Coronavirus Pandemic

[Niall_Quinn]

How do you know that was my real cover? What if it's cover for my cover? Is there ever any real way to know how people like me operate? We walk through the raindrops. We are fleeting shadows, maybe you saw us, maybe not.

[Niall_Quinn]

I am not. I'm saying that IF something is demonstrably false and someone - especially someone with influence - is spreading that false thing AND that false thing could put people who believe it in danger then that is a bad thing. The tricky thing is how you know something is demonstrably false - it's next to impossible to get absolute consensus on anything.



No.



It is not the same. We all have our own "truth" which I guess I'd define as the set of things we believe to be true.
But absolute objective truth exists independently. So I saw some debate about gender identity and some woman (she was definitely a woman) said:
"I am a woman, that is my reality".
And I thought "No, it isn't your reality, it's your chromosomes". She's not a woman because she believes herself to be.
If she believed herself to be a man that would not make that true.
The tricky thing is how does one determine what that objective truth is and who is the arbiter of it?
You and I regularly come to different conclusions about things so by definition one of us is wrong (possibly both of us).
Who is it?



Evidence?



So how are you defining "information"? I mean, let's say the POTUS Tweets that drinking bleach prevents Covid.
(I know he didn't, but let's say). Is that "information"? It's clearly a dangerous thing to Tweet because if people believe it and start drinking bleach then they're going to die. Now of course in that scenario some doctors would almost certainly start clarifying that people shouldn't drink bleach. And one could argue that if anyone is stupid enough to drink bleach because someone told them to then they probably deserve to die. Bit harsh, but that argument could be made.



It would be really nice if that were so but I just don't think it is. One of my little obsessions is Flat Earth. I just think it's fascinating that in this day and age anyone could believe that (although I increasingly feel, as I talk to people who claim to, that they are trolling). But interest in FE has demonstrably increased over the last 10 years. There are now FE conventions you can go to! Recently you said something about how the Internet should have helped with disinformation and I meant to reply to that but of course it hasn't. It's made it worse. Back in the day crackpots would shout on street corners and people passing by would laugh at them. Now they can shout stuff across the internet and, with a fair wind, disseminate bullshit to huge numbers of people.
It doesn't really matter if people believe the earth is flat but some other false beliefs can have consequences.

I'm not saying the solution to that is obvious. I'm not saying that censorship is the right solution.
But there is a problem which needs dealing with. I'd suggest part of the solution is better education and teaching people to think more critically.

You know there are laws to deal with genuinely harmful speech being mass distributed? What's wrong with enforcing those laws? Legal professionals have sat down and thought about all the issues you are mentioning, along with many more, and have defined a set of laws that attempt to cover intricacy and scope. What makes Faceboot or political fact checkers think they can do a better job? Who gave them permission to do that job?

If Trump tells people to drink bleach and some nutter does it, there's legal recourse. Maybe not for the victim, but certainly for the political institutions who can act. On the other hand, if I tell you the earth is flat, who cares? Who really cares? Even if you believed it, so what? Just means you are ignorant, as all of us are on the vast majority of things that are knowable. Surely the goal is to accumulate useful information and throw out that which is not? And to do that all the time until a general body of understanding develops. It falls on the individual to invest the effort and shape their own understanding. If we start delegating "smart" people to do that job for us then they are the ones shaping our understanding and our world. And if I'm too thick to make these determinations for myself then I shouldn't be voting in elections that can influence the lives of other people, should I? Indeed, there shouldn't be any elections to vote in or politicians to run, because their very purpose is to misinform. Shall we ban them all. Because they certainly are dangerous for a great number of people. Health. Jobs. Education. War. Important stuff.

What the censors are telling you is they know best. What they don't understand is their understanding and world has been shaped by the prejudices of others, and probably to a greater degree because if you support censorship then you are susceptible to corruption in the first place. This is why the "fact" checkers lean left. The pick and choose their facts and then they write the conclusion that should not be criticised. Take the WHO, for example, during this pandemic. A classic example of how harmful censorship can be.

Bad people are empowered by censorship.

[Niall_Quinn]

Apparently you can now be fined £1000 for dancing at a wedding. Unless you are the bride and groom, in which case the state has sanctioned this exception. Will this be enforced by you having to invite a state observer to your wedding, at your expense no doubt? Or is the state relying on one of the limited 15 guests, family and close friends presumably, doing their duty and reporting such activity?

There's a provision in law that prohibits stupid and unenforceable legislation, and it applies here.

[Niall_Quinn]

Remember when we blew up the Taliban and everyone within a mile of them because they wouldn't let people fly kites? They were still allowed to dance at weddings though, at least until the drone strike took them out.

[Niall_Quinn]

Here it is

Your government hard at work.

[Niall_Quinn]

The NHS is on the verge of collapsing under all the new covid cases - according to the coordinated mainstream media.

Which is odd, because there's a fraction of the number of hospitalisations right now compared to the peak in April. And the NHS didn't collapse back then. Well it did, in terms of abandoning non-covid patients. But the official story was the curve was flattened, we saved the NHS and we saved lives. Yay for us!

But now, 500 patients nationally are close to collapsing the service? Maybe the cuts are deeper than we knew?

Or maybe the mainstream media is lying again and pushing fear porn?

It's the latter. As usual.

They've lost track of their lies.

[Niall_Quinn]

Some clarification on the fake news pushed yesterday by the fake news BBC and the ONS who claimed Covid has caused 3x more deaths than influenza and pneumonia combined this year.

"Influenza and pneumonia was mentioned on more death certificates than COVID-19, however COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death in over three times as many deaths between January and August 2020."

So there you have it. Covid caused 3 times as many deaths as flu and pneumonia, provided you ignore flu and pneumonia.

Good to know.

[Niall_Quinn]

You will be denied care by the NHS if refuse the vaccine.

Prediction, not fact yet. But all the available facts point to this.

You will also be denied travel, employment, the ability to socialise in public and your children may be denied education and/ or taken into care.

Sounds ludicrous. Hopefully I'll have egg all over my face sometime down the road.

I won't though.

[Letters]

Apparently you can now be fined £1000 for dancing at a wedding. Unless you are the bride and groom, in which case the state has sanctioned this exception.

And do you really still think this is about control?
You think these guidelines (note - they are guidelines) are going to be enforced and the government actually give a shit whether your auntie has a boogie at your wedding?

[Letters]

The government

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54481817

Magic money tree