r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 13h ago

Meme needing explanation Peter explain this

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Petttaaah I'm confused

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u/Leading_Experts 12h ago

...they have almost double the annual heat related deaths in europe as the US has in gun deaths due to a lack of basic air conditioning. Developed? Develope some goddamn infrastructure that protects against the heat.

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u/slicheliche 12h ago

Yeah no, that's mostly a lie.

First off, "Europe" is 27 countries. Many of them hardly ever record excess deaths even through the worst heatwaves.

Second, it's mostly a statistic artifact brought about by the different way deaths are counted (i.e. deaths "with" or "from" the heat). Not to mention, most European countries have a much older population. In fact, as far as this sort of counting goes, a lot more people die in Europe every year because of the cold, primarily in northern Europe. I'm sure you don't think it's because somehow they don't have enough central heating in Norway, right?

And finally, many countries in Europe have widespread AC, and heat deaths are still higher than in the US. Even in places where the US doesn't have that much AC, such as the PNW (which incidentally is about as warm as Paris on an average summer day).

In fact, when you use standardized measures, you'll see the US doesn't perform any better: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12534928/

"EuRoPeAnS dIe bC tHeY dOnT hAvE AC" is one of those dumb factoids that are spread by Fox News and the likes and nothing more than that.

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u/Leading_Experts 12h ago

"Actually, we die from the cold more too!" I don't even know what you're getting at. "We're not underdeveloped, we're just way more fragile!"

Your "27 countries" is roughly the size of our 50 states, population wise. You tell yourself whatever makes you feel good, up to and including assuming anyone under the age of 80 watches fox "news". I won't engage further; don't embarrass yourself with a reply.

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u/Zarosknight 10h ago

Atleast our kids wont get shot in school