this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 12 points 2 days 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 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 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.

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[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days 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.

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[–] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe 39 points 3 days 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. 🙄🙄🙄

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[–] andyburke@fedia.io 4 points 2 days 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.

[–] mimic_dev@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] kayohtie@pawb.social 19 points 3 days ago (2 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.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

neurodivergence is seeing a boom in diagnoses because we now actually fucking diagnose neurodivergence instead of going "yeah the kid's a retard dump em in the bin"

[–] kayohtie@pawb.social 2 points 10 hours ago

Oh for sure. It's still only in that like 5% range but what I meant was folks treat it like it's new and like...nah.

I hate it. I haven't run into anyone directly doubting my ADHD at all lately, but as a kid I definitely faced that stigma from some other kids saying it's "fake", and I think one of the teachers even said it.

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[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

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

Maybe the average person is stupid

[–] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

You can drop the "maybe."

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[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 165 points 4 days ago (7 children)

WTH, Americans think that 30% of the country lives in NYC?

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 137 points 4 days ago (6 children)

They think 21% are transgender too.... A lot of propaganda has gone through these people.

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[–] brian@lemmy.ca 56 points 4 days ago (7 children)

By the looks of it, it's 30% to NYC, 30% to Texas, and 30% to California. So 10% for literally everywhere else in the US. That's gotta be close, right?

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[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Okay but Americans are numerically illiterate.

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[–] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 3 days 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 16 points 3 days ago (2 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."

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 11 hours ago

i'd say you can be atheist and believe in ghosts/spirits, that's pretty different from divine beings

the core thing about divinity is power, power to do things or power to have done things in the past or future. spirits and ghosts generally have power comparable to living people, so the lack of obvious evidence for their existence isn't anywhere near as big of an issue as with deities capable of altering the fabric of reality.

it's not that incongrous that we'd fail to notice things that can barely interact with us, but an explicitly omnipotent and omniscient god? they can damn well write "hey ho here i am!" in the clouds.

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[–] teolan@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago (5 children)

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

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[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago (4 children)

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

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If 21% of the population was trans, republicans ain't winning elections again.

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[–] mgtzbos@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days 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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[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 96 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

Feels like they polled an elementary school in Philadelphia

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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 29 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I unfortunately have to downvote this as this is far too interesting to be mildly interesting.

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[–] Matt3999@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Only 4% union members - no wonder the US is so fucked for workers

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[–] Gloomy@mander.xyz 73 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Only 3% Atheists... And all of them are here on Lemmy.

[–] DrCake@lemmy.world 57 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I know Americans love Jesus a whole lot but really only 4%. That just seems crazy low

[–] walden@sub.wetshaving.social 80 points 4 days ago (9 children)

I think it's because people are still uncomfortable answering "atheist" on questionnaires and polls. It's easier to say "no religious affiliation", and most people are probably agnostic instead of atheist anyway.

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 54 points 4 days ago (14 children)

These estimates are bananas, this only shows the systematic stupidification of Americans is highly successful.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 3 days ago (9 children)

Imagine thinking 1 in 5 people are trans... Just... This has to be a math understanding issue, right??

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Before traveling to California, I had people in my neighborhood plead with me not to go because the whole state is a "disaster area" and that the cities are burning and that there are "drug needles everywhere you walk" and that I was putting my life and those of my loved ones in serious danger. They thought with 100% certainty that Los Angeles was completely on fire from looting and I was going to some kind of Mad Max hellscape. Without exaggeration. They wouldn't listen to reassurance and were genuinely worried.

Granted some of these people were older, they weren't suffering dementia and could still drive. They just park in front of FOX news all day, every day, 24-hours a day swallowing conservative propaganda. They also have algorithmic filtering on their facebook and twitter.

Our perspectives of each others worlds has been damaged beyond repair because of this filtering. We have it on the left/progressive side too, showing us a different reflection of a pandering, emotionally validating worldview. Not as malicious maybe, but we are all trapped.

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[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago (3 children)

It seems the real thing this survey shows is most Americans are fucking dumb.

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[–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (3 children)

92 % of the population lives in either California, new York or Texas?

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[–] fluckx@lemmy.world 43 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (17 children)

Americans believe 20% of the people have an income of over 1 million dollars and ~~20%~~ 30%of Americans live in NYC. Am I reading this chart wrong?

?????

NYC has a population of what? 10 million people? So they think there's only 30 million people living in the states?

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[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] formergijoe@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago

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

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[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 days ago

What morons did they ask? Holy shit.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 days ago (3 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.

[–] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

My grandma has a car but she doesn't drive anymore. Now, if she needs a ride somewhere, I can take her in her own car, since mine is far too low to the ground for her.

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