me, some combination of people being more truthful and looser definitions.

[andrewducker]

I'd say anything which isn't a Kinsey 0 is LGBT to some level.

I think a lot of people in the past either considered themselves "Not really gay, that thing in college doesn't really count." or just refused to talk about it because you could get in trouble.

[aldabra]

They can't do the socially expected thing of forming nuclear families because they can't afford houses, so they don't get trapped in "normal" and get to spend much longer introspecting alternatives?

[andrewducker]

The fact that they were up for the alternatives (after the introspection) rather indicates that they *were* LGBT, they just didn't know it until later on. Which says to me that a fair chunk of people are.

[aldabra]

Yes. But a fair chunk of those may never know it, which puts you in a slightly dodgy position claiming it on their behalf. Socialisation into normalcy may have been both ubiquitous and largely effective; if you're not looking for new relationships you're probably not very aware of what new relationships you're not looking for. And if you are looking for new relationships later you may want them to echo your previous ones.

[andrewducker]

I wouldn't be comfortable claiming it for any individual person. But I'm totally happy making general/statistical claims.

[mtbc]

Seems plausible. My crushes and experiences have been heterosexual but I don't regard alternatives with the fear and revulsion that some seem to so perhaps my history is partly just a matter of circumstance. Where I do feel a stronger personal predilection is toward monogamy.

[andrewducker]

Lots of possibilities there!

[sobriquet9]

This number is nowhere close to reality. I'm pretty sure if I open the book on how to lie with statistics and count how many tricks were used in getting the 23%, there will be quite a few matches. There is a strongly informative prior at around 5%.

[andrewducker]

The Kinsey reports were giving much higher results than that, and that was in the 60s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsey_scale#Findings

[sobriquet9]

Look at a metastudy instead of just one source: Those with predominantly same-sex attractions comprise fewer than 5% of respondents in most Western surveys. Data from non-Western cultures are consistent with this conclusion. [...] self-reported Kinsey Scale scores can sometimes be inaccurate or incomplete.

[andrewducker]

That's predominantly same sex. I can totally believe that's lower. The majority of LGBT people are almost certainly bi.

[bens_dad]

There was a time when the LG denied the existence of the B (iirc brain scans have shown differences disproving this).
Possibly at a similar time, there were pinks who denied that *anyone* was 100% straight, to which I claim in that case no-one is 100% homo either.
Is it possible that people differ in their T-dar, so there is no definitive labelling of a particular coupling as gay or straight ?

Headlines are designed to be click-bait, so we should expect them to use unexpected definitions to provoke.

[andrewducker]

Oh yeah. And I'm totally up for better LGBT figures.

It just seems unlikely that people are lying about being bi.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, by the way. That was absolutely fascinating. I shall see what other data is out there!

[andrewducker]

This Wikipedia page is fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_sexual_orientation

And the only result which I think you can reasonably pull from it is "Getting accurate information on sexual attraction is really hard and varies dramatically based on numerous factors."

[foms]

I made reference to that book, elseweb, earlier this morning. It is conveniently available, here:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Grigori-Evreinov/post/Data-visualization-which-is-best-for-within-and-cross-source-data/attachment/5b0690b6b53d2f63c3cdcad5/AS%3A629755908993031%401527156917765/download/How-to-Lie-with-Statistics.pdf

[sobriquet9]

Yes, that book exactly. And since then, even more ingenious ways have been invented.

[bens_dad]

I suspect that Molko is not in trouble for calling her a facist ...

But how is he going to prove she is a "piece of ..." ?

[channelpenguin]

Yeah, sadly these days, the fascists are ridiculously close to openly claiming the name.

[threemeninaboat]

Brian Molko has been my hero since 1998.