The Wall Street Journal says oil prices are "soaring":
Hmmm. Here is the spot price of West Texas Intermediate since the beginning of the year:
It's up about 10%, from $77 to $87. The Journal got its much larger number by (a) using the NYMEX future price, and (b) cherry picking the start of the chart at the very lowest point of the year. Does this help readers understand what's really going on? Or does it help to see a little bit more?
People just want prices or oil and prices of gasoline to go back down to 2015-2020 period.
Ok, so they got their "much larger number" from doing one thing and you got your lower number partially by calling 13% "about 10%".
It this chart seasonally adjusted? It's as important to adjust for annual cycles as it is to adjust for inflation.
Cherry picking the start time is exactly what the press does when they write that the Republicans have only won the popular vote once in every election between 1992 and now. If they went back 12 more years that would be 4 times for Republicans. If they went back an additional 12 years it would be 6 times.
"Cherry picking the start time"
Well, of course it is. You pick the series (and type!) of data relevant to the argument you are making. If your argument is that "recently, the Republican party has become less democratic, depending less and less at the national level on appealing to the public as a whole" then, yeah, the fact that in the relatively recent past republican presidential candidates have almost never won the popular vote is pretty relevant. Would you prefer that "the press" compare Republican popular vote shares all the way back to Lincoln?
By contrast, if your point is "ZOMG!! Teh oil prices is SOARINGS!" it's pretty stupid to just look back a couple of months and thereby ignore/occlude the fact that WTI benchmark prices are actually *lower* than they were a year ago.
Well I would be shocked if the oil companies and Saudi's don't do everything in their power to keep oil prices as high as possible between now and November 2024.