Vishen Lakhiani recommends Hans Rosling's Factfulness to voters, arguing that media and politicians use fear to distort perception. Crime has fallen since the 1990s and terrorism in the U.S. has dropped sharply, yet people believe the opposite. Reading the book helps you vote based on facts, not fear.
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I want to talk to you guys about a book I've been reading lately. It's called Factfulness by Hans Rosling. It's a remarkable book about inherent biases and how we tend to think that the world is getting worse off when the world is getting better and better and better. And the book gives us new ways of understanding data, understanding the world. I wish every American reads this book before the next presidential election. Because what's happening in America right now is a massive dose of fake news and the opposites of facts, primarily from President Donald Trump. Because this man has been so incompetent at running a government, the only way for him to win at this point is to mislead. Read the news about what's happening in Kenosha right now where Trump is playing up on American fears of the increase in crime and saying that he stands for policing, that he stands for safety, completely oblivious to the fact that he's been the guy in charge for the last four years. Now, what's interesting about this book is. Take a look at this. Okay, Most people in America think that crime is going up. Can you zoom in? No, no, no. Just bring the camera closer. Okay. People in America think that crime is going up. Look at that. But if you actually look at the graph. Crime is going down. Look at the perception. The perception shows that every, pretty much every year, people are thinking crime is going up. Except the years shortly following September 11th. But in reality, crime has been going down every year. Now, why did people think that crime was going down in the years following September 11th? Because during this time, the news media was focused on terrorism, not crime. They needed a new way to get people to worry. So primarily, Fox News drummed up fears of terrorism to pave way for the war in Iraq. So what tends to happen is that when Americans are safe and Americans, as you can see, are living in the safest time in history, the news, primarily Fox, has to create fear. So you vote for conservative candidates who can keep you safe. After September 11, it was fear of terrorism to spark the Iraq War. And now that we know that the Iraq War was based on false pretenses, it's crimes going up, crimes going up, crimes going up, fear of black people. Black lives matter. Those guys are violent. But as you can see, crime has been going down. President Trump's whole thesis that he is the guy who stands for law and order is complete garbage, because crime in America has been steadily falling since the 1990s. Now, here's another example, right? Can you guess the percentage of Americans that fear terrorism in 2001. After September 11th it was 51%. In 2015, can you guess what it was? Now keep in mind this was 14 years after September 11th. It still remained at 51% even though terrorism in the Western world fell by 400%. Take a look at this chart if look at you. If you look at this chart, between 2007-2016 and in the subsequent years, terrorism did go up, but it was primarily in level one, level two and level three countries. These are countries where people are living on less than $62 a day. But in the United States and in Western Europe terrorism fell by 400%. Yet people still worried about terrorism in 2015. And can you guess why? Because Obama was president and Fox News wanted to get people get Americans to fear terrorists by saying Obama was weak on terrorists even though he's the guy who had helped kill Osama Bin Laden. So every time Americans get safer, Fox News and Republicans need to push a button to bring out fear. But this fear is non existent. But when we vote from fear we vote incompetent men in power. This is what I wanted you to this is what I wanted to ensure that you are aware of. This is why every American needs to read this book. So if you resonate with these ideas, leave a comment Share this video Curious to know what you think.
