Dear "I Love Charts", do you often feel you have to mock those you disagree with? You should know well than anyone that correlation does not imply causation, and that having a degree does not necessarily correlate with intelligence. Your post on North Carolina's gay marriage amendment was mean spirited. There is a big difference between disagreeing and providing arguments and reasons, and mocking someone for disagreeing with you. This crossed that line. Please be more careful and considerate.

I merely relay the facts. I question whether doing so constitutes “mocking” in any real sense and suspect my perceived tone or bias is being used a straw man here. At the risk of allowing the straw man to stand, I will respond.  

My opinions:

(1) Degrees do not correlate with intelligence, that does not mean data on them is meaningless. There are many hypotheses one can extrapolate from education data, some more cogent than others.

(2) Correlation only implies correlation, which is also not to be ignored. There is a tendency to use the “correlation is not causation” argument as an excuse to reject meaningful data. The argument is catchy because of its alliteration and rhyming, which I’m sure contributes to its popularity, but is applicable only so far and should not be used to throw out data wholesale. Yes, a strict reading of correlated data is wrong, but so too is burying anything that can be gleaned from such data.

(3) I find it difficult to show empathy toward those whose beliefs are fundamentally built on a lack of empathy. Gay marriage is not a policy issue, it is a human rights issue. The suggestion that there needs to be “arguments and reasons” at this point is insulting to the people whose lives are actually affected. What would you feel like having to argue that your love was as “reasonable” as that of your neighbor? I refuse to insult my non-heterosexual friends by giving the impression that such an argument should be necessary, or that human rights are open to discussion.

Crossing the line is telling somebody they can’t marry the person they love. Legislating to stop them strikes me as far from careful and considerate.

- Jason