Dystopia Is Upon Us. Again. (January 2022 Edition)
Fact-checking Run Amok, Louder calls for censorship, and a closer examination of the phrase 'mass formation psychosis.'
Jason Cousineau and Eric Renderking Fisk | January 21st, 2021
Jay and Eric discuss how people are starting to stand up and speak out against Cancel Culture while leaders in The Unites States are doubling down on divisive rhetoric. President Joe Biden and Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen call on Social Media to censor users to combat "Misinformation," while 48% of registered Democratic voters want to side with the establishment and give State and Federal Governments the authority to criminalize 'dissenting voices' against the narrative.
Also, hundreds of doctors and scientists call for the censorship of podcasters who question the science behind COVID19 origins, vaccines and their side effects. And who or what is this 'Blackrock' corporation, and why does it matter?
Plus a clip from Tulsi Gabbard with reactions from Jay and Eric.
Sources and Links:
Rasmussen Reports: "COVID-19: Democratic Voters Support Harsh Measures Against Unvaccinated," January 13th, 2022
While many voters have become skeptical toward the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of Democrats embrace restrictive policies, including punitive measures against those who haven’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.
A new Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 48% of voters favor President Joe Biden’s plan to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on the employees of large companies and government agencies. That includes 33% who Strongly Favor the mandate. Forty-eight percent (48%) are opposed to Biden’s vaccine mandate, including 40% who Strongly Oppose the mandate. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Voters are similarly divided over the federal government’s top COVID-19 expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Forty-five percent (45%) view Fauci favorably, including 28% who have a Very Favorable impression of him. Forty-eight percent (48%) have an unfavorable impression of Fauci, including 34% who have a Very Unfavorable view of him.
[Just the text of the article...]
– Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters would oppose a proposal for federal or state governments to fine Americans who choose not to get a COVID-19 vaccine. However, 55% of Democratic voters would support such a proposal, compared to just 19% of Republicans and 25% of unaffiliated voters.
– Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democratic voters would favor a government policy requiring that citizens remain confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies, if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a proposal is opposed by 61% of all likely voters, including 79% of Republicans and 71% of unaffiliated voters.
– Nearly half (48%) of Democratic voters think federal and state governments should be able to fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications. Only 27% of all voters – including just 14% of Republicans and 18% of unaffiliated voters – favor criminal punishment of vaccine critics.
– Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats would favor governments requiring citizens to temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Such a policy would be opposed by a strong majority (71%) of all voters, with 78% of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters saying they would Strongly Oppose putting the unvaccinated in “designated facilities.”
– While about two-thirds (66%) of likely voters would be against governments using digital devices to track unvaccinated people to ensure that they are quarantined or socially distancing from others, 47% of Democrats favor a government tracking program for those who won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine.
"An Open Letter to Spotify: A call from the global scientific and medical communities to implement a misinformation policy..." By 200 Plus Doctors on Wordpress.
On Dec. 31, 2021, the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), a Spotify-exclusive podcast, uploaded a highly controversial episode featuring guest Dr. Robert Malone (#1757). The episode has been criticized for promoting baseless conspiracy theories and the JRE has a concerning history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. By allowing the propagation of false and societally harmful assertions, Spotify is enabling its hosted media to damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals. JRE #1757 is not the only transgression to occur on the Spotify platform, but a relevant example of the platform’s failure to mitigate the damage it is causing.
We are a coalition of scientists, medical professionals, professors, and science communicators spanning a wide range of fields such as microbiology, immunology, epidemiology, and neuroscience and we are calling on Spotify to take action against the mass-misinformation events which continue to occur on its platform. With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence. Though Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, the company presently has no misinformation policy.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Joe Rogan has repeatedly spread misleading and false claims on his podcast, provoking distrust in science and medicine. He has discouraged vaccination in young people and children, incorrectly claimed that mRNA vaccines are “gene therapy,” promoted off-label use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 (contrary to FDA warnings), and spread a number of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. In episode #1757, Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone, who was suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Dr. Malone used the JRE platform to further promote numerous baseless claims, including several falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and an unfounded theory that societal leaders have “hypnotized” the public. Many of these statements have already been discredited. Notably, Dr. Malone is one of two recent JRE guests who has compared pandemic policies to the Holocaust. These actions are not only objectionable and offensive, but also medically and culturally dangerous.
