Posted on 06/28/2021 5:43:15 AM PDT by DoodleBob
...You’re probably thinking at this juncture that the point of this column is to make fun of red states. No. The point of this column is to denounce them. Their willful anti-science ignorance is going to prolong this pandemic by months (at least) and lead to thousands of needless deaths...
Almost worse, though, is how this anti-science fanaticism is perverting the meaning of the concept of freedom. This is dangerous for democracy in ways most people aren’t even thinking about right now.
...
Incredibly, the right has now established the “principle” that people can engage in potentially harmful action without any expectation that there will be consequences. Indeed, with the conviction that consequences are tyranny. Where does this end?
Now, the Delta variant... is “poised to divide the United States again, with highly vaccinated areas continuing toward post-pandemic freedom and poorly vaccinated regions threatened by greater caseloads and hospitalizations.”
One is almost tempted to think well, if they want to kill themselves and each other, that’s their business. But it isn’t that simple. When people really start travelling again, the virus will spread. Are we really going to have to go into a lockdown again because nearly half the country is so consumed by ideology-driven hatred of the other half that they’d literally rather see loved ones die than go get a simple shot?
Freedom in a democratic society depends on limits. My freedom is limited by your freedom, and where they clash, we have to make peace or decide to leave each other alone. That this core democratic principle has been tossed out the window by nearly half the country is mind-boggling. Voter suppression and gerrymandering aren’t the only ways that these people are destroying democracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...
Freedom in a democratic society depends on limits.
All this about "freedom" from the guy who was part of a management team that wanted to force-relocate New Republic staff from NY to D.C.
Freedom in a democratic society depends on limits.
_____________________________________________________
...and limits on government overreach were amongst the most important.
The New Republic has been at the vanguard of trying to socialize the country with Left wing tyranny.
They have a lot of nerve to lament the red-blue divide they helped create.
These commies wouldn’t know science and the truth if it bit em on the ass.
The left is wrong to blame this on red state politics. The overwhelming predictor of vaccination is wealth. Rich people get vaccinated poor people don’t.
There are a lot of poor people in red states, but it’s not them who vote Republican.
the science shows that sociopathic
liars like this do better after their own lobotomy.
Members of the editorial staff, many of whom are based in New York, feared that the geographic shift would hasten an ideological squeeze of the site’s newer, openly-left wing writers, in favor of returning to the access-driven, Beltway-centric liberal journalism that earned TNR the derisive title of “the in-flight magazine of Air Force One.”
Tomasky can't get his stupid little magazine in order...and he's going to pontificate to the rest of the nation about how the Deplorables need to get in line?
hardly
As usual, a leftist is incapable of properly analyzing a problem. There is a blue-red divide divide because people are on the right are anti-scientism. We do not believe in a pseudo-science religion and follow their high-priest, Antony FauxChi. We look at hard facts and know that wearing face diapers for extended times is actually unhealthy and does not prevent the spread of the CCP virus. We know that slowing the spread extends the period of time to reach herd immunity. We know that government forced shut downs were a political hit job in an election year. We know that many elements of the US Government illegally worked with the CCP in gain of function research, which has one purpose only. That is to weaponize a virus. We have seen how Marxists governors and transsexual health secretaries murdered thousands in old-age homes. All of this in the name of scientism. I could go on, but the bottom line is simple. If you sacrifice freedom for safety, you will have neither. That has been proven beyond a doubt.
It never was.
And it sure isn't now.
Remember how science said ulcers were induced chiefly by stress or spicy food? It turns out, they are induced chiefly by bacteria. Whoops.
The history of science is littered with "no wait....that's wrong...THIS is right..." going through the rinse and repeat cycle endlessly.
And that's ok. Inquiry and challenge and "being a science heretic" is, in many ways, how mankind learns more and can fix more problems.
But science isn't math. Your checking account balance is the sum of deposits less sum of withdrawals. Always. Forever.
The problem arises when people try to equate science with math...usually they call it "settled science." And, to be sure, robust inquiry and disciplined application of the scientific method usually gives you clear and distinct results. Then, science is settled...until we get new data or better techniques, and then we get "wait a minute..".
For example, there was a most excellent article posted on how "settled science" wasn't so settled, wherein:
seems that Earth has been misplaced. According to a new map of the Milky Way galaxy, the Solar System's position isn't where we thought it was. Not only is it closer to the galactic centre - and the supermassive hole therein, Sagittarius A* - it's orbiting at a faster clip.
