Thomas Chatterton Williams is not a marvellous boy like his poet namesake, but one of the most infuriatingly politically correct commentators there are. Still he's essentially right in his latest article headlined in the Guardian:
We don't know why George Floyd died but Mr Williams is surely completely wrong, of course, to say Floyd was killed for being black or being poor. Why do the papers who publish him let him get away with such nonsense? He is wrong about the US state of Georgia, which has been proved right to end its lockdown, despite ghoulish prophecies of doom, and wrong to say that not taking climate change seriously is unscientific, but the gist of the article is spot on.
The (left-wing) media is shamelessly manipulating Americans and everyone else. Their claim to be concerned about the less well-off is shown to be false.
We often accuse the right of distorting science. But the left changed the coronavirus narrative overnight
The (left-wing) media is shamelessly manipulating Americans and everyone else. Their claim to be concerned about the less well-off is shown to be false.
At the end of April, when the state of Georgia moved to end its lockdown, the Atlantic ran an article with the headline “Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice”. Two weeks ago we shamed people for being in the street; today we shame them for not being in the street.
As a result of lockdowns and quarantines, many millions of people around the world have lost their jobs, depleted their savings, missed funerals of loved ones, postponed cancer screenings and generally put their lives on hold for the indefinite future. They accepted these sacrifices as awful but necessary when confronted by an otherwise unstoppable virus. Was this or wasn’t this all an exercise in futility?
For an example of how annoying a thinker, if you can call him that, Mr Williams is, read this interview with a French writer called Renaud Camus.
“The risks of congregating during a global pandemic shouldn’t keep people from protesting racism,” NPR suddenly tells us, citing a letter signed by dozens of American public health and disease experts. “White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to Covid-19,” the letter said. One epidemiologist has gone even further, arguing that the public health risks of not protesting for an end to systemic racism “greatly exceed the harms of the virus”.
“The risks of congregating during a global pandemic shouldn’t keep people from protesting racism,” NPR suddenly tells us, citing a letter signed by dozens of American public health and disease experts.
ReplyDeleteThe most worrying thing about all this is that it's now obvious that all of science is now politicised. Even in STEM fields we can no longer feel sure that what we're told is real science rather than propaganda.
It's also fascinating to see universities reverting to their original purpose which was to enforce theological orthodoxy and to stomp on free enquiry.
I don't always agree with you but I certainly and sadly do here.
DeleteIt turns out that the most profound and accurate work of political prophecy was not Brave New World or 1984, but Alice in Wonderland.
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh aloud rather loudly sitting in my café sheltering from summer rain. By Jovr, sir, you are right.
DeleteBy Jove, sir.
ReplyDelete