Some social media companies have taken it upon themselves to decide what we can and can’t say, question or believe. They think they’re doing this in the public interest. E.g., they — geniuses that they are — understand “the science,” and they’re doing their part to stop stupid people (who don’t understand “the science”) from spreading false information that will cause other stupid people to do bad things. <\/p>\n
I hope the arrogant bastards get what they deserve from that, but … be that as it may, from a certain point of view, you’re only allowed to ask specific things. As with most of these woke-aligned campaigns, it’s futile to ask for a list, or ask who curates the list, or what rules they use. It’s all subject to change. It’s like the ministry of truth in 1984. “We have always been at war with Eastasia.” <\/p>\n
Let’s take it as a given that we want to slow the spread of COVID-19 — to save lives, to keep the hospitals from being overcrowded, etc. If we agree on the goal, do we have to agree on the method to get there? Who, for example, has definitively decided that lockdowns are the right way to achieve this goal, and where is the evidence that lockdowns work? (An additional question is whether they are worth the cost. Here’s an article<\/a> about physicians who say they do more harm than good.) <\/p>\n Here’s an interesting article<\/a> from a few months back examining studies allegedly showing that lockdowns work, … or don’t work. You can find them going either way, of course. <\/p>\n I don’t know the answer, and I suspect it would take at least a day’s work to get close<\/i> to knowing the answer — which I’m not going to do. I’m not even sure it’s possible to know “the answer” at this point, and it doesn’t matter in any event. Gov. Hogan isn’t going to ask me for policy recommendations. <\/p>\n Here’s what amazes me. In the midst of this confusion and lack of certainty, the geniuses at Facebook know who to censor. They know what speech is in the public good and what isn’t. Facebook Sparks Another Free Speech Debate by Removing Anti-Lockdown Event Posts<\/a> <\/p>\n Free speech looks like it will be one of the casualties of COVID. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some social media companies have taken it upon themselves to decide what we can and can’t say, question or believe. They think they’re doing this in the public interest. E.g., they — geniuses that they are — understand “the science,” and they’re doing their part to stop stupid people (who don’t understand “the science”) from … Continue reading “Are we allowed to ask if lockdowns work, or if they’re worth it?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions\/832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}