For Starters

Let’s get up to speed with the basics of The Purge.

Get it? Got it? Good. Moving on.

Quantifying Extremism

This curve explains a great deal about the world.

Given almost any population, it is usually the case that the smallest percentage of individuals, representing the most profound extremes, attract the most attention. They are unique. They stand out. A few standard deviations from the mean is where shit goes down.

Ever take an IQ test? Did you score 130 or above? No, no you did not.

Everywhere you look, no matter what or who you quantify, there’s always going to be your Average Joe and your Extraordinary Schmuck.

Come Here Often?

The Pareto Law states that “the top 20 percent of buyers for most any consumer product account for fully 80 percent of sales”

…the heaviest drinkers are of greatly disproportionate importance to the sales and profitability of the alcoholic-beverage industry.

And if you’re planning on burning off all of those empty calories from the beers you pounded this past weekend, stop lying to yourself.

Gyms make most of their money from two sorts of people: 1) Absentee members and 2) super-users

The fitness industry is propped up on the foolishness of suckers like you, speaking probabilistically of course. Absentee members cover the operating costs of the business so that Gym Rats can sustain their habits. If you’re not going to the gym, you’re normal. The Rats are the exceptional ones.

And I beg of you, please do not become a Rat. It’s the healthy ones that live the longest.

Entitled Bastards

As adults live into their 80s and beyond, they are more likely to live with multiple chronic conditions and functional limitations, and this combination (compared to having chronic conditions only) is associated with a greater likelihood of emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations as well as higher Medicare spending for inpatient hospital, skilled nursing facility, and home health services. Thus, it is not surprising that Medicare per capita spending is higher, on average, for older beneficiaries compared to those in their 60s and 70s.

I am not here to demonize all of these exceptional people: the wise, the alcoholics, the Rats, and the geriatric. My only intention is to present the facts as they are.

By the Numbers

Nate Silver’s team over at FiveThirtyEight have put together quite a comprehensive feature,

exploring the more than 33,000 annual gun deaths in America.

Let’s just focus on the 12,00 annual homicides, roughly one third of 1% of 1% of the total U.S. population (~324 million people).

Show your work…

(324,000,000)(0.01) = 3,240,000

(3,240,000) (0.01) = 32,400

(32,400) (0.33) = 10,800

Excluding suicides, mass shootings, and accidents, these lost souls represent the rarest of rare individuals that will die at the hands of a gun.

In other words, there’s at least 12,000 people out there that each year deemed it OK to pull the trigger, ending the life of another. But what if they were given permission?

License to Kill

Is this not the basis of war? An authority, government(s), and society at large telling you that it’s OK to kill. No worries. It’s justified. It’s just war. No punishment shall come to you for your actions.

Look at this guy, newly elected Phillippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte, “campaigned on a platform of law and order and ending corruption.” Sound familiar?

Duterte went so far as to “[urge] citizens to ‘go ahead and kill’ drug dealers and users.” The death toll has reached 300, will likely keep climbing, and this does not even account for the vigilantes that have taken to the streets.

Duterte has also told police he would protect them from legal consequences if they killed drug dealers.

Sound familiar?

Washington Post

So It Begins

All it would take is a mere suggestion. A simple endorsement from President Trump. We have a lot of guns in America with plenty of citizens already willing to kill.

Even if they’re in the minority, 12,000 Americans walking the streets with a license to kill represents a threat to be taken seriously.

In his own words:

I have a message for all of you. The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end. Beginning on January 20th of 2017, safety will be restored.

Come January 21st, 2017: