Censorship in the name of Public Health

Thou Shalt Not Question Public Health! Censorship in the Age of COVID-19 | Montreal Counter-information - Anonymous submission

"The libertarian left, the broader tradition of which anarchism is a part, has historically been opposed to censorship. Nowadays, however, the Left seems to be silent on this subject. To be fair, it is a complicated subject in the age of fake news, conspiracy theories, and Cambridge Analytica. So I raise the issue earnestly, as a subject that is deserving of discussion and debate. I think that we need to seriously engage with this question, as we are undoubtedly living in an age of increasing censorship.

"Let me begin with an example.... Ontario MPP Roman Baber published a letter calling for an end to Ontario’s lockdown. In it, Baber makes the case that the health consequences of the lockdown, such as increased overdoses, suicidal ideation, and anxiety disorders, outweigh the harm of COVID-19. Basically, he is making a very tame argument that the lockdown is not in the public interest. His position is that 'Covid is real, but the fear of Covid is exaggerated. While every death is tragic, after 10 months we learned that Covid is not nearly as deadly as first thought.' He supports his argument by citing recent statistics from the CDC about the fatality rates for COVID-infected people in different age groups. The letter can be read here.... 

"Ford’s response was swift. Baber was ejected from caucus and it was announced that he would be barred from running for the Conservative party ever again.... Ford’s statement is typical: 'By spreading misinformation he is undermining the tireless efforts of our frontline health-care workers at this critical time, and he is putting people at risk,' he said. 'I will not jeopardize a single Ontarian’s life by ignoring public health advice… There is no room for political ideology in our fight against COVID-19 — rather, our response has been and will always be driven by evidence and data'....

"Let’s unpack Ford’s statement. First off, support for a lockdown is as much of an expression of political ideology as is opposition to a lockdown. Clearly, this is an absurd statement, but it seems to imply that that opposition to the ideology of the state will not be permitted.... Ford’s statement makes more sense when one replaces the word 'dissent' for 'political ideology'. With that substitution, the sentence would read: There is no room for dissent in our fight against COVID-19. Is that what he actually means?

"Secondly, which misinformation? The sources that Baber cited were sources the mainstream media usually would consider credible. Ford did not specify, although the government soon released a 'fact-sheet' disputing Baber’s claims, which absurdly points out a typo. You  can find the government’s response here.... So what misinformation is Ford referring to? The statistics of the CDC? And more importantly: Who gets to decide what is and what isn’t misinformation? This question has become extremely important in the past year, as social media platforms have implemented extensive censorship policies. It is becoming more unlikely that your average person will encounter perspectives critical of the official narrative around COVID-19....

"It should be pointed out that social media platforms are scrubbing their platforms of information deemed to be contrary to the recommendations of Public Health.... I think that we need to ask ourselves? What is Public Health? Who is Public Health? What is justifiable in the name of Public Health and what isn’t? I also think that we need to develop an analysis of the term 'Public Health' itself, as it gained new meaning and new importance in the past year.... Often, it seems that the term is used to suggest that individual wishes, needs and desires must be subordinated in the interests of a greater good. Who determines this greater good? Certainly not you or I! 'Public Health' is determined by authorities vested with their role by the state. So the state determines the Public Interest. I think that what is taking place is that. 'Public Health' is becoming an extremely important term in the lexicon of propaganda, and I think that we should be critical of the way that the term is being used.... I believe that this term is coming to represent the concept of 'Safety” or 'Security'....

"I feel that there is one thing that most people value over freedom. That is safety. If a drug cartel threatened your life or the lives of your family if you didn’t start working for the cartel, it is extremely likely that you would choose safety over freedom. Millions upon millions of people choose safety over freedom every single day. That is why, when a regime wishes to gain the compliance of a population for nefarious purposes, such as war, they focus on making people afraid. This is basic....

"Isn’t this very analogous to what is happening now? Everyday, we are told over and over again how dire the situation is. We are essentially being told that we are under attack.... For a time, Trump even called COVID the 'invisible enemy'. In the place of pacifists, there are civil libertarians, those who refuse to accept the logic of Public Health. These people, often characterized as 'anti-maskers' or 'anti-vaxxers', are the targets of scorn and ridicule, and by now their voices are mostly absent from mainstream political discourse. They are denounced for exposing vulnerable people to danger, and the danger of their ideas is used to justify censorship. And the scorn that they are subjected to sends a message to those who might be tempted to speak up against the normalization of arbitrary measures – it’s not worth the effort.

"I think that we need to reject the logic that we need to be protected from ourselves. To accept this logic is to accept defeat. If we accept the logic that the information that we have access to must be controlled, we are accepting the logic that we must be controlled. The state would have us believe that it has our best interests at heart, and that it is manipulating us for our own good, in the name of Public Health. I ain’t buying it.

"Stay Strong. Stay Safe. Smash the State."

Read more: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/thou-shalt-not-question-public-health-censorship-in-the-age-of-covid-19/