The average age of JRE listeners is 24 years old and according to data from Washington State, unvaccinated 12-34 year olds are 12 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than those who are fully vaccinated. Dr. Malone’s interview has reached many tens of millions of listeners vulnerable to predatory medical misinformation. Mass-misinformation events of this scale have extraordinarily dangerous ramifications. As scientists, we face backlash and resistance as the public grows to distrust our research and expertise. As educators and science communicators, we are tasked with repairing the public’s damaged understanding of science and medicine. As physicians, we bear the arduous weight of a pandemic that has stretched our medical systems to their limits and only stands to be exacerbated by the anti-vaccination sentiment woven into this and other episodes of Rogan’s podcast.
This is not only a scientific or medical concern; it is a sociological issue of devastating proportions and Spotify is responsible for allowing this activity to thrive on its platform. We, the undersigned doctors, nurses, scientists, and educators thus call on Spotify to immediately establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform.
Business Insider: "Scientists Want Spotify to Stop Misinformation After Joe Rogan Episode - Joe Rogan interviewed a doctor who's been kicked off Twitter for misinformation. Doctors and scientists say it's time for Spotify to better police its podcasts." by Allana Akhtar | January 12th, 2022
Rolling Stone: "‘A Menace to Public Health’: Doctors Demand Spotify Puts an End to Covid Lies on ‘Joe Rogan Experience’ Unlike many platforms, Spotify doesn’t have a clear policy prohibiting misinformation. 270 physicians and scientists are hoping to change that," By EJ DICKSON | January 12th, 2021
ABC News: "Justice Dept. creating unit focused on domestic terrorism The Justice Department is establishing a specialized unit focused on domestic terrorism." By Eric Tucker | January 11th, 2022.
NOW - Biden: "I make a special appeal to social media companies and media outlets — please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that's on your shows. It has to stop."
President Joe Biden gave an "update on the whole-of-government COVID-19 surge response on Thursday morning." Biden begged Americans to wear masks, stating that free masks would soon be available. He pressed vaccines on the unvaccinated, boosters on the vaccinated, and asked social media and media companies not to run stories or allow posts that run counter to government narratives on COVID.
"I make a special appeal to social media companies and media outlets," he said, please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that's on your shows, it has to stop." He shook his head in dismay. He said further that COVID-19 is one of the most formidable enemies America has ever faced, and "we've got to work together."
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 13, 2022
"COVID‐19 and misinformation Is censorship of social media a remedy to the spread of medical misinformation?" Emilia Niemiec | November
In February this year, when the new coronavirus began to spread outside China, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced: “we're not just fighting an epidemic; we're fighting an infodemic” (https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/munich-security-conference). The term, coined in 2003 in the context of the first SARS epidemic, refers to a rapid proliferation of information that is often false or uncertain (https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-were-watching-infodemic-meaning). Academic researchers, international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union, individual governments and the media have acknowledged and discussed the prevalence of the alleged COVID‐19 infodemic and the importance of fighting it. Information campaigns have been launched to provide wider audiences with reliable information about COVID‐19. Main social media platforms have also actively fought against false information by filtering out or flagging content considered as misinformation. In this essay, I will discuss the censorship on social media platforms related to COVID‐19 and the problems it raises along with an alternative approach to counteract the spread of medical and scientific misinformation.
Five giant corporations now control most of what we see and read. The smallest number of media companies are now reaching the largest number of people in U.S. history, and the strongest critical analysis I can find is not in mainstream media, but in the student newspaper at Vassar. Which gives you some idea of the pickle we are in.
Who controls the corporations who control our news? A helpful index was just compiled—not by mainstream media, but by Harvard researchers exploring media’s future. Skimming the list, I see two names again and again: BlackRock Fund Advisors and Vanguard Group.
BlackRock and Vanguard are two of the Big Three (every industry is clumping) passive fund asset management firms. The third, State Street, is owned by BlackRock. Whose largest shareholder is Vanguard.
Together, BlackRock and Vanguard own:
• Eighteen percent of Fox.
• Sixteen percent of CBS, and therefore also of Sixty Minutes.
• Thirteen percent of Comcast, which owns NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and the Sky media group.
• Twelve percent of CNN.
• Twelve percent of Disney, which owns ABC and FiveThirtyEight.
• Between ten and fourteen percent of Gannett, which owns more than 250 Gannett daily newspapers plus USA Today.
• Ten percent of the Sinclair local television news, which controls seventy-two percent of U.S. households’ local TV.
• A large unspecified chunk of Graham Media Group, which owns Slate and Foreign Policy.
Maybe media is a better investment than I thought, once it . . . clumps. But passive funds (index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, not the actively managed ones) are an awfully nerdy setting for a Netflix Originals media conspiracy. International banks would be sexier.
ABC News: "Justice Dept. creating unit focused on domestic terrorism The Justice Department is establishing a specialized unit focused on domestic terrorism," By Eric Tucker / Associated Press | January 11, 2022
