Controversial characters

The Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery deal got me thinking about things perceived to be controversial. Depending on your upbringing and background, your threshold of what constitutes as controversial is going to vary. As per usual, the implications of those assessments are going to affect choices, and thus outcomes.

While the deal is receiving a lot of scrutiny in and of itself (cue DoJ and antitrust enthusiasts etc.), I am thinking about all of the media on said platforms, showcasing stories they've written about and filmed, of controversial people and occurrences. The dynamic nature of society, and thus the economy, means the needs to meet the moment are going to evolve. Usually, when situations are too much to bear in certain ways - explicit or implicit - a change agent typically creates a noticeable disruption. The disruption can be successful or unsuccessful, depending on the perspective. We tend to, in hindsight, make beliefs that society could have done without certain controversies. Although, there is always a reason to why situations unfolded the way they did - perhaps we need to remind ourselves of those reasons, instead of subjecting ourselves to "its just history, and it repeats itself".

To be honest, quantitative analysts are doing exactly that: trying to find the effects of conceptually informed variables/ factors on outcomes. The debate then turns into the usual correlation does not equal causation issue, as it should because it genuinely matters. Then of course the usual complaints about data analysis being backward looking, instead of forward looking. However, how can analysis be entirely forward looking when things haven't happened and there is a lot of uncertainty. Then we cycle back to correlation does not equal causation, because prediction models can get things horribly wrong if the correct mechanism isn't being captured. It is a constant process. Given this iterative procedure, perhaps the why of controvasies should be considered thoroughly.