It's quite possible that this is just what happens when intelligent life on a planet becomes technologically advanced, society implodes and they destroy themselves before developing the ability to travel and colonise any other systems with their idiocy. Probably a good thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%2 ... ne_Doctors

SpeakWithAnMD

America's Frontline Doctors is affiliated with SpeakWithAnMD, a telehealth website run by conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi.[14][22] It primarily distributes drugs that have been claimed by right-wing figures to be therapeutics for COVID-19.[23] When referred via the AFLDS website, the site charges US$90 for a doctor consultation with an "AFLDS-trained" physician, which is provided by Encore Telemedicine. Orders are then fulfilled via the online pharmacy Ravkoo, which is charged on top of the consulting fee and can vary.[14]

Hundreds of customers and donors accused the organization of charging fees for ivermectin prescriptions and consultations but failing to deliver, as well as referring customers to online pharmacies that charged excessive prices for the common anti-parasitic drug, which has also not been approved by the FDA or other regulators as a therapeutic for COVID-19.[14]

In September 2021, based on data leaked from an anonymous breach of Cadence Health and Ravkoo, The Intercept estimated that AFLDS and its partners had made $6.7 million in revenue from these consultations between July 16 and September 12, 2021.[16]

21st Century Snake Oil Salesmen: A sucker born every minute.

Yes, it's all a grift.

ronmcd wrote:It's quite possible that this is just what happens when intelligent life on a planet becomes technologically advanced, society implodes and they destroy themselves before developing the ability to travel and colonise any other systems with their idiocy. Probably a good thing.

One of the reasons I despair the Great Filter is still ahead of us, we're very possibly fucked.

Alan C wrote:

ronmcd wrote:It's quite possible that this is just what happens when intelligent life on a planet becomes technologically advanced, society implodes and they destroy themselves before developing the ability to travel and colonise any other systems with their idiocy. Probably a good thing.

One of the reasons I despair the Great Filter is still ahead of us, we're very possibly fucked.

I agree on so many levels but I'm tired of repeating my vision for the future only to be told I'm "too negative". For example, this "plague". You'd think humans would have developed a sense of self-preservation by now, so that when a threat appears, they have enough intellectual capacity to take the advice of people who've spent their whole lives studying what to do should a threat arrive. Any threat. But no, we haven't evolved to that level yet. We are as ignorant and obstinate now as we were when the first threat to our continued existence appeared thousands of years ago, despite having access to everything the world's best minds know about everything. To use your words, no matter how those of us who do what we're told to do to avoid disaster, have to sit by and wait and watch while humankind dies out because of its own stubborn stupidity. Thank the advance of time that I won't be here to witness it - and if considering that my descendants will be is selfish, then label me selfish. I just don't care anymore. I totally agree that when the "Great Filter" that is coming arrives, humans will be "fucked" and the earth will be better for it.

I'm not completely fatalist about us moving out of the cradle as it were but, as I've thought often, Idiocracy is getting more prophetic by the year. Even down here we're seeing our small but rabid cluster of wilfully-ignorant uncritical morons gathering, fucking up covid mitigation strategies for the rest of us.

Agrippina wrote:For example, this "plague". You'd think humans would have developed a sense of self-preservation by now, so that when a threat appears, they have enough intellectual capacity to take the advice of people who've spent their whole lives studying what to do should a threat arrive.

Popular culture and, in particular, the cult of celebrity, have a huge role in this. A huge amount of our popular fiction is rooted in the notion of a deranged scientist, and not for nothing do many of them look like Einstein.

Worse, in some respects, ideologues and people with agendas have actively worked to undermine perceptions of expertise. Here in the UK, a leading politician, during the Brexit referendum campaign, openly stated that 'people have had enough of experts', and he appears to have been correct.

Of course, we've all known for ages this was coming. The underlying malaise is exactly the one Sagan warned us about in Demon-Haunted World. We live in a society vastly more reliant on science even than when he wrote that, yet vastly more ignorant of science - even the basics - as a species. And that's compounded by a pandemic of the Dunning-Kruger effect, with people who have reach and influence asserting a few half-remembered lines from a rudimentary science book in school being elevated to the OS of the universe and unassailable. Science is like a Turner seascape, while the popular view of it more closely resembles a fucking line-drawing of a rowing boat.

This has always been my motivation for writing. Not because I'm hubristic enough to think it's going to make a difference, but just because I can't sit and do nothing at all.

