The sad thing is, if these were even remotely true then political representation by straight white Christian men would be even more egregiously imbalanced. Why are we like this?
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The key word here is think. Thinking does not and most likely does not lead to a accurate conclusion. Because to think is to ponder which means you don't know but you're inquiring to the answer.
This underscores the lack of intelligence of the typical American voter. Congrats to the GOP/MAGA for being the first to use the voter's ignorance for their gain.
But it IS a mirror. A house of horrors mirror, that distorts everything, but still a mirror. These beliefs and fears didn't start with the advent of social media.
Oh definitely! But those percentages are nowhere near reality, so I am wondering how some believe that certain marginalized groups are way higher than they are.
Our brains are built such that when we're a little uncomfortable with something, if we avoid that something the next time we encounter it we confirm to our brain that it is indeed a threat. Do this repeatedly and this small discomfort grows into a massive monster and our systems react that way. 1/3
This is the opposite of exposure therapy. Then those that want to control us by dividing us will exploit that reaction with intentional disinformation combined with building distrust in previously trusted institutions like journalism, schools, etc. This is how these ideas and fear grow. 2/3
The next step, once fear is big enough, and confusion is sown about who to trust, we are now vulnerable to a "savior" sweeping in to protect us and banish the "monster." People with familiy members and friends that are in these groups know there is no monster, and so this tactic doesn't work. 3/3
I think they believe the numbers to be that high because why would they be afraid of trans people if they were only 0.001% of the community? Makes them seem kinda wussy don’t you think?
I'm glad you used the inclusive word "community" in that sentence. Yeah, that was the other half of my thought I failed to put into words. The powers that want to use othering effectively have to amplify the "threat" or people will just say, "oh that...so what?" and get on with their business.
Tho I might substitute the word "wussy" for "non-threatening" because the trans people I know are incredibly strong, more fearless than I'll ever be. Their open existence is resistance.
They often don't believe that they are "marginalized groups" at all; they've gaslit themselves into thinking that they're sinful humans making sinful life choices, being deviants, etc etc. And of course there need to be enough of those to be a "loud minority" but still a threat to "ideal society."
Obviously that doesn't apply to all of the groups there, but on the other end, they've also gaslit themselves into thinking certain groups are deliberately trying to outnumber them via growth, and that wouldn't make sense if the numbers weren't high enough to look scary.
Yes, they do believe that there is an existential risk to "normal (better)" people. It's not so much gaslighting themselves as religion and other control-loving individuals and organizations intentionally exploiting tendencies toward negative bias, as I described in another spot in this thread.
Precisely…And I know/met significant # of even “educated” folks that are shocked when I have to correct them that Jewish people make up 2.4-2.6% of the US population. Misperception and deeply bias beliefs has made a it easy for social media to amplify & reinforcement false narratives & propaganda.
I wonder how much has to do with perceptions people get from television, or from a specific small nearby community, like my ecovillage. If I were to base percentages on that small sampling, I would think 30% of the population are Jewish people, 50% are massage therapists, and 70% are herbalists. :D
I fight with the replacement theory racists all the time and point out that in the countries where they live the white population is 75% in
US, 70% in Canada, 85% in France, 82% in the UK, & 90% in Australia. So they can moan all they want about how they are a minority - it’s just not true!
Jeez, yeah, the straight white cis-gendered American Jesus gotta be shaking in his sandals when imagining this. Why are we like this, indeed. I'm currently enjoying a whole thread on the topic elsewhere. Glad you're asking the question, George, because the solution to the problem is in the answer.
It's the continuing enshitification of our education system thanks to a 40-yr Republican War on Science & Education & their provoucher, profit-driven handlers
Tbf tho, we don't really go over what % of the pop are each minority in grade school, and I don't think we should. We did talk about majorities perceiving a > reality % of minorities in college, which knowing could help improve things some, but these surveys are always based on media exposure bias
I have asked ppl how many jews live on planet earth. I get 100M or more. Or what percent of the world population is jewish. 10 or 20% is an answer. When they hear .02% often they are shocked that a population of 20M and .02% can bring on such hatred. And “they will not replace us”.Really?
With 30% of New Yorkers being gay or lesbian, we now know why Broadway is phenomenal! We also know why Black Jews made the Apollo a famous institution. Thanks to Sammy Davis Jr. for originally putting the Apollo on the map! 😁
On my first visit to the USA, I visited a friend who asked me If I knew what the percentage was of African Americans in the country. With my knowledge derived from movies and shows my estimation was..... about 50%. My friend laughed and told me it was 8%. This was 1996.
