Gruesome Gavin Newsom signed a bill in 2022 that allowed him to snatch the medical license from any doctor that disagreed with his Official Truths of coronadoom.
I say “his” Official Truths, but since his only avowed claim to authority is being the husband to some women (I do not jest), I mean the Official Truths supplied to him by a panel of Experts he hired. This panel included the California Medical Association itself.
The law was designed “to tamp down COVID-19 misinformation, often spread through social media, promoting untested or ineffective treatments and cures and questioning the effectiveness of face masks and vaccines.”
Even questions can become Official Misinformation. That (if you saw yesterday’s post) is the way The Science works. It is dictated from on high and all contradictory evidence is unpersoned. Questions are seen as disloyal.
Forgive me, dear reader. I know you’re sick unto death of hearing this, just as I feel shooting pain in my hands every time I type it, but: If there is Official Disinformation there must necessarily exist Official Truths, and agencies charged with producing, promoting, and policing them.
If the Official Truths really are true Truths, then this is fine. But when they are not, or where there is uncertainty, there is tyranny.
As there was, and is, with Newsom. Who had the temerity to announce recently that “Mistakes were made on both sides” regarding covid. Or something like that. Not that he admitted to mistakes he himself made by the abuse of his authority. But we would expect nothing less from a politician in an Our Democracy.
We should, however, expect more from doctors, which is to say physicians, people who, at one time anyway, were able to memorize human anatomy. We’ll soon see that this is not longer so. But for today let us examine the peer-reviewed paper “Communication of COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media by Physicians in the US” by Sahana Sule in JAMA. (Thanks to Kip Hansen.)
Their “findings”?
Findings In this mixed-methods study of high-use social media platforms, physicians from across the US and representing a range of medical specialties were found to propagate COVID-19 misinformation about vaccines, treatments, and masks on large social media and other online platforms and that many had a wide reach based on number of followers.
Meaning This study’s findings suggest a need for rigorous evaluation of harm that may be caused by physicians, who hold a uniquely trusted position in society, propagating misinformation; ethical and legal guidelines for propagation of misinformation are needed.
Harm, they say, caused by physicians who disagreed with Official Truths.
Again, if physicians (and we’ll see these creatures exist) say “Some men have uteruses”, then harm can be done, because this information is in fact false, and therefore genuine disinformation. But if these are physicians who say “Vaccine by definition and design cause you harm, for the hope of future benefit” or “Masks have consistently shown no benefit in preventing the transmission of respiratory diseases”, then there is not only no harm, but real benefit, because these are truths.
But they are not Official Truths. Official Truths are the opposite of these propositions.
Specific examples:
Specific types of misinformation included the following: (1) vaccines were unsafe and/or ineffective, (2) masks and/or social distancing did not decrease risk for contracting COVID-19, (3) medications for prevention or treatment were effective despite not having completed clinical trials or having been FDA approved, and (4) other (eg, conspiracy theories).
Remember when CDC boss DOCTOR Rochelle Walensky sidled up the microphone and said that if you were vaxxed you could not catch covid? She, of course, was one of many Experts who told the same lie. Disagreeing with her became Official Misinformation. The lie became Official Truth. Masks we have done to death. The lies about “horse paste” we all also remember. But do you also recall that when they were first bruited “vaccine passports” were labeled a “conspiracy theory”?
Our point is obvious. Truths, actual truths, were, and are still called Official Misinformation. And falsities were and are Official Truths.
Which we already knew and which is not our main point. Which can be made by examining the authors of the paper, all members of or aspiring to membership in the Expertocracy. Only one is a physician, and therefore one who should know better.
It is that aspiration which is our point. That easy belief Experts have in other Experts, a belief which includes the strong desire to punish questioning of any Expert, and their need to silence all disagreement. Even on propositions on which agreement can with sanity no longer be believed. A trick they manage by unpersoning all contradictory evidence.
This is the danger of the Expertocracy. Their haughty cocksure intransigence.
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More truth and opinion:
There is no place for silencing speech of any kind.
Outside of slander/libel, defamation, the other one…official secrets.
No place for mandating speech either. No place for mandating medical treatment or prevention. *
Masks? it depends on which ones and where. Also which disease is being prevented. Some which are ore virulent but harder to catch may show different results ~ (SARS1)
In clinical settings when I worked on medical wards with respiratory patients, I never wore a mask. I was the one catching the phlegm in a pot and writing the date on the lid! Day in day out. Masking is used on ITU on occasion and for barrier nursing. Or if you have a cold yourself and can’t stop coughing.
