4 ms·

Lets of course also not forget the biggest one, COVID. COVID was fake news, until it wasn't. Previous weeks (months?) were spent suppressing warnings about it.

Lets of course also not forget the biggest one, COVID. COVID was fake news, until it wasn't. Previous weeks (months?) were spent suppressing warnings about it. I specifically remember being banned for saying that people should wear face coverings. In February I tried saying that people should think twice before taking the subway or going to Lunar New Year. January 2020, there was overwhelming evidence that something bad was coming, even though independent and citizen journalists didn't know the exact scope of it. But their narrative was that COVID may exist but it isn't dangerous, and wearing a mask is alarmist and probably sinophobic racist Russian propaganda; continue having public gatherings and stop asking questions. Within 48 hours, big tech decided that the truth is that we had always been at war with Eurasia and that anyone who had any doubts about lockdown strategy was basically a white supremacist and needed to be censored with extreme prejudice. In my mind, that should have been it. After so many lives lost, that is when we should have decided that corporate america should not set up a de-facto ministry of truth, but I guess most people don't agree with me.

Terretta 6y ago
To be fair, that wasn’t “corporate America”, that was the Minister of Unhealth, usually called the Surgeon General: "Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!" https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/05/Screen-Shot-2020-05-13-at-9.15.43-AM.png https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/05/Screen-Shot-2020-05-1... The tweet made no sense: if you’re a member of the public, COVID cleverly renders masks ineffective, so leave them for healthcare providers where COVID magically can’t bypass the masks? The only things more annoying than pretending COVID could discriminate by profession were (a) the additional six to nine months of pretending it wasn’t airborne, and (b) company annoyance with remote work and individual boredom with staying home overriding caution even as the spread hits rates not seen since March/April 2020. And this is where Corporate America comes in — they are by and large refusing to acknowledge the revision in guidance around it being airborne, since this would require more investment to make safe the butts-in-seats management preferred by non-practitioners in middle and senior levels of firms.
Diederich 6y ago
> I specifically remember being banned for saying that people should wear face coverings. May I ask: what was the venue? HN? I generally agree with your overall point here.

Terretta 6y ago

To be fair, that wasn’t “corporate America”, that was the Minister of Unhealth, usually called the Surgeon General: "Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!" https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/05/Screen-Shot-2020-05-13-at-9.15.43-AM.png https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/05/Screen-Shot-2020-05-1... The tweet made no sense: if you’re a member of the public, COVID cleverly renders masks ineffective, so leave them for healthcare providers where COVID magically can’t bypass the masks? The only things more annoying than pretending COVID could discriminate by profession were (a) the additional six to nine months of pretending it wasn’t airborne, and (b) company annoyance with remote work and individual boredom with staying home overriding caution even as the spread hits rates not seen since March/April 2020. And this is where Corporate America comes in — they are by and large refusing to acknowledge the revision in guidance around it being airborne, since this would require more investment to make safe the butts-in-seats management preferred by non-practitioners in middle and senior levels of firms.

Diederich 6y ago

> I specifically remember being banned for saying that people should wear face coverings. May I ask: what was the venue? HN? I generally agree with your overall point here.