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Samizdata quote of the day

“It is one thing to compete with China. I firmly believe we need to do that in every domain, from artificial intelligence to Covid vaccines. But the minute we start copying China, we are on the path to perdition.”

Niall Ferguson, in the Spectator. He also writes about Prof. Neil Ferguson, the character whose modelling of pandemics has had such a baleful impact on our existence.

12 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • The Jannie

    “character”? You misspelled “charlatan”.

  • Zerren Yeoville

    Let us not forget that Prof Neil Ferguson broke the lockdown rules to meet his ‘significant other’ despite those same rules being imposed largely on the recommendation of him and his possibly-misnamed ‘SAGE’ group.

    For which he received waaaaayyy less opprobrium and media pearl-clutching than Dominic Cummings, whose perceived rule-breaking (emphasis on ‘perceived’) in the trip to Barnard Castle did have the purpose of ensuring that his special-needs kid could, if needed, be cared for by familiar faces rather than be freaked out by strangers (care-giving to the vulnerable always being a legitimate ‘reason for travel’ throughout all lockdown periods).

    The different – in fact, blatantly different – media treatment of the two stories couldn’t possibly have anything to do with a largely pro-Remain media Establishment revenging itself upon Cummings for his having been part of the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign … could it?

  • APL

    Zerren Yeoville: “Let us not forget that Prof Neil Ferguson broke the lockdown rules to meet his ‘significant other’ “

    That is probably the one thing in the whole charade that Ferguson got right. He’d just recovered from COVID-19 and was immune and non contagious. In any sane world he should be able to swap his bodily fluids with any individual gormless enough to consent.

    I hope his wife has taken him to the cleaners.

    Off topic, I’ve just voted in the Scottish elections, for the first time in my life I deliberately spoiled my vote. The collection of five fascists, Statists ( spellcheck satanists, Yea ) on offer, were so abhorrent, that I’m afraid I simply had to write “No Confidence” across the lot of ’em.

  • George Atkisson

    APL –

    Same in the US for the utterly useless Republican Party begging for donations to stand up against the Dems. The same party that fought President Trump at every turn and accomplished NOTHING when they controlled both houses of Congress. An additional pox upon them besides COVID.

  • Paul Marks

    We have done more than “copy” the People’s Republic of China – we have done what they wanted us to do, and did NOT do themselves.

    Most of China did not have a lockdown – let alone for a year.

    The propaganda films of people dropping dead on the streets of Wuhan were obviously just that – propaganda films (a disease does not work like that – that is a Science Fiction film), yet Western governments believed it as Holy Scripture and went into total meltdown (with a few exceptions).

    Even the “50 cent army” of Social Media comment people that the Chinese Communist Party pay to back insane policies in the West (for example all the comments, in-exactly-the-same-words, backing the Premier of Victoria Australia) were treated as independent citizens.

    The harm the West has done to itself may be terminal – the People’s Republic of China dictatorship must be beside themselves with glee that their propaganda war against the West (they wish to DESTROY the West – they have been saying that since 1949, please LISTEN) has been so successful – with the help of the head (a Marxist Doctor of Philosophy – not medicine) of the World Health Organisation, “Dr” Tony Fauci – and other absolute and total SCUM.

    George Atkisson – yes, judge people by their record.

    Some Republican Senators and Congressmen have been O.K. – and some Republican GOVERNORS have been good.

    But the leadership of both the House and the Senate are totally useless – a waste of skin.

    Do not give these people a cent of your money – and do not give money to any organisation they control.

  • Paul Marks

    The road to perdition – yes we are on it.

    If present trends continue, the Communist Party dictatorship of the People’s Republic of China will dominate the world – the West will be destroyed.

    In spite of his many faults, President Donald John Trump was fighting back against the destruction of the West – Mr Joseph Biden and Senator K. Harris are not friends of the West, they will do perhaps terminal harm to the West.

    The election fraud of November 2020 may well have been the Death Warrant of the West – things are that serious, because of the harm that Mr Biden, K. Harris and their associates (political and CORPORATE) are doing right now.

  • Paul Marks

    On science – in the West “the science” has become a slogan (even in supposedly scientific departments in universities – and in the “scientific literature”) for a political and cultural agenda.

    This agenda would not be tolerated by Mr Xi in China – if “scientists” in China started to rant about “EQUITY” (“Racial Justice”, “Climate Justice” and so on) in the context of China (not suggesting that this just be done in the West – but actually demanding this be done in CHINA) – they would be secured to an operating table and have their organs removed for spare parts.