However there are “experts”. who went along with the mask rules in England who give testimony and still do, presumably, that the case for masking is complex and still unknown. One Johnathan Van Tam. I haven’t checked what he has said lately.
He went into fine details at the time the discussion was hot to explain. Nobody can claim to be confused about this.
*vaccination are a contractual /HR requirement for many clinical roles and have been for decades. (exemptions may exist).
Until covid 19 vaccine I have never heard of a single member of staff complaining at having to be up to date. There are more numerous mandatory vaccines in the US evidently. In England Hep B, TB, + normal childhood jabs.
The disease is now endemic and no more notice needs to be taken than for flu in any other year. The rest is spin and opportunistic talking points for all kinds of power grabbers.
Is there anyplace where Truth is discussed?
I would be interested because I haven’t found it. Certainly not here. Some specifics yes, but there is nothing more than a few instances.
JerryR yes there are posts on the subject way back.
Note the juxtaposition of 3.) which says that it is misinformation to say things that have not received FDA approval are effective, with 1.) which says that is misinformation to say that vaccines that have not received full FDA approval are NOT effective.
“ there are posts on the subject way back”
It would be interesting to see what so-called experts of truth actually believe on certain subjects? For example, these are just a few random questions about truth and identifying truth.
1) can one determine truth? If yes, how does one determine truth?
2) is freedom necessary for a functioning society? If yes, then is free speech necessary for freedom? Is free speech necessary for identifying truth?
3) are experts necessary for determining truth? If yes, what determines who is an expert? What happens when two experts disagree? Does an expert have to justify their belief? Are there truths that the average person can reliably determine?
4) are the religious beliefs of the experts relevant? I ask this one because most will say it is irrelevant but if an expert has no JTB (Justified True Belief) for their religious beliefs what makes one believe they have a JTB for anything? What relevance does beliefs in religion have on being an expert on something? Is it none?
5) can we function as a society without truths? What type of societies are based on non-truths? I bring this up because for nearly all of history, humans existed is an oppressed state under authoritarian governments, kings, emperors, other forms of dictatorship. Obviously, such oppression denied freedom as a necessity for stability.
My guess that most commenters here would answer in a certain way but how would so-called experts answer?
https://www.wmbriggs.com/post/45992/
I’m sure there are other related questions. I’m just posing these as a start to clarifying what is involved. Hans Rosling said the more educated one is the more likely one is wrong about the world. Why is that so and is Stanford the epitome of this? (I am a graduate of Stanford)
https://stanfordreview.org/stanfords-dark-hand-in-twitter-censorship/
We need a study of how peer-reviewed studies spread misinformation, deliberately!
And Joy, just admit you were wrong and shrieking like a hysteric on behalf of Expurts and your precious vexxine gub’mint back then. We haven’t forgotten you, neither is it the atmosphere to forgive, especially given you have not come back here seeking pardon, and are now making sly excuses for your misdeeds.
I do like your conjoined label of ‘more truth and opinion’ but don’t distinguish below which portions are “truth” and which are “opinion.” Very deliberate and professional on your part. You should apply as a gub’mint Fak-Cheka. One wonders where all the “complex and still unknown” masking expurts went when we needed them whilst they were screaming, fining and jailing people without regard to social distancing malarkey when we needed them…
Just my honest opinion here, though I might have even stumbled upon the truth, and the truth will hurt and offend feelings –
The expurts were always deliberately lying, and this sudden pivot to “uncertainty” is another lie in an attempt to escape the consequences of their obvious lies. We know they were deliberately lying because of the presence of obvious contradictions that they refused to acknowledge or resolve. Joy here only demonstrates that there are suckers you can fool all of the time, and why sadly, we should limit roles of women in various fields and positions of authority. Let their children alone suffer or benefit from their overreaching concern.
I clicked the link near the top of the article, after the statement about Newsom, and was taken to Newsom’s Twitter (X) account. Just out of curiosity, I scrolled through a dozen or so of his tweets. Holy Jumpin’ Jesus, the stupidity! Whatever it takes, this assclown must never be president.
“Specific types of misinformation included the following: … (2) masks and/or social distancing did not decrease risk for contracting COVID-19”
Item (2) as stated is very disingenuous, combining things that clearly don’t work (masks, six-foot spacing) with something that clearly does (staying home).