Alexander Pope had it right.

A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts ;
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But, more advanced, behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise !
So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o’er the vales, and seem to tread the sky ;
The eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last ;
But those attained, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthened way ;
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,
Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise !

Indoodle.

BlackBart wrote:Alexander Pope had it right.

A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts ;
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But, more advanced, behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise !
So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o’er the vales, and seem to tread the sky ;
The eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last ;
But those attained, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthened way ;
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,
Hills peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise !

Or

The more you think, the more you drink, the less you know.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

hackenslash wrote:

Agrippina wrote:For example, this "plague". You'd think humans would have developed a sense of self-preservation by now, so that when a threat appears, they have enough intellectual capacity to take the advice of people who've spent their whole lives studying what to do should a threat arrive.

Popular culture and, in particular, the cult of celebrity, have a huge role in this. A huge amount of our popular fiction is rooted in the notion of a deranged scientist, and not for nothing do many of them look like Einstein.

Worse, in some respects, ideologues and people with agendas have actively worked to undermine perceptions of expertise. Here in the UK, a leading politician, during the Brexit referendum campaign, openly stated that 'people have had enough of experts', and he appears to have been correct.

Of course, we've all known for ages this was coming. The underlying malaise is exactly the one Sagan warned us about in Demon-Haunted World. We live in a society vastly more reliant on science even than when he wrote that, yet vastly more ignorant of science - even the basics - as a species. And that's compounded by a pandemic of the Dunning-Kruger effect, with people who have reach and influence asserting a few half-remembered lines from a rudimentary science book in school being elevated to the OS of the universe and unassailable. Science is like a Turner seascape, while the popular view of it more closely resembles a fucking line-drawing of a rowing boat.

This has always been my motivation for writing. Not because I'm hubristic enough to think it's going to make a difference, but just because I can't sit and do nothing at all.

You're right. My son asked me yesterday, why do I bother to try to educate morons who ask inane questions on Quora. I said because I'm driven to do it. It's not that I think I'm some aged sage who knows all the answers but that I'm simply driven to correct obvious stupidity. God I wish I could just crack their heads together and make them sit with a real book that teaches them something. There's no point. I watched this yesterday. I really wish I could be this optimistic about the future of humankind. https://youtu.be/qsHJ3LvUWTs

Agrippina wrote:https://youtu.be/qsHJ3LvUWTs

No. Just no. At the point the host said "please join me", I realised it will be a talkfest between a sniffling motormouth and an intellectual runt, and there'll be two hours of it. I'd read a 750 to 1500 word executive summary, but I am not sufficiently masochistic to subject myself to the full course.

Agrippina wrote:My son asked me yesterday, why do I bother to try to educate morons who ask inane questions on Quora. I said because I'm driven to do it.

The solution you think you have is not even the solution to the problem you think you have. The problem you think you have is not the problem that you have. For more, try to teach a pig to sing.

Agrippina wrote:I watched this yesterday. I really wish I could be this optimistic about the future of humankind. https://youtu.be/qsHJ3LvUWTs

"Manufacturing intellect" is an apt title.

You learn all you need to know about Peterson from his discussion with Matt Dillahunty, where he said among the most preposterous things I've ever heard uttered to Matt, and that's probably Peterson's crowning intellectual achievement.

He insisted that smoking cessation isn't possible without mystical intervention.

My feeling is that most of the world's population is suffering from a variation of "future shock". When someone is trying to make sense of things outside of their area of expertise they are essentially trying to deal with magic (think Clarke's third law). It hits everyone at some point, no matter how well educated they are.

What is key though is how you deal with "magic".

Do you just blindly believe the first most credible bollocks you like, no matter where it comes from? (Which is where the talking heads, Hollywood and snake-oil salesmen make their money). Or do you seek out an expert in the field and take on board their recommendations? (And there's still the problem of how to recognise an expert in that specific field rather then a credible liar).

Educating people with just specific facts about specific fields won't work because there is no way you can educate someone in everything. What needs to happen is that people need to be educated in how to discern who or what information to take on board. It's OK not to know the detail of how vaccines work. It's not OK to take the advice of some random weirdo who thinks that Bill Gates is injecting everyone with nanobots over that from the respected head of your countries medical establishment.

