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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022

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I see no reason why she can't be a good prime minister and occasionally go to night clubs or get drunk with Instagram models.

Really? You don't have a prior that someone with this disposition is ipso facto an unserious person and therefore temperamentally unsuited for high office? Because I certainly have that prior.

A few days ago, Marin was officially cleared of any legal wrongdoing by the Finnish government.

Finnish government investigates itself, finds itself innocent. Imagine my shock.

Finnish government investigates itself, finds itself innocent. Imagine my shock.

The actual clearing authority is this guy. As the link says, he's independent from the Council of State, ie. the executive, and is appointed for life by the President.

Really? You don't have a prior that someone with this disposition is ipso facto an unserious person and therefore temperamentally unsuited for high office? Because I certainly have that prior.

"prior" is obviously from bayesian statistics, where you update a "prior" distribution with new information, producing a "posterior" distribution. The "prior" may be that most people who go to night clubs or get drunk with models are unsuited for high office. But that's just a prior - she already is PM, her actions and history tell you enough about how good of a PM she is that that prior distribution doesn't matter much. In bayes-terms, you have enough new information about her, instead of her being one of the hundred million people who go to clubs or get drunk, that the "prior" doesn't mean much and bears little resemblance to the posterior - but even that's kind of a distraction.

But even that prior doesn't really make sense, tbh, can you try to justify it more?