Why Official Statistics Gaslight the Public

This essay explores statistics as a tool for critically interpreting social reality beyond formulas and mathematical calculations. Through everyday examples, it examines concepts such as probability, sampling, bias, margin of error, and confidence levels, highlighting how statistics can be used both to inform and to manipulate social and political narratives. Inspired by authors such as Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Daniel Kahneman, the text argues that many human phenomena are too complex to be predicted with absolute precision. It also reflects on survivorship bias, uninformed optimism, and the human tendency to ignore invisible evidence. Ultimately, the essay proposes that statistical thinking also requires questioning how we interpret reality.