I think it’s a real good time to reread Fahrenheit 451. From what I remember some of society’s most trusted saviors were morphed into the ones who censored and burned books.

 

A lot of parallels going on here peeps. These people seemed to know what they were talking about with almost uncanny accuracy  

Science should be constantly challenged.

 

It is by challenging the 'facts' that one arrives at the truth.

A post with an unsourced and unsubstantiated claim has been removed.

 

The truth doesn't mind being questioned, it's the lie that minds.

“As to the evil which results from a censorship, it is impossible to measure it, for it is impossible to tell where it ends.”

-Jeremy Bentham

It remains a topic of some considerable debate among people who actually value credible and evidence-based information how to best counter the massive flooding of the internet and social media with pandemic-related misinfo and garbage.

 

COVID-19 Misinformation Persists, 4 Years After Shelter-in-Place

April 1, 2024

 

While people’s lives are largely free of the extreme public health measures that restricted them early in the pandemic, misinformation about vaccines and conspiracy theories are still around.

...

Some people falsely asserted COVID’s symptoms were associated with 5G wireless technology. Faux cures and untested treatments populated social media and political discourse. Amid uncertainty about the virus’ origins, some people proclaimed COVID didn’t exist at all. PolitiFact named “downplay and denial” about the virus its 2020 “Lie of the Year.” 

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-04-01/four-years-after-shelter-in-place-covid-19-misinformation-persists

 

AND

NewsGuard Reports More Than 300 Vaccine-Related False Narratives Now Spreading Online

02/07/2024

Nearly four years since the outbreak of COVID-19 — and amidst a constant stream of false claims about vaccine efficacy — NewsGuard reports that there are now more than 300 vaccine-related false narratives infecting social media and online search results

 

These are among the now more than 300 vaccine-related false narratives that NewsGuard’s healthcare information team has identified circulating on the internet, shared by 4,387 websites and other news sources and social media accounts — and counting. Two thirds of all the news and information websites that NewsGuard has rated as untrustworthy since 2018 publish healthcare misinformation.

...

In fact, 67% of news sites rated as generally untrustworthy (below 60/100) by NewsGuard have been flagged for publishing health misinformation, making it one of the largest categories of misinformation we track.”

 

https://www.newsguardtech.com/press/newsguard-reports-more-than-300-vaccine-related-false-narratives-now-spreading-online/

 

 

On 6/27/2024 at 7:26 AM, KhunLA said:

Unfortunately, you can't trust the science now

The slogan, "Trust The Science" is a euphemism which means, "Only Trust Your Government And The Main-Stream Media, And The Scientists Who They Tell You To Trust."

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

- Harry S. Truman

The price for the vast amounts of COVID misinformation allowed to circulate on the internet and social media during the COVID pandemic is that vast numbers of people have become needlessly ill and many have needlessly died.

 

Lie of the Year: Coronavirus downplay and denial

December 16, 2020

 

A Florida taxi driver and his wife had seen enough conspiracy theories online to believe the virus was overblown, maybe even a hoax. So no masks for them. Then they got sick. She died. A college lecturer had trouble refilling her lupus drug after the president promoted it as a treatment for the new disease. A hospital nurse broke down when an ICU patient insisted his illness was nothing worse than the flu, oblivious to the silence in beds next door.   

 

Lies infected America in 2020. The very worst were not just damaging, but deadly. 

 

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/dec/16/lie-year-coronavirus-downplay-and-denial/

 

 

New Analysis Shows Vaccines Could Have Prevented 318,000 Deaths

May 13, 2022

 

A new analysis by researchers at Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Microsoft AI for Health shows that vaccines could have prevented at least 318,000 [U.S.] Covid-19 deaths between January 2021 and April 2022. This means that at least every second person who died from Covid-19 since vaccines became available might have been saved by getting the shot.

 

https://globalepidemics.org/2022/05/13/new-analysis-shows-vaccines-could-have-prevented-318000-deaths/

 

“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.”
― George Bernard Shaw

 

The crazy thing about these quotes is it’s still technically possible to be correct if you are for censorship, it’s just not very likely considering history, and also… well, you’re a person who approves of censoring. There’s not much wiggle room if you approve of censuring people; you’re on the wrong side of that issue 100%. 

On 7/3/2024 at 6:10 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The price for the vast amounts of COVID misinformation allowed to circulate on the internet and social media during the COVID pandemic is that vast numbers of people have become needlessly ill and many have needlessly died.

 

Lie of the Year: Coronavirus downplay and denial

December 16, 2020

 

A Florida taxi driver and his wife had seen enough conspiracy theories online to believe the virus was overblown, maybe even a hoax. So no masks for them. Then they got sick. She died. A college lecturer had trouble refilling her lupus drug after the president promoted it as a treatment for the new disease. A hospital nurse broke down when an ICU patient insisted his illness was nothing worse than the flu, oblivious to the silence in beds next door.   

 

Lies infected America in 2020. The very worst were not just damaging, but deadly. 

 

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/dec/16/lie-year-coronavirus-downplay-and-denial/

 

 

New Analysis Shows Vaccines Could Have Prevented 318,000 Deaths

May 13, 2022

 

A new analysis by researchers at Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Microsoft AI for Health shows that vaccines could have prevented at least 318,000 [U.S.] Covid-19 deaths between January 2021 and April 2022. This means that at least every second person who died from Covid-19 since vaccines became available might have been saved by getting the shot.

 

https://globalepidemics.org/2022/05/13/new-analysis-shows-vaccines-could-have-prevented-318000-deaths/

 

I'd like to see who funds these groups that come up with these "analysis" based on modeling.  Guaranteed they have skin in the game.  Microsoft AI for health, really?  Chan School of Public Health, really?  How much funding for grants and studies come from those with skin in the game and aren't neutral?  

14 hours ago, dhupverg said:

I'd like to see who funds these groups that come up with these "analysis" based on modeling.  Guaranteed they have skin in the game.  Microsoft AI for health, really?  Chan School of Public Health, really?  How much funding for grants and studies come from those with skin in the game and aren't neutral?  

The crazy part about all of this is we currently have very low booster uptake. In other words, even though there’s a lot of people and doctors and news anchors who outwardly support the vaccines, the uptake is low. There’s a lot of pretenders out there it seems. Huge red flag; there’s obviously a large contingent who’s outwardly supporting the vaccines, yet privately they aren’t taking them. Tells you what the real motivation is: as you allude to, money. 

19 minutes ago, Robert Paulson said:

The crazy part about all of this is we currently have very low booster uptake. In other words, even though there’s a lot of people and doctors and news anchors who outwardly support the vaccines, the uptake is low. There’s a lot of pretenders out there it seems. Huge red flag; there’s obviously a large contingent who’s outwardly supporting the vaccines, yet privately they aren’t taking them. Tells you what the real motivation is: as you allude to, money. 

Spot on!

A post commenting on forum moderation, and an ensuing reply, have been removed.

 

Some time has gone by, I’ve had the chance to reflect, and yeah… I still don’t understand how people can believe the ones trying to do all the censoring… you know, the same ones who are also keeping their jobs, getting promotions, and making bundles of money, are the ones telling the truth. That’s not how it works, folks.