Tuesday, April 21, 2020

The Right Sends In the Quacks

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/opinion/coronavirus-conservatives.html


On second thought, however, Moore fits right in. One thing the coronavirus has thrown into sharp relief is the centrality of quackery — confident pronouncements on technical subjects by people who have no idea what they’re talking about — to the whole enterprise of modern conservatism.

We know, for example, that Trump’s call for an early end to the economic lockdown was inspired in part by the writings of Richard Epstein, a conservative legal scholar who decided that he understands epidemiology better than the epidemiologists and confidently predicted that Covid-19 would kill no more than 500 people. (It’s currently killing four times that many every day.)
Or consider how Fox News responded to the unwillingness of Dr. Anthony Fauci to do what it wanted, and support an early reopening of the economy. To provide an alternative view, the network turned to … Dr. Phil, whose expertise, if he has one, is in pop psychology.

16 comments :

  1. Some people think of the pursuit for knowledge using the scientific method in a way akin to a roller derby competition.

    The idea is to pick and choose an expert, selecting one based on the fact he or she says something you like and/or has a degree from and/or teaches in a well know university and then pushing, elbowing, and generally clobbering anyone else who points out that that is decidedly NOT how science works. Extra points if you misconstrue what the expert says and twist it into some simplistic explanation that can be repeated forever, as if science textbooks are written in stone.

    This kind of thinking is what the Internet was made for! There's a reason they call it it the world wide web -- ducks have webbed feet! Quack, quack!!

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  2. The liberal left has Melissa McCarthy and the anti-vaxxers. Stupidity is common on both sides of the aisle. Here's a perfect example - when the first talk of travel bans came up in January, it's was the liberal left that screamed that such bans would be racism.

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  3. https://youtu.be/Gdd7dtDaYmM

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  4. killing in the nursing homeshttps://www.wkrn.com/community/health/coronavirus/doctors-execution-drugs-could-help-covid-19-patients/

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  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2vqjBtnltI&feature=emb_logo
    see the english subs

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  6. I reviewed the video. I didn't get much out of it. He seems to be saying some strange stuff.

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  7. In some areas, the experts are doing guesswork, such in the curent situation. There are different statistic models, for example, on hwo the disease will progress and how many it will kill. Depending on one's assumptions, and methods, the answers can differ quite sharply.
    But if I recall, you are an anti-vaxxer. Now, I would agree that a vaccine for this covid 19 virus will be difficult to get ready, and the first shots might not even be effective, or safe. I wouldn't be the first person to take the vaccine, but after it has been shown to be safe, i would then try it. BTW "safe" is not absolute, even a small number of patients can have severe adverse reactions.

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  8. Yes, Soviet era propaganda, Komrade. I'm sure you fit in to the Soviet ideology, and the gulags. Also you support theier 100% shmad, that destroyed millions of Jews in russia.

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  9. they knew 3 years ago? strange!

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/XLM83s2LrSoU/

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  10. out of curiosity i clicked onto the link you provided, but it is nonsense, it is another crackpot cheapo website, and they are trying to show that the London Olympics, somehow presaged this pandemic. No, it had a theatrical summary of London and British history, including WW2, when there were gasmasks, and the founding of our National Health service.

    It just goes to show what a childish level your intellect is on, that you buy hook, line and sinker every freakshow and conspiracy theory going.
    Would you accept all sources as equally canonical in religious matters? For example, would you accept sources form Christianity, the New testament, Koran, Hinduis, Buddshim and every other cult going however obscure? That seems to be the way you are going.

    let me remind you about the Rambam's thesis in his Guide for the The Perplexed. he says that the ancient Sabean scoiety, practiced all forms of occult, witchcraft etc, and this led to idolatry. Or this was various branches of idolatry. Now all the cults, occult, freakshow, David Icke etc that you are wallowing in are all the modern day versions of the Sabean agriculture (the name of their famous sefer).
    And you seem turned on by it. Incidentally, the most liekly reason that Rav Nachman of breslov rejected the Guide, and called it "evil", is because Rambam is implying that certain mystical practices that were gaining force in the jewish world, were either rooted in Idolatry, or just plain garbage. This includes astrology of course.

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  11. https://youtu.be/PGC5f6OjYQk

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  12. Someone saying they don't like the immoral way some vaccines were developed and manufactured doesn't make them an "anti-vaxxer."

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  13. Childish ? Me thinks your rambling long winded statements tells me exactly where you are holding .........

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  14. But the conservative right is now in power and has become mainstream and so is capable of and is in fact doing incomparably more damage than the liberal left.

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