BF2S Forums Pandemic thread

Nobody here is patting anyone on the back for arson. There is a traceable path leading to the stuff that did occur. The maliciousness of police forces and the indolent pettiness of governments can take some of this blame for letting (or urging) it get to this point.

Six year old girls don't need to be sprayed in the eyes with chemical weapons, bystanders didn't need to be curb stomped, and the football kneelers didn't need a mudslinging clampdown from the highest levels.

Instead, we had people only sit up and pay attention when their stupid, fake-memorial statues and not-actually-confederate-flags were in danger. Not hearing a peep from some about police murdering and otherwise quite unnecessarily brutalizing people, but get an earful of it about broken glass at an Autozone by a questionable vandal. Then not a peep again about the Jan 6 riot. Priorities …

Another conservative radio host died of the Rona. Name sounds so familiar. I assume conservative radio host are as ubiquitous as rappers with "Lil" in their name.

Anyhow the section on his wiki regarding his death is pretty damning. You know for a fact some smug wiki editor saw that headline on CNN and decided to put something into public record because "fuck him".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Valentine

I wouldn't feel too bad about these shows being shut down and the stations hit with class action suits from various aggrieved parties, including municipalities and drug companies.

yes, unfortunately dissent and criticism is part of 'good science' as well as part of 'anti-science'. so that idiots like this can invoke galileo and the authority of the church, etc etc, and dilbert can pretend he's actually being a 'true scientist' when he speaks about the 'dangerous AZ vaccine'.

If Dominion VS gets to sue conservative news over damaging misinformation, maybe vaccine manufacturers should get to as well.

Protected speech isn't to an unlimited extent. I would like to see these networks and stations held accountable for willfully spreading BS. It should at least be easy to establish that some of them (who did get the vaccines themselves, and sometimes even work at places that require them) know they are in the wrong when they feed a load of crap to their audience about this stuff. People are dying.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

If Dominion VS gets to sue conservative news over damaging misinformation, maybe vaccine manufacturers should get to as well.

Protected speech isn't to an unlimited extent. I would like to see these networks and stations held accountable for willfully spreading BS. It should at least be easy to establish that some of them (who did get the vaccines themselves, and sometimes even work at places that require them) know they are in the wrong when they feed a load of crap to their audience about this stuff. People are dying.

You think vaccine makers suing the t.v. for damages is going to go over well?

Spotted on social media:

Teenage daughter of anti-vax parents dies of Covid after they deny her lifesaving intervention
https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavir … fc005fb681
An ICU nurse has blamed a 14-year-old girl’s death on her parents not allowing staff to intubate her in the ICU.

R.I.P.

Also in article:

“She had refused the vaccines because of the lies about them causing infertility and harming her baby. Liars killed her, her baby and robbed a two-year-old little boy of his mummy and sibling. Not to mention robbing a husband of his wife and child.”

Jessica said it was the first shift since March that more than three Covid patients had died in a single shift, with the oldest being just 45.

She also lambasted notable Covid misinformation spreader Dr Joseph Mercola, former US president Donald Trump and leader of a disturbing anti-vaccination movement in the US, Robert Kennedy Jr.

Speaking of RFK Jr, his group, ironically named, historied-anti-vax "Children's Health Defense," is suing Rutgers over the vaccine mandate. linky

If a conman is arrested and put on trial, should he be able to get out of trouble just by saying that his smooth brain victims were stupid? Does a housebreaker get off by saying that the door was unlocked?

More loosely, there's an overturned bucket of herbicide in your front yard, but you blame it on the plants in your garden.

In this case, there is blame that can be apportioned to all parties here. Yes, the facebook moms should get on the level and stop thinking that out of 1,000 scientists, the one voice of dissent out of 999 is the one they should listen to (the rogue voice "who is right when everyone else was wrong" is very romanticized). But that doesn't excuse the peddlers either.

Plenty of regrets from the death bed too. That one anti-vaxxer talk show host who was "sorry." Yeah …

The covid denialism stuff is a bit more than some honest to goodness grassroots movement that started at a backyard BBQ. There's opportunity and money in the misinformation, and the sources of it often turn out to be profit-driven sites. The word "astroturfing" was making its rounds in 2020.

First, I thought you were an ally to the transgender and gay stuff now. Second, "should profits from alcohol advertising be regulated" is actually a good question. Third, marijuana is hardly on the same level as alcohol.

Lastly, what any of that has to do with them intentionally spreading covid and vaccine misinformation, when many of them have gotten the vaccine themselves …

My point is that at some time in the U.S. (80's), anti-gay groups could have sued a station into bankruptcy under your world view.

Who is to blame though?

The snake oil salesman?

The govt which decided not to bother forcing the average person to stay in school by law long enough to learn critical thinking so they can weigh up for themselves whether snake oil is worth buying?

There is no right answer.

Big difference between blame and legal liability. I have no love for right wing media but if we really believe in freedom of speech, dummy opinions have their protection too.