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Seems to be a large problem for a great many people with the power to tell lies for the greater good. (Draws breath and decides to soldier on with the point be

by harry8 6y ago

Seems to be a large problem for a great many people with the power to tell lies for the greater good. (Draws breath and decides to soldier on with the point because it's a sufficient important one). Without getting into pro-anti-Trump-Biden BS and entirely separate from all of that, Fauci did this. He lied about the utility of masks in pandemic prevention "for the greater good." How do we know? Because Jon Doe's racist blog post said it was 5G conspiracies! No. Absolutely not. We know he did it because he said so himself. [1] I think this is a huge problem. If your job is to be convincing to the population about things that large numbers of the population won't, can't, don't, or just plain couldn't be bothered to, understand and you lie and then get caught or confess as is highly likely, you've completely undermined any authority the position you hold had. You spend the currency of that position you inherited from previous holders (or maybe even built yourself over time). The CDC says! Sure, but is it a lie "for the greater good or other reasons" this time? Again? Why is that even a valid question to ask, ever? The CDC is pretty good. Fauci is pretty good on the standards of these things. Yet people don't trust the CDC and Fauci. There's one pretty good reason why someone might not. He's willing to knowingly tell factual lies and I wish he wasn't. CDC/Fauci is just an example of the thing. Someone understands they have the power to cheat for the greater good and decide to exercise that power. The bill always comes due. Always. And this seems to be the case lately accross a very wide range of fields where simple, obvious, well supported factual information is being widely rejected due to a total lack of trust. Is that something we can get back in the bottle? Disclosure: I am personally very much in favor of the CDC and Fauci. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com.au/fauci-mask-advice-was-because-doctors-shortages-from-the-start-2020-6?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com.au/fauci-mask-advice-was-bec...

ianai 6y ago
The US is in a hell scape. What do you do when you need masks to go to medical professionals but none were set aside for this scenario and medical and public stocks are the same? They decided to tell people to not wear masks. They also didn’t think anything like cotton homemade masks would be effective. So they couldn’t recommend people wear those. Sometimes people in authority lie to manage hell scapes. It’s a game theoretic choice and probabilistic by nature. If you want to be upset at someone then do some more research. There’s plenty to go around.
dmurray 6y ago
Yeah, it's strange in this year of all years to contrast "the prosocial lies of economists" with the honesty of the medical profession. PR has been incredibly important in the worldwide response to Covid-19. You can save the economy by telling people things are better than they really are, but you can save millions of lives telling people things are worse.

by harry8 6y ago

ianai 6y ago

The US is in a hell scape. What do you do when you need masks to go to medical professionals but none were set aside for this scenario and medical and public stocks are the same? They decided to tell people to not wear masks. They also didn’t think anything like cotton homemade masks would be effective. So they couldn’t recommend people wear those. Sometimes people in authority lie to manage hell scapes. It’s a game theoretic choice and probabilistic by nature. If you want to be upset at someone then do some more research. There’s plenty to go around.

dmurray 6y ago

Yeah, it's strange in this year of all years to contrast "the prosocial lies of economists" with the honesty of the medical profession. PR has been incredibly important in the worldwide response to Covid-19. You can save the economy by telling people things are better than they really are, but you can save millions of lives telling people things are worse.