Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Robyn Chuter's avatar

This is a really thought-provoking piece. Sometimes, when I'm sifting through the giant file in which I store ideas for Substack posts in order to choose what to write about, I ask myself 'Why am I doing this? Why am I am trying to bring these studies, these statistics, these instances of blatant propaganda, these examples of institutional corruption and incompetence, to the attention of my readers (and hopefully, the broader public)?' I don't have a complete or satisfactory answer to that question.

Partly, it's the compulsion of the child who sees that the emperor is naked, and just has to point it out to other people who don't seem to see it (or pretend that they don't).

Partly, it's to reassure those who have 'woken up' but are being pressured hard to comply, or gaslit so hard that they're beginning to doubt their own sanity, that they have good reason to stand firm.

Partly, it's to provide ammunition to people who are getting into debates with family and friends (and I know that a lot of my readers use my articles for this purpose!).

Partly, it's that I feel compelled to document what's going on, so that if we lose this battle and the history of COVID is written by the agents of the predator class, future revisionist historians will have something to go on.

Partly, it's to provide some role modelling for how to conduct critical appraisal, rather than jumping on bandwagons such as 'everything that gets published in the medical literature is Rockefeller Medicine and therefore can't be believed', which is patently untrue.

Partly, it's that I know that even though the systems of academic production and publication are thoroughly corrupted, there are individuals within those systems who are ethical, and who are trying to get the message out both to fellow academics and to the general public. I cited several studies by people like this in my post on the myocarditis hustle, which you kindly linked to. Reading such studies is like watching a hostage video: you know that the hostage is trying to communicate something while staying within the bounds that their captors have imposed, at threat of their lives. These academics are risking their careers by doing research that challenges the narrative; the least I can do is to ensure that their work products gets seen by at least some of the public. You could argue that they are validating the system by staying within it and that if they want to live with integrity they should instead exit the system entirely (like Tess Lawrie, for whom I have enormous admiration), but I think that's a simplistic approach to a complex problem. Eventually, people like Tess, Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, Jordan Peterson, Mathew Crawford, El Gato Malo and others who recognise how broken the current system is, will hopefully be able to build a new one that actually works (i.e. serves as a mechanism for gaining closer and closer approximations to an accurate understanding of reality) and communicating these for the betterment of humankind). But that's a long, slow process. Academics who wish to tell the truth don't have access to such a system yet, so they're doing their best to work within the system that currently exists.

Expand full comment
Gail Pisani's avatar

Well said Shane. It is indeed a silly earth! Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful writings, so useful at this time

Expand full comment
2 more comments...

No posts