By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
Personally, I don’t understand social media. I have no idea why anyone would want to broadcast personal items to the world and I have no interest in seeing a video of your dog. Nonetheless, I am obviously in a minority (no pun intended). For whatever reason millions of people must get their news from social media and are too lazy to look at other news sources.
Social media and YouTube censor what they call “misinformation.” However, misinformation is in the eye of the beholder. Consider their actions on Covid. While they allowed unsubstantiated statements from Dr Fauci, the White House and the CDC, they censored contrary opinions claiming “misinformation.” However, many of those censored were scientists who had reached different conclusions regarding the efficacy of masks, social distancing and the vaccines. Twitter and Facebook deleted accounts and YouTube deplatformed those who did not adhere to the party line. This should not be surprising since the management of these social media giants are all in the left wing camp. In fact, Facebook’s Zuckerberg donated $419.5 million to help elect democrats in the last election. I am certain that that money won’t have any impact on any congressional scrutiny of Facebook.
The only problem is that what social media deems as misinformation has often turned out to be accurate, meaning that the government was the party guilty of misinformation. I once wrote an article that the mainstream press refused to publish when I questioned the scientific basis for local mandates imposed by our health department. Apparently, some editor decided that the public need not know the facts. Indeed, when Dr Fauci was asked about his conflicting recommendations regarding Covid, he responded that the evidence had changed (it hadn’t) and that the public would have been confused by the truth.
People are slowly learning that there are alternative findings regarding Covid. There are studies showing that natural immunity is stronger than that from vaccines. There is evidence showing that masks are generally ineffective as is social distancing. There is evidence that those with natural immunity should not be vaccinated and troubling evidence that the CDC has withheld data showing that for those who are not aged and/or with co-conditions, the vaccines may be ineffective. Also troubling is the forcing of children to be masked and to be vaccinated. There has never been evidence that children need these measures and their death rate from Covid is less than that from the flu. Moreover, some studies show that Covid deaths have been inflated to allow the politicians to keep their Covid-related powers. Indeed, since Covid deaths are decreasing, the government has taken to trying to keep the public scared by raising infections to the level of deaths. Why else keep sounding alarms when most people who get infected are not likely to get seriously ill and die, even if they have not been vaccinated?
The next item that social media will likely censor as “misinformation” is climate change. The climate alarmists have been yelling that the sky is falling since I was in graduate school in the 1960s. We were all supposed to have been dead by 2000, yet we are still here and the environment is actually cleaner. There is considerable scientific evidence questioning the conclusions of climate change models and the impact of humanity on the climate. Google, Facebook and Twitter have all stated that they will post only “credible” content on climate change. But who determines what is “credible”? Given that there is no “settled science” regarding the climate, the censoring of voices contrary to the climate change zealots silences those voices while promoting information from only the greenies. Like Covid, the objective is to keep the public scared so that the government and special interests can maximize their power. Yet substituting “renewables” for fossil fuels will increase worldwide poverty and may be more harmful to the environment. But there are many who have a strong interest in suppressing the truth so don’t expect those views to see the light of day on social media.
