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For a year, I've been part of an ambitious @HuffPost- @propublica project: to record as fully as possible the deliberate erasure, degradation and corruption of public data by the Trump govt. The story is out, and it's vitally, vitally important:
[1 / n] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#
[1 / n] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#
I only wrote the essay. @HuffPost reporters did the real digging, and what they accumulated was shocking.
The erosion of data is insidious because it's invisible -- but it can spell life or death, as we've even found out during the pandemic. [2 / n] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#introduction
The erosion of data is insidious because it's invisible -- but it can spell life or death, as we've even found out during the pandemic. [2 / n] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#introduction
Public data experts in the US always cite the example of lead as an eg. of why data is important. You know why lead was banned from paint and then gasoline, despite oil lobbies' best efforts?
Because of data from health surveys.
[3 / n]
![Public data experts in the US always cite the example of lead as an eg. of why data is important. You know why lead was banned from paint and then gasoline, despite oil lobbies' best efforts? Because of data from health surveys. [3 / n]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Elaqbd3XYAA1OZk.png "Public data experts in the US always cite the example of lead as an eg. of why data is important. You know why lead was banned from paint and then gasoline, despite oil lobbies' best efforts? Because of data from health surveys. [3 / n]")
Because of data from health surveys.
[3 / n]
The @HuffPost team catalogs the disappearance or distortion of so many kinds of data:
* Covid-19 numbers
* Economic Research Survey data, just by moving the offices from DC to Kansas City
* Data on ICE raids
* Deaths in correctional facilities
* Arms sales data...
[4 / n]
* Covid-19 numbers
* Economic Research Survey data, just by moving the offices from DC to Kansas City
* Data on ICE raids
* Deaths in correctional facilities
* Arms sales data...
[4 / n]
...and, of course, swathes of environmental data:
* Methane emissions from oil and gas industries
* Climate change models
* Mercury emissions
* Even counts of frickin' honeybees
The Trump govt. cut roles, defunded programs, distorted methods, and altered data.
[5 / n]
![...and, of course, swathes of environmental data:* Methane emissions from oil and gas industries* Climate change models* Mercury emissions* Even counts of frickin' honeybeesThe Trump govt. cut roles, defunded programs, distorted methods, and altered data. [5 / n]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ElasapyWoAAMhpT.jpg "...and, of course, swathes of environmental data:* Methane emissions from oil and gas industries* Climate change models* Mercury emissions* Even counts of frickin' honeybeesThe Trump govt. cut roles, defunded programs, distorted methods, and altered data. [5 / n]")
* Methane emissions from oil and gas industries
* Climate change models
* Mercury emissions
* Even counts of frickin' honeybees
The Trump govt. cut roles, defunded programs, distorted methods, and altered data.
[5 / n]
To sound an alarm over vanishing data sounds like a pedantic thing to do. But data represents what citizens need. By gutting federal statistics, the administration burns away its capacity to regulate. By attacking numeracy, it attacks democracy.
[6 / n] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#
[6 / n] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#
A nation is an act of invention -- an abstract, uncanny idea made real every day by a million concrete things that citizens decide they want for themselves. If the data decays, the invention falters. The lead stays in the gasoline.
[7 / n] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#
[7 / n] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#
Mad props to @RachelMorris, @RichardKimNYC and so many @HuffPost-ers for building this patiently over a year. Read the whole thing -- these erasures are happening in countries all over the world! And my American friends: please vote!
[end] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#introduction
[end] https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/article/disappearing-data/#introduction
