Health and Sanity category archive

Michael Smolens runs the numbers.

David starts with an Italian anti-vaxx doctor’s repudiation of his anti-vaxx position and moves into a discussion of why persons fall for embrace conspiracy theories. (Warning: Short commercial at the end.)

Will Bunch tires to figure out what’s behind “Freedom Convoys” in Canada. He suggests that their roots go far deeper–and much farther back–than the COVID pandemic. Here’s an excerpt (emphasis added).

Subramanya (Journalist Rupa Subramanya–ed.) — who said he interviewed 100 protesters — stated the somewhat obvious when he wrote the convoys aren’t really about vaccine mandates but “about something else. Or many things: a sense that things will never go back to normal, a sense that they are being ganged up on by the government, the media, Big Tech, Big Pharma.”

The vagueness of the demands makes it easy to both ridicule the protests and the protesters, and to also point attention at the many bad actors eager to mobilize the ennui and growing paranoia of a two-year pandemic for their own nefarious causes — including the usual suspects of neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers and Confederate flag wavers and whatnot. That’s on top of the exploiters of political gain (cough, cough, Rand Paul) and profit, like the ratings-mad hosts at Fox News. But you can’t exploit resentment unless there is resentment to exploit.

Follow the link for Bunch’s theory as to what’s behind said resentment.

(Broken tag fixed.)

(B

I agree with Farron. We are a nation of stupid.

Writing at Psychology Today Blogs, Christopher Dwyer takes a look at the current kerfuffle about podcaster Joe Rogan and, in a larger context, persons’ skill at separating information from dis- and misinformation. It is the most even-handed consideration of the Rogan flap that I’ve seen; I recommend it highly. Here’s a tiny bit:

One unfortunate thing I’ve learned over 15 years researching and teaching critical thinking is that some people just don’t care about it: They know what they believe and that’s all that matters. They will never engage with falsifiability and will never be open to evidence that refutes them. Perhaps the saddest part about this is that these people often believe they are critical thinkers. Moreover, the people who buy into some piece of misinformation generally believe it (or something similar) already and are actively looking for sources to confirm their bias(es). If it isn’t Rogan’s show, it will likely be someone else’s.

Also, I’ll confess, I couldn’t walk away from that headline . . . .

A maskless marauder who tried to fly the fiendly skies.

We are a society of selfish.

Sam and his crew discuss the Joe Rogan disinformation dispensary.

Sam, Emma, and Alex Pareene unpack the layers of COVID denial.