Arthur
Recently I noticed a copy of Stuff’s print propaganda arm in Wellington, The DomPost, on a table at a workplace. Normally I avoid its left-wing babble with a few exceptions such as items about more lunacy from the Wellington City Council. On the open page, I noticed a column from the world famous in New Zealand Siouxsie Wiles who is apparently their Science Columnist, dispensing sage advice that when you dig into it, is all opinion rather than objective facts. So in a brief moment of masochism, I read the ‘opinion’ of the ‘Princess of Pink’ (henceforth known as PoP) around COVID 19 misinformation.
Apparently, PoP is an expert on misinformation now and is concerned with the results of a recent survey about misinformation.
OPINION: Last week, the Classification Office Te Mana Whakaatu released a new report – The Edge of the Infodemic: Challenging Misinformation in Aotearoa.
Here are some of the key findings. Eight in 10 of the people surveyed said they were concerned about misinformation in New Zealand. More than half said they had come across misinformation in the past six months. About one in five people said they noticed it daily or weekly.
I absolutely agree that people in New Zealand are worried about misinformation going around about various issues and political shenanigans, usually sourced from the government and government agencies. I can’t really comment on misinformation in Aotearoa though as I don’t live there. Anyhow, our own intrepid detective PoP has discovered a worldwide source of misinformation about the Wuhan Flu labelled the “Disinformation dozen.”
So where is this misinformation coming from? I’ve written before about the “Disinformation Dozen”, the 12 US-based accounts identified by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) as being responsible for creating a staggering 65 per cent of the vaccine misinformation shared on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
One of the giveaways of their supposed venality is that these accounts make money. OMG, the biggest heresy in the Socialistaverse of thinking, if I can be so generous.
The Disinformation Dozen profit themselves too. They sell books and access to online material, as well as so-called cures and treatments. Again, according to publicly available data, the CCDH estimates the organisations belonging to the Disinformation Dozen have an annual revenue of at least US$36 million.
Ah, so any cures and books around the Wuhan Flu not part of the mainstream socialist controlled narrative that make money are bad but approved Big Pharma can rake in cash galore at will. OK PoP, we got that one locked in.
But wait, there is more. According to the one source of truth, PoP.
From the misinformation I’ve seen here, it looks like the stuff the Disinformation Dozen create and disseminate is being repackaged by our own Disinformation Peddlers so that it will better appeal to New Zealanders.
Apparently PoP thinks this will increase and sabotage our vaccine rollout. It is clearly not okay to disagree with the Government’s socialist narrative.
As our vaccine roll-out ramps up over the coming months, I expect our Disinformation Peddlers will do the same.
A cynic might say that our inept government is the biggest saboteur of the rollout but I digress. Fortunately PoP is coming to the rescue of silly New Zealanders with a handy list of how to spot the dreaded false and misleading information. It makes for interesting reading.
Are they downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic? Are they claiming that most people survive Covid-19 just fine? That it’s just a bad flu? That’s an immediate red flag.
You got it, folks. Anyone who has noticed that the Wuhan Flu is in most cases no worse than a bad flu, that some don’t even know they have it and only in extreme cases is it fatal (much like so-called normal flu) and that the death rate is not too far off seasonal flu and well below that of the 1918-20 flu pandemic is a dreaded ‘misinformer’.
Here’s another. Are they emphasising your personal choice and freedoms over acting for the collective good? Are they pushing some supplement as a cure or treatment for Covid-19? You guessed it. Red flag.
In this one PoP, unlike more cunning socialists, cannot help but display her controlling socialist credentials. ‘Personal choice and freedoms’ are bad apparently. Well, in controlling socialist regimes they are. The mighty ‘collective’ rules in the socialist utopia that PoP lives in, much like Star Trek’s Borg semi-machine aliens, so heaven help us poor deluded independent thinkers. Get in the collective or else you are a scumbag misinformer destroying the socialist utopia.
The last red flag to look out for is, is the information presented in a way that seems designed to make you angry or scared. Good information put out to help you make an informed choice won’t do that.
Oh, this is a good one. If we apply it to the tripe, spin and hogwash from official government agencies and the scary propaganda from Ardern and various agencies here and overseas that frighten people then PoP’s own criteria tell us that it isn’t good information.
I feel better already.
Please share so others can discover The BFD.