I looked it up, apparently now it is 13.7%, so I wasn’t off. I would not have been informed enough in 1996 to have made an educated guess. I was nineteen back then, and I did not pay much attention to demographics, politics, or really anything but drinking and partying.
According to the 2020 census 46.9M people identified as
Black (some identifying as other groups as well, such as Hispanic) in a population of 331.4M for about 14.4%.
It doesnt specify WHO Yougov asked. The answers seem reasonable... for a group of special needs 8 year olds from Pyongyang. You surely don't think Americans gave these answers? (sarcasm)
I endured 10 years parochial school. Lived below poverty line as family turned over so much $$$ to church. Four kids, that's big money. I'm still learning what was filtered out!! They had NO RIGHT to lie by ommission!!🤬
We do not educate. The extremes of the progressives and conservatives have no need for facts. The agenda of both far-right and far-left are emotional, fearful and political, not factual.
Often I will say something is stupid. And my husband will say no that’s just ignorant, but I’m telling you I think it’s starting to prove itself to be stupidity.
They should ask how many believe "they are eating the dogs" and "tariffs will work" and "I know nothing about project 25." I wonder if there will be a correlation in the data?
Weird, I cannot for the life of me remember when I saw a ‘trans story’ in the Toronto Star, the National Post, the Globe and Mail, or any of the ‘Suns’… or on CBC, CTV, CityTV, or Global. It is possible I’ve missed it every single time, or maybe, it’s possible that you are… … …?
one specific example (in response to legislation in AB) and a few vague mentions, I do stand corrected.
To say the media ‘pushes’ trans pcs, overly representing a group to ‘inflame’ insecure and ill-educated crybabies… seems a stretch, though if you’re prone to ascribing bad intentions, maybe not.
If your news media diet is primarily filled with stories that are freakouts about things that members of minority groups are doing and how white christians are being persecuted, it stands to reason that you'd assume the people you're hearing about are everywhere in huge numbers.
I wonder who YouGov polled. It would be interesting to see a demographic breakdown of the respondents.
How were the respondents selected or were they self-selected?
I took that questionnaire and I answered those by the way I fit in that category of gay and yeah they or bi anyway, but they asked that and I did all those questions
Combining 2020-2021 BRFSS data; estimate that 5.5% of U.S. adults identify as LGBT. Further, we estimate that there are almost 13.9 million (13,942,200) LGBT adults in the U.S. 6, 2023. Source: Williams Institute.
LGBTQ+ Identification in U.S. Now at 7.6% -Gallup Poll.
2023.
Jews are the tiniest percent of the world's population... a small fraction of a percent. Much more in the USA, but still more like 2% and likely dropping. I guess this reflects the fear of some that all the people you hate are taking over.
100% true. For the longest time, it was the communists during the Cold War. That kept them occupied. Then, with the fall of the Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union, they needed someone else to fight against. It started with gay people, then brown people, now trans people, etc.
Alas, the people who control the Democratic Party, and its campus progressive activist component in particular, have been formulating their public messaging as if this were true,
Even most people in CHURCHES I know think you should tax the churches. About the only people freaking out about that idea are the Mega Church Evangelical pastors making huge bank by scamming people.
I could be wrong here, in my opinion as a mother of Gen Z kids, it's the hate that is taught in the home.
It is taught, witnessed, and adopted into young vulnerable lives, they’re like sponges that absorb everything at a very early age.
Education can sway bad behaviour, but not often enough.
This is the perception the people who are voting have. Their entire conception of reality is so distorted. How the fuck is democracy supposed to function when people are this far removed?
In the age where information is at our fingertips,
And it's both sides, both use fear to motivate. The land of hope and opportunity transformed into one where fear of others drives your democracy. It's really quite sad.
And you're blind to the GOP threat to the ACA, SS, SNAP, deportations of millions of migrants, RFK set to produce a new pandemic, anti-trans rhetoric, more giant tax cuts for the rich, plans to use the army against protesters, plans to purge the civil service of all but Trump fanatics, etc.
Your suggestion for the Dems to save abortion rights? [crickets] You elide the GOP actively working to ban it. Ludicrous. As is equivalence between the Dems not acting firmly & the GOP actively urging Netanyahu to murder Palestinians. If you don't see differences, it's because you don't want to.
It’s important to not create a false equivalency between legitimate fears (ex. project 2025,) to fake fears (ex. Trans people are going to sexually assault you in the bathroom.) Putting both parties in the same box does a disservice to truth, and Democracy really.
