<i>The &quot;apparent trend&quot; doesn&#x27;t exist</i><p>Prove the &quot;apparent trend&quot; exists?  Okay, let&#x27;s try to &quot;prove&quot; it to you.  I just did the following google search:  <i>site:cnn.com &quot;fraternity members&quot;</i>.  Let&#x27;s see what the &quot;apparent trend&quot; is!  Starting at the top:<p>1. Pi Delta Psi members charged in hazing incident<p>2. Video shows chilling aftermath of university shooting (victims AND actor(s) were fraternity members&#x2F;pledges, btw)<p>3. Zeta Beta Tau fraternity members disrespected us, wounded veterans say<p>4. New clues in death of Clemson fraternity pledge Tucker Hipps (this one&#x27;s about hazing)<p>5. Schools knew of trouble before student deaths  (hazing)<p>6. Video shows chilling aftermath of university shooting (same incident as 2.)<p>7. Sigma Nu frat at Old Dominion suspended for offensive banners<p>8. SAE brothers at OU facing death threats, assaults, lawyer says  (don&#x27;t get the title wrong, this one is as much about the racist chants of SAE frat members caught on video as it is about the death threats they received afterward)<p>9. U. of Oklahoma fraternity shuttered after racist chant<p>10. Fraternities: &#x27;A form of American apartheid&#x27; (Opinion)<p>So, you still think the &quot;apparent trend&quot; doesn&#x27;t exist?  You could get similar results doing an informal poll.  Just walk around asking people who weren&#x27;t in a frat, &quot;What do you think of frats?&quot;<p>As I said originally, all of this could be biased and misleading and just plain wrong.  But not at least saying &quot;Yeah, I admit, frats <i>appear</i> to be pretty fucked up&quot; is just disingenuous and isn&#x27;t going to convince anyone.<p><i>The burden of proof is on the commenter that generalized</i>.. <i>The plural of anecdote is not data</i>... <i>Generalizing that widely without very explicit proof is a pretty poor idea, from an argumentative standpoint.</i>... <i>and if it does I&#x27;ll ask you to prove it</i><p>As a skeptic myself, the fact that so many of us can&#x27;t seem to understand that human lives and opinions are not run by deductive reasoning and exhaustive proofs really does us a disservice.  If you want to change minds and make real change, you should get to know how people think.  If you want to be considered an out-of-touch blow-hard, keep on talking about the burden of proof.  Trust me, I&#x27;ve been that guy, I know.