George Monbiot Some falsehoods about the pandemic are so dangerous that they should be banned.
 

Why do we value lies more than lives? We know that certain falsehoods kill people. Some of those who believe such claims as “coronavirus doesn’t exist”; “it’s not the virus that makes people ill, but 5G”; or “vaccines are used to inject us with microchips” fail to take precautions or refuse to be vaccinated, then contract and spread the virus. Yet we allow these lies to proliferate.

We have a right to speak freely. We also have a right to life. When malicious disinformation – claims that are known to be both false and dangerous – can spread without restraint, these two values collide head on. One of them must give way, and the one we have chosen to sacrifice is human life. We treat free speech as sacred, but life as negotiable. When governments fail to ban outright lies that endanger people’s lives, I believe they make the wrong choice.

Any control of what we may say by governments is dangerous, especially when the government, like ours, has authoritarian tendencies. But the absence of control is also dangerous.  

Continue reading @ George Monbiot.

Viral Lies

George Monbiot Some falsehoods about the pandemic are so dangerous that they should be banned.
 

Why do we value lies more than lives? We know that certain falsehoods kill people. Some of those who believe such claims as “coronavirus doesn’t exist”; “it’s not the virus that makes people ill, but 5G”; or “vaccines are used to inject us with microchips” fail to take precautions or refuse to be vaccinated, then contract and spread the virus. Yet we allow these lies to proliferate.

We have a right to speak freely. We also have a right to life. When malicious disinformation – claims that are known to be both false and dangerous – can spread without restraint, these two values collide head on. One of them must give way, and the one we have chosen to sacrifice is human life. We treat free speech as sacred, but life as negotiable. When governments fail to ban outright lies that endanger people’s lives, I believe they make the wrong choice.

Any control of what we may say by governments is dangerous, especially when the government, like ours, has authoritarian tendencies. But the absence of control is also dangerous.  

Continue reading @ George Monbiot.

17 comments:

  1. The use of the term pandemic is the biggest lie being peddled since March last year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your denial of the term and nature of the pandemic is the biggest whopper of all, Larry.

      Delete
  2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-55881508

    Is Sir Tom dying from pneumonia 'with' covid19 or FROM covid19? His millions raised bless him were peanuts to the billions pilfered by the Tories.

    Was Sir Tom's jolly to Barbados essential travel?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Larry,

    Do you object to the term or it's definition?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Steve R this covid19 has been treatable from day one. It kills very fragile old and sick people with a few exceptions. Captain Tom has pneumonia not covi19 the stats are falsified on a massive scale to justify the calling of a pandemic status.

    Sadly Captain Tom raising millions and people clapping at their doorsteps merely deflected from the Tories pilfering BILLIONS.

    Seems that's not an issue.

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  5. Barry the facts totally refute your stance. But you're happy with the BBC. Why have labour not insisted on a track and trace police investigation into where the 22 billion given to a Tory linked PR company for PPE which never arrived actually ended up or what the undisclosed amount was that went to a jewelry shop in USA via a Spanish middle man who received 21 million sterling for his minor part? Or the millions sent to a fictitious company in the Seychelles?

    I'll tell you why Barry, because labour leader is a Sir and they really are all in it together. Gimps like you under the bed let them away with it.

    I'd write more but I'm off to the park with my wee lad to contaminate the Captain Tom's of this world.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh Larry you really have not been listening.

    Labour have persistently called out the culture of chumocracy which led to the scandalously incompetently delivered Track and Trace Programme led by Matt Hancock's horseracing friend Dido Harding as with the procurement scandal over PPE.

    Week after week, Keir Starmer skewers Boris at PMQs over the failure to lockdown sooner; over the failure to again act on scientific evidence and have a circuit breaking lockdown in November which would stymied the second wave of infections; over the mixed messages about social mixing over Christmas; over the failure to follow his own Home Sec's advice about stopping all incoming flights; over the confusion over school closures. I could go on and on.

    But if you prefer to wallow in your have-your-cake-and-eat[-it "they really are all in it together" conspiriciana Keir's the actual truth ab out Labour 's response to BJ's handling of the pandemic will mean nothing to you. What else would one expect from someone who quotes from the stable (Canadian Patriot) of the late and notorious fraudster for leftie turned far rightist Lyndon La Rouche?

    I am off to write a piece for TPQ to deconstruct conspiracist narratives generally and specifically their lies around Covid-19.

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  7. So many different variants of this virus now from so many different countries, they'll need to start issuing covid passports to them all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Barry
    Sir Labour / Tory facilitator has gone along with Boris designated science from Ferguson's fantasy modelling and Witty's uncontested doom and gloom for the last year.

    All he's doing is giving the illusion of opposition while playing along.

