We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day – well he would say that, wouldn’t he

“If we do revert to a lack of evidence, a lack of information — if we’re going back to the era where we’re just making policies up with no evidence behind them, the world is in a worse place. And we’re moving away from an era of sort of 20th, 21st-first century enlightenment to something darker,’ [Sir Jeremy Farrar] concluded with a flourish. ‘We can’t let that happen.”

Who could argue with the need for evidence-based science and the unfettered flow of information to help make the world a better place? It was no surprise, however, Farrar chose The Guardian for his valedictory interview as he heads to Geneva for a new post as chief scientist of the World Health Organization. For this ensured there would be no challenging questions over his central — and profoundly anti-science — role in stifling debate on the pandemic origins and effectively pushing his own conspiracy, cooked up with a handful of influential colleagues, including Anthony Fauci in the US, which suggested any idea that Covid might have emerged from some kind of laboratory incident in Wuhan was crackers.

Ian Birrell

12 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – well he would say that, wouldn’t he

  • RonSwanson

    Yes, we’re entering a dark new era of Lysenkoism when it comes to all things scientific (q.v. there are 72 genders, or the efficacy of mask-wearing) thanks to the likes of… Farrar.

  • JJM

    Canada’s Only Blackface Prime MinisterTM and his Liberal Party have been big on evidence-based policies.

    Of course, the first step is always to gather the most suitable policy-based evidence.

  • bobby b

    I’m picturing a guy in full witch-doctor garb – funny headdress, breech-cloth, face paintings and all – with a tee-shirt that says “follow the science!”

  • Kirk

    It’s rather amazing to me how many people espouse “SCIENCE!!!”, and yet who seem oblivious to the actual scientific method.

    I blame academia, really. Far too many weak-minded and substandard intellects have been educated past the point of their actual intelligence.

    Mainly, I heartily believe, because our definition of ‘intelligence’ is woefully lacking and entirely bereft of actual value. Demonstrably so.

    I think back over the course of my life, and nearly all of the credentialed dolts I can remember were mostly 3rd rate intellects who had to be led through life by everyone around them. And, yet… Because of their superior credentials, they often wind up in charge of it all. To all of our detriment.

  • Kirk

    A point that a lot of people seem to miss, in all of these things: It’s not just “the SCIENCE”, it’s also a broad range of other endeavors. You look at the underpinnings, and you’ll see that the same sort of infectious idiocy that has crippled rational scientific endeavor in the halls of academia has also leaked out into the business world of things like banking.

    You could do a point-by-point comparison between what went wrong at SVB and at Bankman-Fried’s very own little Ponzi scheme… And, climate science. And, all the rest of what the “elites” have gotten up to over these last few generations.

    It’s all incompetence and freedom from consequence, all the way down. The people we’ve put in charge of it all are manifestly unfit to be in charge of anything more complex than a child’s lemonade stand, which they’d no doubt drive into bankruptcy in short order.

  • Clovis Sangrail

    @Kirk

    The people we’ve put in charge of it all are manifestly unfit to be in charge of anything more complex than a child’s lemonade stand, which they’d no doubt drive into bankruptcy in short order.

    No, based on recent experience, they’d make a lot of money by first getting their friends in government to shut down the opposition on health and safety grounds and then getting them to mandate a daily intake of lemon juice because the SCIENCE says so.

  • Clovis Sangrail

    More generally, we need to recognise that experts are human and have the same motivations and biases as the rest of us. When we elevate their status too much, the obvious consequences will follow.

  • Alex

    The phrase “Science says” or “Science proves” (complete with upper-case letter ‘s’, as though science is a personal name), should be forbidden. Mostly I think the phenomenon has a lot to do with a lack of editors; a decent editor or the lack thereof used to make or break a publication. In these strange times, however, we now have a race to the bottom with the most sensational, attention-grabbing stories unchecked for veracity or even typos promoted to audiences of multiple millions within seconds of publication. Is it any wonder the “content” is garbage?

