I am not here to rehash the debate per se, but defend or clarify myself for arguing in bad faith.
While my train of thought can get unclear and confusing sometimes in past threads, I don’t recall ever just completely dismissing per capita stats. I recall two main points:
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Per capita doesn’t tell the whole story, for reasons outlined there and here. That’s a valid point. Stats alone are meaningless. Hospitals are more likely to kill you than guns - that’s a statistical fact. Should we just accept that at face value and ban them, or apply some thought to it?
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The problems and make up America has are different. There are many similarities, but also a lot of differences. The fact of the matter is - 100,000 people aren’t just 100,000 people. 100,000 of the richest people together will have almost no violence. 100,000 of the most desperate and destitute will see a ton of violence. So comparing numbers alone won’t give you a good picture of the WHAT exactly is happening and WHY.
Just like you don’t think comparing the US to Central America is “fair”, maybe I don’t think comparing the US to Europe is completely “fair” either. As I said, I think the US is more third world than we like to admit. Yes we have the very rich, but we also have a lot of very poor. Maybe you disagree that the differences are enough to have that big of an effect, but I don’t think one could claim in good faith there aren’t differences.
At any rate, I don’t think coming to different conclusions, and I try to back those up with a decent amount of evidence, makes me arguing in bad faith.
Or are you one of those people can’t conceive anyone would think different than you, so the only reason they could come to a different conclusion is through bad faith.
