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RSSMitt Romney doesn't understand Venn diagrams
The Romney campaign have been making "venn diagrams". Oh dear.
By Alex Hern Published 04 July 2012 11:50
Mitt Romney, clearly wanting some of the good vibes that Barack Obama gets from having a horde of talented young graphic designers donating their time for free, has produced an "infographic" demonstrating how Obama has failed to lower healthcare costs (despite being the from the party which stopped that happening, but that's by-the-by):
Except... Mittens, that isn't how a Venn Diagram works. The nice people at Upworthy made a primer to help you out:
It's really not very hard. You can even make your own until you're comfortable:
And once you've mastered the basics, you can even go for advanced Venn diagrams. For instance, in this one there is no overlap between the sets:
.PNG)
And this one has two completely overlapping sets; every member of one is a member of the other as well:
Venn diagrams are fun!
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Alex Hern is a staff writer at the New Statesman. You should follow Alex on Twitter.
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38 comments
"You didn't build that"!
Shall we up the pedantic ante and note that your next-to-last (and possibly last) diagrams are Euler diagrams and not Venn diagrams?
At least I understand what a Venn thingy is now - I think?
wrongney wrongney, caught you again , did we ? Very weak. I pity Mitt not one little bit.
Speaking as a graphic designer, I can tell you graphic designers as a whole, don't know anything. We don't do math, we don't do science, we can barely spell and have no idea about apostrophe's. ;) We only do visual. So, a typical graphic designer will look at an intersecting Venn diagram and see three areas to be filled with text, and will put proposition A in the first one, proposition B in the second, (erroneous) conclusion C in the third.
Saying that, Romney's campaign drones signed off on this, so it either shows mathematical ignorance on their part, or a cynical view of the ignorance of the American public.
This is hilarious! Very clever!
This is hilarious! Very clever!
This is hilarious! Very clever!
This is hilarious! Very clever!
This is hilarious! Very clever!
New Math and all that hullabaloo. 1957, we think it was. Those damned Soviets. Commercial math went right out the window. Immigration of world intellectual muscle - eggheads - way up. And you'd need more than a Venn diagram to record what it did to President Eisenhower's golf handicap.
The Veep( I Was there )
Obama's former Harvard Law School tutor, Robert Unger, believes that electing the wolf, Romney, rather than his sheep skinned opponent, is a small price to pay for a future that offers a meaningful choice between the Republicans and Democrats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnf4k8EaL7M
it's like this for me; if i there was a better candidate on the Republican side then i would prefer that person to Obama. both are scrapping on an ever diminishing little patch of ideology. there is loads i don't like one bit about Obama, whether domestic or foreign policy.
problem is that i see nothing but contradictions in Romney. serious and seemingly endless contradictions.
and at the same time this is the most entertaining election for ages and ages. is it wrong to find this entertaining?
Nice try but you been riding the Obama pony for quite a while now cowboy. But I guess I saw this coming...Lefties are master revisionists, now aren't they? You must apoligize to all the conservatives on this site or we will make you watch 24 straight hours of Alex Baldwin TV shows...
.
Wait, who's Alex Baldwin?
I am deeply offended.
We're still waiting...
http://www.salon.com/2001/01/25/chpshot3/
Sorry, it's Alec... a liberal hollyweird turd-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Baldwin
The problem is that anyone who supports Mittwit is either too stupid or crass to care about Venn diagrams. Think of the UK equivalent of trailer trash who vote Tory.
Ah......... 'Trailer trash' - how could they vote for the 'uncaring' Tories, eh?
Ah......... 'Trailer trash' - how could they vote for the 'uncaring' Tories, eh?
like Carolyn said I'm startled that people able to earn $8048 in one month on the computer. did you see this web link HTTP://LAZYCASH24.COM
Speaking of road trips:
http://www.darthcontinent.com/2012/07/mitt-romney-for-president-not.html
Please focus on anything other than the huge new Obamatax...
You must be referring to Obama's implementation of RomneyCare.
Hmm. According to Upworthy, the Mitt Romney campaign are the only people in the world who both have horrible ideas and suck at Venn diagrams. Really? Or are they perhaps no so adept at Venn diagrams themselves?
I think you're not so adept at prose sir...
Actually, they're right and you're wrong SteveTom! Something appearing in an intersection of Venn Diagrams does not mean that it's the ONLY thing that meets both sets of criteria.
Venn Diagrams are used for showing the relationships between items in your set. You can have as few, or many, items in your set as you want and your set does not have to a comprehensive list of everything. (For instance, a venn diagram showing the categories of animal that the animals in a set of animals fall into doesn't need to be based on a comprehensive list of every animal on Earth to be a valid Venn Diagram).
Very amusing, but did romney ever claim that it was a Venn diagram?
If that’s not a Venn diagram, then it’s the worst ‘not a Venn diagram’ in the history things that aren't Venn of diagrams.
Seriously, I thought these people were just average idiots who didn’t know what a Venn diagram was. Now we find out they sat down and thought…Mmmm I need a diagram to present some information…but not a Venn diagram because that would be inappropriate for this data….Hey! How about two interlocked circles! That looks pretty cool, and it’s definitely not a Venn diagram! Perfect!
That’s what we’re saying happened?
No, he didn't...even the NS calls it an "infographic" at one point in the article. I'd guess the Romney campaign just thought it was a decent way of making political points. (I actually think it's pretty ugly - but go figure!)
It could have been three separate circles...three bullet points...or anything really.
Just because it has a couple of overlapping circles doesn't make it a Venn diagram...but of course the NS knows this too. However it gives them a chance of having a go at Romney without having to actually address the criticism of Obama. For that reason, the Romney campaign probably should have thought twice about the design!
As to understanding Venn diagrams...I would not be surprised if Romney didn't understand them...but that only gives him more in common with most members of the UK public (let alone the USA) - and I suspect, with the majority of NS writers too.
It doesn't have to make sense - Mittens is using homeskooled teabaggers who caint even spel (Amercia) to make colorful circles for their fellow teabaggers who have no reading comprehension just so they have something negative to email about President Obama. Most have never heard of a Venn diagram and the concept is over their heads. It just has to look smart, use purdy colors and bash Obama.
By using the graphic "language" of a vent diagram, the intended implication is that it is a venn diagram. Given that there are any number of effective visual languages one can use to convey the message Rodney's campaign intends, one may infer a failure to understand venn diagrams as a whole. Or an overall incompetence in clearly conveying a message.
No hat tip to Ezra Klein who had this story on The Rachel Maddow Show last night?
That show doesn't air in the UK.
Admin, it doesn't air on the terrestrial channels. But what about cable or satellite?
lol. i just went to "learn more at Romney.com" as that Venn diagram suggests, and nowhere dies it say Mitt now actually agrees with Obama that ACA penalties are not a tax. perhaps they'll correct this omission soon?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cyysfZ3GXc
i predict Mitt will remain almost mute on the ACA topic, and focus on.....erm........dressage? yeah that might just get the GOP base excited.