    The Chinese dictatorship are serious people – they will not allow their society to be undermined by “scientific” clowns.

    As for objective truth.

    Many modern “scientists” stand by and do NOT condemn such thing as the smearing of Early Treatment for Covid 19 – vast numbers of lives could have been saved by Early Treatment, but it did not fit the political and cultural “Agenda”. And they also stand by and allow the blatant changing of such things as historic American temperature data – again because the real data does not fit the “Agenda” so it “has to be” changed.

    There are real scientists in the West – honest men and women. But too many have fallen into the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon (who wanted people punished for saying that the world went round the sun) and his servants Thomas Hobbes and Sir William Petty (whose use of “data” was totally dishonest) – people who wanted state domination, and dressed up their political agenda as “science”.

  • Off topic, I’ve just voted in the Scottish elections, for the first time in my life I deliberately spoiled my vote. The collection of five fascists, Statists ( spellcheck satanists, Yea ) on offer, were so abhorrent, that I’m afraid I simply had to write “No Confidence” across the lot of ’em. (APL, May 6, 2021 at 8:44 pm)

    You will very probably do no harm by this – the odds of your two votes (did you spoil both – or all three if it were also a council-election area?) affecting the outcome is as near zero as makes little difference.

    However you will very probably do even less good. Only those who watch the returning officers declaration will even know there were spoiled ballot papers. Likely no-one will know what you wrote on yours except the ballot counter and ballot checker who saw it, and they will not remember it.

    The natz want to jail you for things you say inside your own home. The Tories are only willing to prosecute you for things you say in the public domain – and are relatively less eager to do so. They might win on your list vote (and in some places on your seat vote). ReformUK supports free speech. They will not win (natz v. anti-natz freezes Scottish politics at the moment) but your vote would at least have been reported. Similarly unlikely to win is the ‘Abolish the Scottish Parliament’ Party but surely their title would better have expressed your opinion.

    In absolute terms, any possible winner is a poor choice, to be sure, but as Burke warned, when voters engage in a cynicism competition with candidates, the latter always win.

  • APL

    Niall Kilmartin: “However you will very probably do even less good. “

    I am aware of that.

    Niall Kilmartin: “affecting the outcome is as near zero as makes little difference.”

    Yes. I have some little experience of elections under my belt 🙂

    I seem to have been blessed during my life with the uncanny ability to choose* to live in a constituency where my vote has made no difference to the outcome. First in solid Labour South Wales, then Haringey London, and my current constituency was first solid Labour now SNP. (* Maybe it’s simply that Labour wards specialize in cheap dilapidated multi occupancy properties ?)

    Niall Kilmartin: “The natz want to jail you for things you say inside your own home. “

    Yes, I know. But you know? The Scots seem determined to commit suicide. Maybe we have to go through fire to realize socialism in any of its guises is a mistake.

    It is odd, one of my work colleagues, in his late 30s is the son of a Polish immigrant. You’d think that he’d know better, right? But he doesn’t miss an opportunity, apparently, he ‘wouldn’t wipe his arse with a Tory’. To which, I replied, ‘Tories every where breath a sigh of relief, on hearing that!’.

  • bobby b

    On every day of your life, you ought to be working to push your own principles and ideas and values, and persuade and argue and work to bend your people to your own will as you see fit, except on Voting Day, when your work has accomplished all it can and you face a discrete and limited set of alternatives, and on that day you need to remember that a vote for five kicks in the head is better than a vote for seven kicks in the head.

  • Paul Marks

    The SNP and the Greens in Scotland do not hide their totalitarianism – they shout it from the rooftops.

    And between the two of them – they have got about half the votes.

    John Adams and the other “Founding Fathers” of the United States argued that no Constitution can work if most people do not believe in liberty.

    Most people in Scotland knew what they were voting for. What the Conservatives and Lib Dems were offering was hardly laissez faire (they support a very big government indeed) – and there was the Labour Party as well (which wants a bigger and more intrusive government than the Conservatives and Lib Dems do). But, no, for about half the voters – all this was not extreme enough, they voted for the SNP or the Scots Greens.

    “Democracy is the system by which people get to vote for what they want, and they deserve to get it – GOOD AND HARD”.

    H.L. Mencken.

    Of course it is a pity for the other half of Scottish voters – the “Divine Right of the 51%” is not very good for the 49%, especially as they will no longer be allowed to SPEAK – to try and convince people of their beliefs.

    “Anything you say is HATE SPEECH” will now be the rule – shutting down all real political and cultural dissent.

  • APL

    Democracy doesn’t exist in the US