Cherry Picking: “How Not to Diet” by Dr. Michael Greger: A Critical Review
The book “How Not to Diet” uses an appeal to authority and extensive cherry picking to formulate the author’s argument that we should all eat a plant-based diet.
Old social media posts cost another job
Google’s head of diversity has been re-assigned after old blog posts showed him denigrating Jews and possibly making inappropriate comments about the LGBTQ+ community. Old blog posts and tweets have resulted in many losing their jobs.
Facebook arbitrarily censors MD, PhD, calling her factual post “spam”
An MD, PhD (epidemiology) finds her factual Facebook post mis-classified by Facebook’s auto-filters/auto-censors and thereby censored from view. She had linked to the original source of the information. Therefore, the message from FB is – do not cite your sources!
Old tweets kill off another career
Another career is ended due to people learning about a reporter’s actual beliefs via the reporter’s own past tweets and social media posts.
Hundreds of electric cars in the municipality of Paris rot and leak toxic products
A poster shared on social media falsely asserts that hundreds of electric vehicles are rotting away in Paris, leaking toxic materials into the ground. The story is provably false.
The role of media in establishing public consensus
Link to an essay on the role that “technical authority”, media propaganda, and how “consensus of experts” are used to influence the public and to exert control over us. This essay is an eye opener.
Changing the language definition in order to make a point
Another example of fiddling with language to make a weak conclusion with low certainty sound more impressive than it really is.
Climate scientists tried to censor film by director Michael Moore
Michael Moore’s film Planet of the Humans questions much of the “common wisdom” about solar power, wind energy and so forth and argues renewable energy has its own issues. Leading climate scientists sought to have the film censored from public viewing.
Munchausen by Internet
This is an Internet/social media phenomena that never occurred to me: “Munchausen by Internet occurs when medically well individuals fake recognized illnesses in virtual environments, such as online support groups.”
The culture of perpetual outrage: “The harmful ableist language you unknowingly use”
This is what happens when we constantly seek out reasons to be perpetually outraged. The world is overrun with individuals who every day, intentionally seek out things to be outraged about. Common speech is now perceived as intentional and hurtful sleight to someone, somewhere. There is nothing we can say anymore without offending someone, somewhere. I have referred to concepts as “brain dead”, which is likely offensive to those with brain injuries. Which, should be obvious by now, includes me.