As an adult, I’ve changed my positions WRT capital punishment, gun control, and GLBT rights. Since Bush invaded Iraq, I’ve been increasingly less proud of my country.
I’ve become gradually more and more anti-American, and come to see a number of American actions in WWII as war crimes.
Most recently, I’ve changed my mind about drug legalization. I used to be strongly pro-legalization, now I think it’s not as clear. I still think that marijuana should be legalized, but other drugs seem more problematic.
The evidence that made me reevaluate is the increased mortality due to addiction and overdose originating with prescribed opiates. Prescription of Oxycontin is at least somewhat controlled (although for a long time, was pretty close to freely available for people who wanted it), and the outcome has been disastrous.
I’ve also changed my mind about abortion and gun control. In both cases moving from a fairly absolutist position to a more moderate nuanced one. I imagine that’s fairly common as people get older and have more experience. The world is not black and white.
" there just isn’t any scientific evidence dogs of a particular breed, let alone dogs which just look a certain way (the great majority of dogs called ‘pit bulls’ are mixed breed) are more likely to be aggressive to humans, independently of how they are managed by humans."
Please re-read the quote. Scientific stats, not reports of breed descriptions via media reports. Actual scientific organizations like the CDC have given up trying to collect statistics of dog bites by breed, the reports of breed are simply not reliable, they found. And most importantly corrected for how different types of dog might be managed by different types of owners more likely to own that type of dog.
No such stats exist. In the pro ‘pit bull’ direction the stat often quoted is the superior pass rate of APBT’s in the ATTS test for human aggression compared to the average of breeds. But again not a controlled scientific stat, doesn’t correct for the possibility that owners of less aggressive dogs (of various breeds) are more likely to have them tested, not a random sample.
I’ve gotten a lot less tolerant of human stupidity because of this board. And a lot more skeptical of the friendship I have with people who have children.
Gay Marriage is one I’ve changed my mind on, I used to be against it and now I agree with it.
Trade unions is another. I started out as a believer and a member, but now I’m not.
I used to think that racism, sexism, bigotry etc was rare and restricted to the few assholes. Now? Now I know it is everywhere. Sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, sometimes not seen at first glance. Knowing that has made me more willing to speak out and speak up when I encounter it.
What hasn’t changed? I grew up as a hard-core, uber conservative, gay-hating-(sorry, hate the sin, not the sinner)-Mormon Republican.
Atheist, progressive, pro gay rights, you name it. I doubt that there is any position on anything which I haven’t felt differently from my early adult life.
A few specific things which I modified my views.
Although I don’t participate so much in the debates, I do read some and one major shift is on gun control.
While it’s true that if I could make all the guns owned by civilians disappear by magic, I don’t see that happening. From reading things here, I can better understand the position of responsible gun owners and believe it’s impossible to wish guns away.
My experience living in Fukushima has lead to a turn around on nuclear power. I never realized the danger which spent-fuel pools had, how little protection and how great the hubris of the industry is. I know exactly how unpopular that position is on the boards here and also how unwilling people are to have a civilized debate.
My views of transgender have radically changed from the threads here. I didn’t understand before, and I think I do more so.
My view of white privilege changed even before that phrase became popular because of my experience of living as a tiny minority in a foreign country.
And, of course, like so many other parents, my views of idea parenthood went out the window as soon as I had to deal with real, tiny humans.
I used to think rent control was just common sense. Now I see it as my side’s version of voodoo economics.
I used to be vehemently anti-union. However, after actually experiencing the abuse that employers hand out on a regular basis I’m all for unions.
Opposite for me. I was very strongly in favor of unions until they got a guy brought back to work who was caught stealing thousands of dollars worth of building materials and assaulted the security people who caught him doing it.
Similarly there are also no scientific statistics that parachutes are effective for preventing death when jumping out of a plane (Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials - PMC), but reasonable people can infer that they work.
The link I provided earlier, although not strictly scientific, shows that pit bulls have accounted for a huge percentage of fatal dog attacks in recent years.
I went to college in a state where the voting age was 18, and the drinking age was 21.
Back then, I thought that the drinking age should be lower.
Today, I often find myself thinking that the voting age should be higher.
I used to do a lot of waffling on abortion. Embryo vs fetus. This trimester vs that trimester.
Today, my view is simpler. A woman should have the power to abort her child, for any reason she deems appropriate, up to and including the ninth month.
Notice the semantics. I did not say “right”. I said “power”. I did not say “fetus”. I said “child”. I am not hiding behind weaselly euphemisms. Freedom is not for the squeamish. It is for those who understand the consequences of their choices.
The analogy is quite silly, but does point to the fact that the anti ‘pit bull’ people at least think they are making a straight forward inference. But they aren’t. The stats you gave don’t just fail a test of ‘strict’ science, they are useless. Again, actual scientific organizations like CDC have concluded so, that breed identification in media reports are too inaccurate to base anything on. And even if they were not, you’re neglecting the second and just as critical part of the point: the statistics do not correct for the high likelihood that different types of dogs are managed differently because they tend to be owned by different types of people. For example again actual scientific studies of dog bite incidents like that of the AMVA in 2014 (which concurs with what I said: no scientific evidence ‘pit bulls’ are disproportionately aggressive to people), have always found a very high % of dogs involved in serious/fatal bite incidents were unfixed males. That’s not, obviously, a characteristic of a breed let alone a vague appearance category.
https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/LiteratureReviews/Pages/The-Role-of-Breed-in-Dog-Bite-Risk-and-Prevention.aspx
I’d also recommend Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon by Bronwen Dickey. It’s not just about the pseudo-science wrt 'pit bull’s but gives a good summary of that.
As I said, I was ignorant about this too at one point.
Interesting. I like it.
I read through that but I wasn’t able to find the actual controlled studies showing that pit bulls weren’t disproportionately aggressive to humans.
I used to say that I would never retire as a pharmacist, unless I had to for health reasons.
Guess what I did at the age of 47. Now that I think about it, health reasons WERE a factor (the field had mutated into something unrecognizable, and the job I had was literally killing me).
That’s terrible. I’ve always looked at pharmacy as a potentially really cool job. Though I have to admit my local drug store pharmacies always seem understaffed.
Really?
So according to this, pit bulls overrepresented in attacks by a factor of 10. Perhaps some of those were other breeds misidentified as pit bulls so the actual disparity is somewhat less than a full order of magnitude, but I don’t see how anyone can conclude that pit bulls aren’t more likely to attack people.