The single most significant contributor to this type of nonsense is the extreme level of superstition in the US. Until you get rid of that, nothing will change. :-(
If we keep holding up the sign of education, especially to people who exhibit racism because they never learned anything else growing up, eventually the numbers won't matter no matter how large or small they are.
....that you know of. They don't generally advertise it. The entire point is to be perceived as their gender, so you have most certainly shared a public restroom with a trans person in your life and been unaware.
Well maybe...they ARE a very small minority, but it's also entirely possible you've been served a coffee/ treated in a hospital/ helped in a shop etc, etc by a transperson and you didn't know.
True. Everybody, whether they know it or not, has worked with, or been served by, a person that has preferences for their own sex. Many of us have relatives, or neighbors.
Humans are free. Get used to it.
Sorry, I'm not sure why you're lecturing me- I was just pointing out that transpeople are a positive part of society. (And you seem to be equating gender and sexuality- being trans is not a sexual preference).
I suppose in part because becoming a politician often involves thinking "You know what the solution to society's problems is? It's me! Thousands of people should vote for me." ..which is traditionally a very straight, white, male thing to think. Full of hubris and entitlement.
It’s just so difficult to figure out how we survive and function as a society when we are surrounded by people who are completely disconnected from reality.
It’s even more scary that they’re willing to openly hate and take human rights from what they believe to be 1/5 to 1/2.5 people. It’s horrendous regardless and I understand the lack of critical thinking skills employed here, but holy fuck 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
It's time to start playing the both sides game. I demand every news outlet give voice to these silenced majorities. Each CNN/Fox panel should have at least one trans individual as representation.
Americans are conditioned to Believe™️ through overexposure from commercial, political and religious -messaging, thus being easily led to accept «truth».
Do you remember when American media actually brought attention to social discrepancies?
Me neither.
It sounds so very cliché but it's true.
Mainstream media has SO much to answer for
It's funny that even with all the extensive knowledge we have at our fingertips, people perceive what they see on social media as real and that in turn affects their condition.
Not sure if there is any way to fix this other than provide classes on social media biases.
Trump knows his base. He embraces them as they are and they worship him as a result. Those of us that know history are right to be afraid for our country.
We're like this because half the population has been marinating in Fox News propaganda since 1996. We're like this because these numbers approximate the amount of coverage FNC devotes to creating false narratives around these groups.
I remember one of these compiled lists and according to it there were more Americans living in just New York City, California, and Texas than there are in the whole country😄
A Trump-voting, uneducated, very news-uninformed neighbor of mine on Cape Cod was telling me how dangerous it is to walk the streets of NYC. We have a sublet there & I’ve taken my dogs out to the river at 3 AM.
No clue what real life is like elsewhere.
That was very interesting to me - I certain I wouldn't have scored well, because I don't care. Living in an urban city, I saw many colours, and heard many voices. I have no interest in what you keep in your pants or how you use it.
My interest is in who you are and what I can learn from you.
Multiple facepalms. Getting NYC so wrong requires extreme math disability.
Fun note: if those numbers were in the ballpark and everything else statistically equal, there would be something like 200,000 black Muslim-Jewish gay/lesbian trans New Yorkers. Would be a great reason to live there!-)
21%? What? I mean, I'd have probably guessed 0.4% or 0.5% so I looked it up and it could be as much as 1.6% which amazed me... I'm not American though and UK estimates are nearer the figures I guessed.
Us versus Them mentality permeates human DNA from the earliest gatherings of groups, and fear of Them is a prime motivator. Humans haven't yet shed the mentality that drives group behavior. It's beneficial and detrimental both. Gather or scatter is survival. We must get past that to unity.
I fully understand your position, and I agree with it. How we get past the division is the problem. Giving in is giving up. It took us this long to get here and we're still nascent creations. It could take countless generations to evolve, and we may not have that time -- or energy.
In person gatherings with liberals like you & me, the consensus so far seems to be don’t give in & don’t give up, lead by example. You hit the nail on the head with “time”. People don’t get the need for urgency to change. We need faster transition. So, it’s hard to watch cc @rbhubbell.bsky.social
How is it 179%? You can't just add them together, unless you think there are absolutely zero black people who are also gay and live in NYC (for example).
I seem to remember the Utah Governor vetoing an anti-trans bill because it would have only applied to 5 kids in the entire state. The endless propaganda skews perceptions.
It's like the survey were asked what portion of the US fed'l budget goes to foreign aid and how much should go to foreign aid. The average answers were 25% for the former and 10% for the latter. The actual number is less than 1%. Lot of low information folk vote, mostly GOP.