Unfortunately there are a significant number of bad actors out there who have a very real stake in stopping this from happening and they are ancient, entrenched and powerful. They aren't new (religion isn't new!) but as people more frequently run into the limits of their personal expertise whether it be dealing with a pandemic, understanding information technology or climate change, the parasites and mountebacks have more opportunities to sell their bollocks and profit.

My own feeling is that anyone knowingly making or spreading false information needs to be held accountable to the fullest extent - although quite how you do that in a free society I'm not sure.

Cito di Pense wrote:

Agrippina wrote:My son asked me yesterday, why do I bother to try to educate morons who ask inane questions on Quora. I said because I'm driven to do it.

The solution you think you have is not even the solution to the problem you think you have. The problem you think you have is not the problem that you have. For more, try to teach a pig to sing.

I can't get over the stupid questions people ask. "Should I do something about a 19 year old in my college class dating a 24 year old? Isn't that against the law?" My answer is "mind your own damn business. Really I watched that video yesterday, listening to two erudite men discussing the world we live in today, and the conclusion was that it's not as bad as we think it is, and my response to that was "these guys obviously don't spend a lot of time on Internet forums". OMG. How are these ignorant people allowed to breed?

hackenslash wrote:

Agrippina wrote:I watched this yesterday. I really wish I could be this optimistic about the future of humankind. https://youtu.be/qsHJ3LvUWTs

"Manufacturing intellect" is an apt title.

You learn all you need to know about Peterson from his discussion with Matt Dillahunty, where he said among the most preposterous things I've ever heard uttered to Matt, and that's probably Peterson's crowning intellectual achievement.

He insisted that smoking cessation isn't possible without mystical intervention.

Yes. When I told Jeff (the son who lives with me) that I was going to watch the debate, he told me about Peterson. I was interested and from the point of view of erudition, and having spent a lot of time, reading a lot of books, and having the knowledge to debate the topic, I found it interesting. However, there were a couple of things that irritated me. The one was Peterson, who sounded like a self-opinionated prick when he did his opening, and the other guy whose name I can't spell, sounded like he was drunk, but more than that, I get wildly annoyed when supposedly people who have spent their lives in academia don't bother to do a little research before citing bullshiit in their arguments, and get away with it. It was a comment that "South Africa is an example of a failed state because they exchanged a regime run by white nationalists, for a regime run by black nationalists". My hackles rose up in indignation and I was a little "incandescent with rage" about this ignorant statement.

How does a person get away with that kind of ignorance and not get called out? He obviously hasn't been here. He obviously hasn't read our Constitution. And he obviously believes that we are still an oppressed people who don't have television, or something. I don't know. This and the claim that the world is not sinking into an era of ignorance is complete nonsense.

How do over 5 million people die of a virus that was easily identified and a vaccine produced within a few months, if not because ignorance even in academia is allowed to flourish. I get into a lot of trouble because I whine about bad spelling and grammar, and while I get it that language evolves, I'm not a complete fucking idiot, I get it. But how do English teachers not teach simple concepts like the difference between "everyday" and "every day" and the appropriate use of apostrophes, unless it's because they, themselves are ignorant, and illiterate. The fact that people think wearing a mask under their noses, or hanging under their chin, is going to prevent them from the virus, demonstrates the basic ignorance of how the process of breathing works, and I can understand that ignorance in a street sweeper, or a person who washes public toilets for a living, but it's almost too years that mask-wearing has been demonstrated, and yet they won't wear them properly, and they won't get vaccinated, and then they die, and their families call it "god's will". How the hell is that not an indication of how humankind is not evolving, I think I should shut up now, because I think I'm singing to the choir here.

dO YOUr oWn rEseARcH!11!

Newsmax Star Emerald Robinson Falsely Claims Vaccines Contain Tracking Device Linked to Devil

Robinson, who has a long history of making provocative and outrageous statements on social media, reacted to another Twitter user’s post that the “Moderna vaccine DOES contain Luciferase.” That user also attached a clip featuring a Wikipedia description of the enzyme, which notes that “the name is derived from the Latin word lucifer, meaning ‘lightbearer’” and the enzyme produces bioluminescence.

“Dear Christians: the vaccines contain a bioluminescent marker called LUCIFERASE so that you can be tracked,” Robinson blared in her Monday night tweet. “Read the last book of the New Testament to see how this ends.”

Oh, dear.

Luciferase was used in the development of tests because it makes chemical tracking easier, in much the same way we use barium in MRI applications.