26 Comments
Feb 22, 2022Liked by Paul D. Thacker

Solid writeup. Another element that is just as bad (if not worse) is the stealth edit of information. I'm thinking of NY times articles where they change what was written w/ no attribution/notes/whatever. As well as when the CDC changes the definition of words like immunity and vaccines. You can also see this in dictionary.com type sites where they change the definition of words like racism. Impossible to communicate accurately when the same word means different things to different people. maybe that's the goal.

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Feb 22, 2022Liked by Paul D. Thacker

Misinfo and Disinfo are words used to try to justify censorship by calling it something else. Censorship is akin to fecal matter. One can call it perfume but that doesn't change the smell.

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I am a journalist who wrote an article on my age discrimination blog about the obscene amount of money the AARP earns by licensing its name to various products and services. I showed how the AARP has become a philanthropic entity, contributing to D.C. arts organizations (that have nothing to do with older Americans), black women's sororities, road races, etc. The article disappeared down a black hole. It was throttled. I had fewer readers than I normal after I published it! I have no idea how they did it. I consider this to be a form of censorship.

https://www.agediscriminationinemployment.com/aarp-donates-to-groups-with-no-apparent-link-to-aging/

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Feb 22, 2022Liked by Paul D. Thacker

Great interview on Attkisson!

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Notably absent even from the articles that agree the WIV engages in bioweapons research is the information the US has channeled funding to it for "gain of function" bypass research for same.

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Thanks for this valuable article. For a long time I have been trying to point out the dissembling nature of the term “misinformation”. The term “misinformation” covers information which is not necessarily false but which powerful interests do not want people to know - people are warned against misinformation as something which will harm them, and indeed in a totalitarian societal context it very well might: this has been creeping for years and is now suffocating us - catastrophic events in Canada which can barely be mentioned, let alone accurately explained, in the legacy media are the latest manifestation. It is good at least that BMJ is making a limited attempt to address the issue and it may be interesting to recall my on-line letter to it 15 May 2019:-

https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l2144/rr-0

An appeal to authority is not the same as an appeal to knowledge

I read the article by Martin McKee and John Middleton [1] with dismay, and ask what sense there can be in the fundamental attitude that all opinion favorable to vaccine products is correct (apparently by virtue of being favorable) and all opinion unfavorable to vaccine products malicious. The world they describe is very far from one I am familiar with. In the world I see people share bona fide information on-line, obtained from official sources, scientific articles, Patient Information Leaflets etc. And by ordinary standards they have a right: these are materials which belong in the public domain. I have never encountered anything on the web which plausibly could be identified as state misinformation or espionage about vaccine (it may occur in some territory of cyberspace which I have never visited): what we are talking about by and large is material which is well sourced, but not necessarily favorable to the industry and its apologists. Most troubling is that it is impossible to verify McKee and Middleton's claims that people are spreading false information, let alone deliberately. As with anything there must be some level of error but I am very far from sure that this is the main problem: what I see is people pasting and linking to materials of genuine concern, and which is not being addressed by our governments or officials. However much they may want to marginalise such data under the rubric "the benefits greatly outweigh the risks" or even the grandiose "vaccines are safe" a lot of it is not trivial.

Earlier this year I was lamenting with McKee the "hidden power of corporations" and concluded my short letter with comment [2,3]:

"But still we do not learn. Readers might like to view the list of the CDC Foundation corporate partners (motto: "Together our impact is greater") which includes the Coca-Cola Company but also virtually every other major corporation, and every major pharmaceutical company ... At least Coca Cola was not supposed to improve your health."

Neither has the World Health Organization been historically above suspicion [4], and I have written about problems with measles data over a number of years [5-10] . Whatever the concerns about the spread of measles it should not be at the expense of truth.

I could write at much greater length but what we should have is not an "information war" but an honest discussion about the limits of science and knowledge, and decent respect for people who report harm, rather than the hostility which seems to be the currency. This way we will progress.

[1] McKee & Middleton, 'Information wars: tackling the threat from disinformation on vaccines',

BMJ 2019; 365 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l2144 (Published 13 May 2019)

[2] John Stone, 'Re: The hidden power of corporations', 23 January 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l4/rr-3

[3] https://www.cdcfoundation.org/partner-list/corporations

[4] John Stone, 'Fear of the disease is not a reason for confidence in the product...', 21 March 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l1259/rr

[5] John Stone, 'Re: MMR, measles, and the South Wales Evening Post' 4 May 2013, https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2598/rr/644022

[6] John Stone, 'Re: Measles: Europe sees record number of cases and 37 deaths so far this year', 6 September 2018, https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3596/rr-24

[7] John Stone, 'Re: Measles: Europe sees record number of cases and 37 deaths so far this year', 11 September 2018, https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3596/rr-29

[8] John Stone, 'Information and Misinformation: the Global Health Security Agenda' 5 March 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l981/rr

[9] John Stone, 'Re: Measles cases rise 300% globally in first few months of 2019 - how long is a piece of string?' , 17 April 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1810/rr

[10] John Stone, 'Re: Measles cases rise 300% globally in first few months of 2019', 23 April 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1810/rr-3

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The more optimistic side of me feels that those who seek and speak truth will provide enough of a floatation device to keep open scientific inquiry above water long enough for a meaningful cultural shift to occur, or new institutions to form.

The more despairing part of me, in contrast, feels like we are witnessing a civilization sink into a bizarre technicoloured abyss. A sort of swirling kaleidoscope of nonsensical hedonism and shallow tribalism where we either no longer know what shared objective "truth" even means or don't care to know.

Thanks a another great piece Paul (I think 😝).

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ukrainegate.info nice summary of Bidens' corrupt rule in Ukraine (found the link in Comments – never seen it before)

https://ukrainegate.info/short-part-1-a-not-so-solid-prosecutor/

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What "experimental interventions" today are you referring to? The prescribing of

hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to Covid patients?

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"2003 and 20016" looks like an extra 0 crept in there.

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Viruganda is already censorship and kills by Coercion of hacksxxxine from big Harma

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