It further noted other "errors" in SCIENCE:
A good recent example of this is the red giant star Betelgeuse, which turned out to be closer to Earth than previous measurements suggested. This means that it's neither as large nor as bright as we thought. Another is the object CK Vulpeculae, a star that exploded 350 years ago. It's actually much farther away, which means that the explosion was brighter and more energetic, and requires a new explanation, since previous analyses were performed under the assumption it was relatively low energy
The other problem arises when Certain Powers work overtime to suppress assiduous inquiry. Which, is what we have today as well. It's a bad double whammy.
In the interest of full disclosure, my "science isn't math" quote came from a recent post on social sciences, that featured this brilliant give and take involving a Harvard faculty member critical of Charles Murray from the original article, that is worth reprinting - it is with regard to the "certainty of SCIENCE":
"so why should we let someone teach social science that we know to be wrong in our social science courses?"
Because it is possible that you are wrong.
Science is not mathematics. Newtonian physics was wrong. And social science is a further three rungs down in certainty from science.
Your level of certainty and arrogance about what can be said, and probably thought, smacks of religion, and not science. This is a political religion that permeates academia at the moment. And which I am fairly sure you will swear does not infect you, while the rest of us can see the symptoms quite plainly.
Only religions ban heretics from speaking because of the wrong-think they might cause. Real science loves a good heretic. In fact, honestly, the entire goal of science is to be a heretic. To have an idea that no other person ever had. Science is the pretty much the antithesis of your thought-police approach.
And most of academia used to be the antithesis of your thought police approach as well, until the religion of leftism took it over, with the direct help of people like you.
Understood. It’s more the broader statement he makes in the article that I was referring to.
Conservatives want to... conserve.
It’s the Left that wants to make all these changes to a political system of free human beings that was hammered out and perfected in the late 1700s and again in the 1860s.
The Left always wants to make radical changes to things that should be preserved, or only tweaked to be more in line with Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
They are the ones responsible for the blue-red divide—not us.
You mention a weaponized virus from communist china yet denounce vaccines and simple PPE like face masks to reduce the spread.
Do you realize that you are a vector for the China virus?
Yes, but then, no. They know all about the scientific process — enough to screw it up by cherry-picking the data and censoring dissent. Commies have it in their genetic code to do this sort of crappola. Otherwise, no one would be stupid enough to ever endorse Progressives/DemoSocialists/Socialists/Communists.
There is so much wrong with this article that it’s difficult to know where to begin and end. So I will limit myself to one specific premise in this: “Incredibly, the right has now established the “principle” that people can engage in potentially harmful action without any expectation there will be consequences. Indeed, with the conviction that consequences are tyranny. Where does this end?”
I’m not sure where it ends but I can say with “conviction” where it began. It began with the sexual revolution and celebrating it. It began with advocating the destruction of inhibitions established over eons of human development. It began with making abortion a rite of the new Me religion. It began with holding groups to a different standard of behavior, depending on skin color. It began with pushing to let dangerous criminals walk the streets again without reforming them. It began with letting every person define their own morality and celebrating it. It began with denying science or deforming science to meet the needs of an interest group. It began with justifying different standards of justice depending on skin color and political leanings. In other words, the right didn’t change society, the left did and continues to do so. Physician, heal thyself.
Science is not math, nor is it what you are implying.
Science is the method of discovery—not the end result.
If some authority says diet causes ulcers, it was the pursuit of discovery using the scientific method to derive an answer closer to the truth; that is, it was bacteria.
None of what you say makes science wrong. It’s human understanding that was wrong. Science is the method to get that understanding. It should be a given to everyone that understanding will change as more discoveries are made using science.
Science itself says NOTHING.
It is the powers that be that attempt to make claims using certain—but not all—discoveries to say what the truth is.
These powers are not just governmental, but the media too, or even mostly. In fact, anyone that lets any agency dictate to them, like social media or Hollywood celebrities, has given them that same power.
For example, Leonardo Di Caprio is not a climate scientist, he’s just a kid that grew up in a fawning Hollywood society that others gush and sigh over. So when he says the Earth is too warm due to human carbon dioxide effluence, and flies his private jets around the world to tell people in wonderful exotic places like Tahiti and Switzerland, well, that’s not science either.
Perhaps the 45% of Conservatives that refuse to be bullied into medical experiments understand tail risk?
It was “science” that brought about this pandemic. The removal of Christ from our universities and especially anything “science” will introduce to ghe world millions of Dr. Mengelas, or Faucis.
Great points
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