And it's Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, talk radio to ensure their voters don't have accurate information while the 'mainstream media' abdicate their role to call out GOP lies because that wouldn't be 'balanced', vide only pointing out Trump's tariffs will drive inflation up, not down.
Many white straight Christian men are extremely fragile coupled with national low literacy rates they feel threatened because being a faux alpha is tough.
Echochambers, irl we only know what's in our local environment unless we can afford to travel a lot, and online algorithms make it so we see what we like
I was in a cross-cultural conversation (2 progressive women, 2 solidly in the Evangelical Right Wing) talking about the risk of "sharia law" for US. I finally asked how many muslims we had, and they thought it was large. They didn't believe me when I said is was less that 2%. Sigh. #Willful_Ignorace
As an sociology undergrad one of the most useful pieces of scientific advice I got was to never underestimate the power of perception over individual practices.
Jews are .2% of the world population, but of course since they are all the way up to 2.4% in the US the violence against them is insignificant, I guess. My mistake
The original posting in this thread was LITERALLY about a survey regarding people not knowing the percentages of minorities in the US, including Jews. That's what I, and pretty much everybody else, was responding to.
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Your education system is a joke a country full of fuckwits
I think we have learned that lesson multiple times but always forget it.
US, 70% in Canada, 85% in France, 82% in the UK, & 90% in Australia. So they can moan all they want about how they are a minority - it’s just not true!
0.1% - 1% - 2% - 20% - 5% - 5%
It's the continuing enshitification of our education system thanks to a 40-yr Republican War on Science & Education & their provoucher, profit-driven handlers
... and then there's Religion's part in that War
What did B. Franklin tell us?
"... if you can keep it."
indeed
Black (some identifying as other groups as well, such as Hispanic) in a population of 331.4M for about 14.4%.
High-control groups use false realities to their advantage. How to help ppl recover from their mental entrapment requires experts in mental health.
You'd think the worst crime in NYC would be wearing striped pants and a paisley shirt.
How can people think 8.25 million is 30% of 345,000,000?
How thick are these people?
Maybe they thought the question was, "What % of NYC residents are American
But hey, this is from a Country that thinks Navajo are illegal immigrants
The election issues provincially etc.
To say the media ‘pushes’ trans pcs, overly representing a group to ‘inflame’ insecure and ill-educated crybabies… seems a stretch, though if you’re prone to ascribing bad intentions, maybe not.
How were the respondents selected or were they self-selected?
Combining 2020-2021 BRFSS data; estimate that 5.5% of U.S. adults identify as LGBT. Further, we estimate that there are almost 13.9 million (13,942,200) LGBT adults in the U.S. 6, 2023. Source: Williams Institute.
LGBTQ+ Identification in U.S. Now at 7.6% -Gallup Poll.
2023.
It is taught, witnessed, and adopted into young vulnerable lives, they’re like sponges that absorb everything at a very early age.
Education can sway bad behaviour, but not often enough.
In the age where information is at our fingertips,
The last mile is through their thick skulls
Everybody drink!
Humans are free. Get used to it.
I don't lecture.
Found in people who claim to constantly worry about eternity. But think science is of the devil.
Trans: 0,5%
Muslim: 2%
Jewish: 4%
Black: 25%
Live in NYC: 4%
Gay or lesbian: 5%
How bad off am I?
Trans - 1.1%
Muslim - 1.1%
Jewish - 2.4%
Black - 13.6%
Gay or Lesbian - 7.2% (LGBT) which includes trans…
NYC - 6%
(*= see also: The Colbert Report's definition of "TRUTHINESS")
Guy Gavriel Kay, take note.
Our nervous system has a warped view of our body based on where our nerves are concentrated.
Media is our society’s nervous system.
Me neither.
It sounds so very cliché but it's true.
Mainstream media has SO much to answer for
Not sure if there is any way to fix this other than provide classes on social media biases.
Corporate greed infects and transforms everything it touches.
https://bsky.app/profile/kareemcarr.bsky.social/post/3lbpz4pnxcs2f
No clue what real life is like elsewhere.
Trump would often pepper his rallies with the tale of “Jimmy, your son who comes back [from school] with a brutal operation.”
My interest is in who you are and what I can learn from you.
Fun note: if those numbers were in the ballpark and everything else statistically equal, there would be something like 200,000 black Muslim-Jewish gay/lesbian trans New Yorkers. Would be a great reason to live there!-)
People worry so much about trans people... Meanwhile, they probably never met one and likely will never do.
But anyway, the original discussion was about Jews in the US, not the overall world population.