    If lock downs worked why are they never ending? Why is UK a global leader for all the wrong reasons?

    Those afraid to go out should stay home. UK expert...if such a term will survive this... stated kids are in zero danger, only older kids close to adulthood can transmit the virus. Yet primary schools remain closed.

    YOU Barry have been listening far too much, far too long. Boris and Sir Labour refuse to learn and adjust. They are determined to continue getting it wrong.

    The gift that keeps on giving.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Barry
    Sir Labour pointing out all the Tory failings and then meekly voting in support of the Tory Party covid strategy (Ferguson's fantasy model) simply makes Sir Labour a bigger problem than Boris. Because he can seemingly see the endless failings but keeps supporting them. Sir Labour is a phoney.

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  10. Larry,

    While I agree with you sticking the boot into the Tory bastards ( I'll even hold them down for ye) you may be slightly missing the point. Forget the name, let's call it "Kung Flu" to shit the snowflakes. No matter what you call it, hospital admissions for a SARS type virus threatened to overwhelm the healthcare capacity of most countries. Yes this is due to chronic Tory cuntry, but it doesn't change the reality.

    Still, good to see Barry has finally discovered spellcheck.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Steve R

    The NHS wasn't overwhelmed. Had the funding it should have been receiving been issued then no lock downs would have been needed. We are being asked to destroy the economy and peoples lives in order to 'save' something that was designed to save us!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Larry,

      "The NHS wasn't overwhelmed."

      Yes because they instigated public lockdowns to curtail community transmission. Without the lockdowns it would have very quickly become overwhelmed, then you're in deep shit.

      "Had the funding it should have been receiving been issued then no lock downs would have been needed."

      100% agree, but the reality is , it wasn't funded properly.

      "We are being asked to destroy the economy and peoples lives in order to 'save' something that was designed to save us!"

      That's more Tory fuckery in defunding with a view to privatization.


      Delete
  12. Larry

    Countries which acted sooner to deal with the pandemic (because that's what it is) through quicker lockdowns; effective quarantining of incomers from affected countries and functioning test-trace-isolate systems from the start had less deaths. These include New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam; all countries where the state plays active roles in development and which have greater bonds of social solidarity than the UK and US where making money is put on a greater pedestal than protecting health.

    Lockdowns were essential to stop the exponential rates of infections which have came close to overwhelming the NHS. There is no intrinsic conflict between health protection and the needs of the economy; the latter needs healthy people to ensure its success.

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  13. Barry
    'Shock horror - shock n awe' I agree with you, in so far that UK and USA prioritized profit over health care. Facilities were paid more in USA to put covid on the death certs and all manner of ugly carry ons prevailed with oldies on ventilators left to die and families kept away. However if lockdowns worked it wouldn't matter how late you implemented it, you'd not need a 4th one.

    Experts say most danger is in the home, so the government locks everyone up at home. Experts say young kids are in zero danger from the virus and no danger to others... (live on BBC evening update) close the primary schools governments decision ... Western Australia just totally closed down for ONE positive test (could be false positive)rather than isolating the individual involved. This is insanity for a flu virus (AND THAT'S WHAT IT IS WITH A 99.7 PERCENT SURVIVAL RATE) If the person involved was over 60 with chronic illness, then isolate them in a hospital. That's what hospitals are for.

    Barry these assholes don't even follow their own science.. OR their own rules coz they know it is all crap. Government advice .. ACT LIKE YOU HAVE COVID...

    You gimps ALL have herpes, you just don't know it, stay home and protect the GUM clinic.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Steve R

    If the NHS had been funded there would have been no danger of it being overwhelmed with this flu virus. We BOTH agree on this. In which case this in not a health pandemic but a case of prolonged government mismanagement and the latest example of crisis opportunity for plunder.

    Again.... IT IS NOT A PANDEMIC. Like the famine in Ireland this is a deliberately created mess, that was needless.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Barry and Steve R
    What is needed a year into this horse shit carry - on is care-homes and hospitals prioritized, funded and staffed.

    Schools remain open and teachers offered the OPTION of a vaccine but either way they return to work

    Universities stay closed they are older students/adults and more liable to spread this nasty virus. Most university work is done at home after lectures in any case.

    All businesses should be permitted to reopen except pubs for a period of 6 months to limit the spread and on public transport masks should be worn as a gesture if nothing else towards public consideration and confidence.

    In the meantime a police investigation should be initiated to discover which government minister/office sent out massive amounts of public money and to whom exactly and what way are they connected. Money retrieved, forwarded to the NHS and those responsible given huge jail time and banned from holding office for life.

    Ferguson, Witty and Boris should be the first on Musk's rocket to Mars. Pay per view.

    Endless lock downs are going to result in a civil backlash sooner or later. It could be a long hot summer.

    ReplyDelete