I’m an academic – an academic who reads divergent viewpoints. In my doctoral classes I would have students read studies testing certain propositions and then compare them with contrasting studies looking at the same issues. I would then have them tell me which were the most plausible and why. I do the same with everyday events and not just academic esoterica.
Therefore, the censorship in social media of certain views claiming “misinformation” is disingenuous at best. What constitutes “misinformation”? Consider that social media is more likely to deplatform and censor conservative views while leaving misinformation on the left. Social media will censor Trump but not the Ayatollah. One of the latest dustups is the pressure on Spotify to oust Joe Rogan. Now I have never listened to a podcast and was unfamiliar with Rogan. From what I read, his sin is to present alternative views concerning COVID resulting in such faded musicians like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young pulling their music from the streaming service. As one wag wrote, at least Young has let us know that he is not dead. Spotify ditched Young as per his request because his music is long past popular while keeping Rogan. Take that! Of course if a truly popular Canadian musician (Young is Canadian) like Drake had pressured Spotify it would have been interesting to see the result. I never cared for the whinny singing of Young and was amused by his politically incorrect group Crazy Horse – which contained no Native Americans. I wondered why there were no protests. Certainly if the group were called “Aunt Jemima” there were have been indignant howls.
We don’t expect evenhandedness in today’s world, but if social media were so with “misinformation” it would deplatform and censor Anthony Fauci. He is the font of misinformation. He was against masks before he was for them. He calls himself the science while contradicting scientific evidence. He has steadfastly denied gain-of-function research funded by his agency at the Wuhan lab in the face of emails and correspondence to the contrary. He warned us not to celebrate holidays with family before changing his mind. He contended that the lockdowns saved “millions of lives” when there are over 60 studies showing that the lockdowns had no impact on COVID mortalies. I could go on and on. Remember “15 days to slow the spread?” Or “the vaccines will end COVID?” Or “No masks after vaccinated?” Or Biden’s ludicrous “pandemic of the unvaccinated?” Or perhaps the worse is assuring women that the “vaccines would not affect fertility” when there are studies that indicate otherwise.
For whatever reason, the media has bought into the “keep them scared” narrative when the evidence is to the contrary. Fortunately Americans are starting to tune out all the misinformation coming from the governments and their shills and moving toward adopting normalcy. The Canadian truckers are a case in point. While their media wants to paint them as extremists and potentially violent, the evidence is to the contrary. I feel sorry for the Canadians. Not just because I have had two moose hunts postponed but because they have abdicated their freedoms to the urban elites and to their haughty government. Maybe in all fairness, the Canadian government – as well as the CDC and Anthony Fauci – needs to be deplatformed.
haroldblackphd.com 