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When we can't comprehend the concepts, we revert to the transactions and the anecdotes.
"A car got broken into in my neighborhood. Crime is clearly going up!"
"But the data says car break-ins are declining."
The concept is "data" and "trends".
The transaction is the tangible incident you saw.
We too often argue using the transactions.
And the news amplifies the anecdotes.
We still have brains that are structured to live 100,000 years ago. Anecdotes were all we had to make judgements with. It made sense back then.
Now we have abstractions. Data. Trends. Concepts. Complexity.
Some of us know how to use abstractions in our thought process.
Many still do not and so they revert to the transactions.
That is at the core of many failed political arguments.