Comments on: Presidents Who Kill People are Popular

By: PRESIDENTS WHO KILL PEOPLE ARE POPULAR | knowledge of self

PRESIDENTS WHO KILL PEOPLE ARE POPULAR | knowledge of self — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 20:24:33 +0000

[…] READ MORE… […]

By: Underdog Journalism, 03: Debatten, Links, Fundstücke | stefanmesch

Underdog Journalism, 03: Debatten, Links, Fundstücke | stefanmesch — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:33:05 +0000

[…] Presidents who kill People are popular: US-Präsidenten, die Kriege führen, bleiben in besserer Erinnerung. [Sociological Images, eng.] […]

By: Does war make a great president? | Saint Petersblog

Does war make a great president? | Saint Petersblog — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:00:11 +0000

By: Does War Make a Great President? | Hotspyer – Breaking News from around the web

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 17:32:54 +0000

[…] Fabio Rojas: “The finding is simple. American war casualties, as a fraction of the population, positively correlate with how historians rate U.S. presidents. More death = better presidents.” Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire Tweet This Post Posted in Breaking News Tags: Great, President « Giancarlo Stanton Practicing Line Drives So He Doesn’t Activate That Stupid Marlin Statue Thing You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. […]

By: Yeah Right

Yeah Right — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:08:00 +0000

Indeed!

Plus there’s a giant anchor with all those presidents sitting at (I presume) 0 deaths.

However remove Washingon (or move him to 0 deaths), and the line looks fairly flat. The fact that two exceptional presidents are anchoring the other end of the line is also not encouraging. I wouldn’t want to present this to my stats instructor. :-)

By: elementarian

elementarian — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:05:00 +0000

LABEL YOUR AXES ARGHH

By: Wargamer

Wargamer — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 21:39:00 +0000

Why does Washington have a high per-capita death ranking? There was no major war during his time in office.

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:25:00 +0000

Made me think of this Sideshow Bob quote I saw earlier on listverse:

“Your guilty consciences may make you vote Democratic, but secretly you
all yearn for a Republican president to lower taxes, brutalize
criminals, and rule you like a king!”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:02:00 +0000

The x-axis is the ranking by deaths per capita- Lincoln is 1 because he had the most deaths-per-capitia (per year? total? that is unclear) during his time in office.
The y-axis is unclear, but clearly L.B. Johnson beats all the most recent presidents back to Reagan.
That means, of course, that the ‘fitted value’ line does not have a mathematical basis-

By: Gilbert Pinfold

Gilbert Pinfold — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:30:00 +0000

Interesting article. The idea of Lincoln, FDR and Wilson as warmongers could be a new one to many people.

By: Estella

Estella — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:53:00 +0000

Does anyone know the process by which the ratings were obtained? The graph is marked “C-Span ratings,” so I assume the source is C-Span, but what was the methodology? Also, the graph isn’t exactly clear on what it’s x- and y-axes are referring to…

By: circadianwolf

circadianwolf — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:29:00 +0000

It’s interesting how the
title of the article transforms “Americans” into generic “people”
(discounting the millions of foreign dead caused by American action) and
“ranking by C-SPAN and thus presumably a small number of elitist historians” into “popular[ity]”. :)

By: Brichka

Brichka — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:22:00 +0000

I would describe American patriotism as a war patriotism.
That’s what they’ve been taught since they were children, and that’s why there’s negative connotation to the word. This meaning mixes well with nationalism.

There are other types of patriotism: helping your fellow countrymen, for example, or paying your taxes.

By: Chip Gorman

Chip Gorman — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:56:00 +0000

Kind of a correlation/causation question, isn’t it? I would think a historian looks at the greatness of a president and ranks them based on their performance, which is more easily distinguished during times of war. There’s more opportunity for a president to shine as a leader, face down difficulties, make hard decisions that affect the union, etc. And the greater the war, the greater that impact on their legacy. Great war correlates to great deaths, but I think the presidential management of the war is distinct from that.

By: Andrew S

Andrew S — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:10:00 +0000

True, the big 3 on the top left also helped pass giant laws (assuming Washington helped pass the entire start of the country), making huge changes.

America does have a huge passion for patriotism, and patriotism comes out best when we’re at war. Just look at our media from movies to books — war is featured heavily in historical ones as well as fictional (futuristic even) ones.