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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7941819" data-attributes="member: 177">Right.&nbsp; And your history on this Earth leads you to believe that's actually going to protect you from offending someone?A lie is the knowing presentation of inaccurate information with intent to deceive or mislead.&nbsp; The statistic, in and of itself, knows nothing, and has no intent.&nbsp; PEOPLE know things, and have intent.&nbsp; People lie.&nbsp; Numbers are merely not correct in their context.For example, it may be that 20% of those who are admitted to the hospital with covid-19 need assistance breathing (within some population - like maybe in Italy so far, or something).&nbsp; Or maybe there's some other qualifier that's been dropped as the information passed from one person to another.&nbsp; It may be that the statistic was never a lie - it could have been fragmented by someone who didn't remember it in full, or who didn't understand what was said to them.It is an error.&nbsp; It should be corrected.&nbsp; But as soon as you attach the word &quot;lie&quot; to it, it starts getting into moral judgement territory, which doesn't help people accept the point.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 7941819, member: 177"] Right. And your history on this Earth leads you to believe that's actually going to protect you from offending someone? A lie is the [I]knowing[/I] presentation of inaccurate information with [I]intent[/I] to deceive or mislead. The statistic, in and of itself, knows nothing, and has no intent. [I]PEOPLE[/I] know things, and have intent. People lie. Numbers are merely not correct in their context. For example, it may be that 20% [I]of those who are admitted to the hospital[/I] with covid-19 need assistance breathing (within some population - like maybe in Italy so far, or something). Or maybe there's some other qualifier that's been dropped as the information passed from one person to another. It may be that the statistic was never a lie - it could have been fragmented by someone who didn't remember it in full, or who didn't understand what was said to them. It is an error. It should be corrected. But as soon as you attach the word "lie" to it, it starts getting into moral judgement territory, which doesn't help people accept the point. [/QUOTE]

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