When we were kids, my brother was fascinated by the “TRVTH” pedestal in the BC comic strip, and he built one of his own. If you stood upon the pedestal and spoke anything but truth, lighting would instantly strike you. There is a large circular stone in Rome sculpted with the face of the god Triton, with an open mouth. If you stick your hand in the mouth and utter a non-truth, the statue will bite your hand off.
The technology used to create these ancient lie detector devices has been lost to time. Modern lie detectors are considered fallible and lack the accountability inherent in the ancient devices. Hence lying has become a popular national pastime.
Lacking good lie detection devices with “teeth”, how should one proceed these days? One might fall back on the wisdom of Thomas Sowell and Will Rogers: when someone is making pronouncements, ask yourself what price they will pay if they are wrong (or wrong in the approved direction); the answer to that question is also the inherent value of their pronouncement.
JerryR Ask Briggs if you want to find a post on truth.
There were many over a decade ago probably, by now.
I thought your question was about philosophy posts on here.
Johnno, I read as far as the end of the quote.
Possibly you did likewise with my comment.
At least you’ve dropped the capital letters, (hysteria indeed.)
“And Joy, just admit you were wrong and shrieking like a hysteric on behalf of Expurts and your precious vexxine gub’mint back then. “
I have not nor have I ever shrieked or been hysterical about any disease.
I have responded in kind to you before I realised it was a waste of time.
You did spend the best part of two years saying this even though it was not true at any stage.
You couldn’t compute the fact that someone who has worked with such diseases would not be panicking. You just won’t have it. Instead you lay out straw men arguments and insist that they are so.
At least you dropped the capital letters.
As for “my experts” I speak of UK experts. Is the word expert illegal now?
Which expert is my expert? On this occasion I spoke about Van Tam as he had particular interest in that department. Id you actually read what I said?
The only thing I would change would be the US response, which was pitiful.
Boris Johnson’s buckling after the second stay at home order.
The first was totally understandable.
As I said at the time, too. If I were in charge things would have been very different. People would have still been complaining for a whole lot of different reasons.
Beyond that Johnno, I won’t wear your dim straw man outfit any more.
As for vaccines? don’t have one! Don’t blame me for mandates. That would be nutty.
Johnno,
In respect for the blog host, I think it’s best to stay polite
Excuse me if I appear to ignore you. I just see no purpose in discussing something when proper discussion doesn’t happen, even after all this time.
That’s right Joy, deflect, as usual.
By all means, complain about my use of comical caricatured language and descriptions of covidian mask-clutching hysterics, rather than the substance of the argument – that you and your Expurts, whether from the blessed UK or anywhere else were all – WRONG! (all caps) and LYING!
Well, in charity, maybe not you, you maybe weren’t lying… you’re probably just guillable. But you were the liar’s useful cheerleader here, and you are still batting for their team. You didn’t learn anything. And you remain stubborn.
Even if you don’t like me, plenty of others here were more lenient towards you, yet you paid them no heed either. Thus proving you are a fool’s errand.
You, your UK Expurts, and any other Expurt who loved the masks and wanted them so so very much have no credibility. Even your mask-pope, Fauci, has flipped, but not flopped all the way as, like you here, he grasps on mightily to the magical mythical circumstances somewhere, under the right, most ideal, most cordial, most miraculous odds- defying reasons under the microscope conditions through which a mask offered any practical benefit, like the double-00s on the billion-to-one odds that the ball lands in the bracket. “They may not work for the masses,” admits the Fauci now on the TeeVee,”but the individual!” Wah! Such THE SCIENCE ™! “Mistakes were made!”, the Expurts of the world now all now cry, for their can see the noose being tightened. Some are still carrying on the charade. After all, they work at colleges and universities! Expurts! These are still accurately described as HYSTERICAL! And they are all your lot and the company you admit that you keep and flatter! If you don’t want to be associated with them, I recommend that you stop wearing their feathers and clucking like one of them from under your mask. Nobody cares what type it is, or where you are right now, we can guess you are not in a biohazard suit, so whatever quality it is, it is doing you no good, at least not where viruses are concerned.
If you are wearing and advocating for the mask as of today – you are factually a hysteric – no matter how calmly you are using your keyboard.
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re: “I clicked the link … and was taken to Newsom’s Twitter (X) account [ https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom ]. Just out of curiosity, I scrolled through a dozen or so of his tweets. Holy Jumpin’ Jesus, the stupidity! Whatever it takes, this assclown must never be president.”
Cary,
That must be either a parody account, or, “Screwtape” (of the C. S. Lewis “The Screwtape Letters”) has managed to secure a Twitter account in the name of Gavin Newsom.