    This is all linked, of course. At this time, being a stodgy old scientist who actually gives a damn about correct reasoning, cause and effect, drawing well supported conclusions from the material is going to be ignored in favour of those who immediately and unashamedly draw the most outrageously over-the-top conclusions, or cherry-pick, or those who just flat out ignore any real scientific method in favour of computer models and other pseudoscientific nonsense. With the population increasingly unable to actually evaluate what they read, and the larger part completely indifferent to it anyway, then it’s no surprise that the scientific community is infested with parasites.

  • Kirk

    “The Science” is only as good as the scientist doing it. If they’re a sell-out, well… Yeah, you pays your money, you get your results. Witness all the nutrition BS that they’ve pulled off, over the years.

    Not to mention the medical BS that “Big Pharma” has paid for, to get their chosen drugs onto the market.

    Or, how they scammed us with the whole “Ozone Layer” thing. What nobody told you was that the R-12 refrigerants were going off-patent, and Dupont wanted a mandate to replace them with something that still made them money. You want to know the reality of things? Go to the Third World, and look around: All of them are still using and making R-12, on Dupont’s old machinery. They’ll lie and tell you differently, but that’s just not the case. The only people paying for that BS are the schmuck consumers here in the West.

    And, even with all that R-12 and other halogens going into the atmosphere since the days of the ban starting, the supposed ‘hole in the ozone layer’ was and is ‘closing’.

    Whole thing’s a scam. Everywhere. All they’re doing now with ‘The Science’ is using it to justify depravity and dominance over people… The exact same way the same sort of people used to use religion and the ‘Word of God’ to do back in the days when they were spouting off about the ‘Divine Right of Kings’.

    Do note the similarities. It’s not accidental coincidence.

  • Paul Marks

    Good post.

    Almost everything the international bureaucracy (such as the World Health Organisation) and the American bureaucracy (Tony Fauci and co) said about Covid was a lie.

    First they said it was not a threat (people seem to have forgotten that – but they did) – they were lying, yes lying (they knew what they were saying was not true).

    Then they denied that Covid was created in the labs of Wuhan – they lied so that people such as Peter Daszak (Eco Health Alliance and World Health Organisation) and Tony Fauci (American bureaucracy) could cover up their own role in funding this research – they lied out of self interest, to cover their own backsides.

    Then they pretended that “lockdowns” were medically vital – they were medically useless, and did terrible harm. Indeed it is now clear that people such as Tony Fauci knew that the lockdowns would be medically useless and would do terrible harm – and that he supported doing the terrible harm in order to undermine the Trump Administration to which he was opposed (partisan politics), but also as part of an international Collectivist agenda.

    They lied when they said there was no effective Early Treatment for Covid – they let vast numbers of human beings die when they could have been saved. That is very close to mass murder – think about it, there were several generally effective Early Treatments for Covid, and the international establishment systematically smeared them.

    And they lied when they claimed the injections were “safe and effective” – they were not effective and they most certainly were not safe.

    The international establishment lied about just about everything, they lied and vast numbers of people died because of their lies, – but there has been no punishment (indeed it is dissenters who were punished – persecuted), and they are very much still in charge.

    I am watching Colonel Tobias Ellwood (M.P.) right now (on G.B. News) hello 77th Brigade.

  • Paul Marks

    Chancellor Hunt a few seconds ago – “we produced a Covid vaccine that saved six million lives”.

    This would be the AstraZeneca medication that is no longer pushed in the United Kingdom because of the deaths and injuries that it caused. The idea that it saved “six million lives” in the United Kingdom is, of course, absurd.

    Why not say “saved six billion lives” or “saved six trillion lives”.

    There are no consequences for saying, in the chamber of the House of Commons, things an Honourable or Right Honourable Member knows not to be true, not if those things are in line with the international agenda – but there can be bad consequences for pointing it out. Indeed I am taking a risk by typing this under my own own name.

  • GregWA

    Is it a coincidence that the rise of “expertism” that has shit-holed every technical/scientific discipline occurred alongside the rise of…you fill in the blank. Then I’ll give you my two bits.