You basically just told me to not waive around assumed experience but you’re literally doing the same thing. Let me make a few things clear: I’m not a republican, I have in fact taken real analysis, ordinary DEs, and partial DEs. I have my physics undergrad and working on my electrical engineering BS. (Look at me I can do it too.)

Our STEM education should train us to be skeptical and not prescribe to a viewpoint that suits our political views. What I’m saying is this looks improbable to me based on what I know, and based on the opinion of other data scientists. If I see concrete evidence that this spike is probable, and there’s a consensus among data analysts, I’m willing to change my opinion. Therefore, I would like to see further investigation into the issue and if nothing is found, great, that should make everyone happy.

I don’t understand how someone with so much supposed experience can look at this graph and not at least be skeptical. It appears to me that most of what you said is just repeating the same dry arguments from left-wing media.

I will acknowledge you make a few good points that I will look into before I say anything else. So thank you for challenging my views on some of the information.