Why the Medical Mayhem Matters

More thoughts on the “frontline doctors” video and why it is an issue worth squabbling over.

1. The Gatekeepers

The distribution of news in previous eras was largely controlled by media gatekeepers. If you wanted your story to be heard across the nation, you needed a publisher, a newspaper, a radio station- somebody with significant street cred, funds, and equipment- to get your message heard.

The internet changed all of this. Suddenly, the gates were up but the walls were down. Controlling the flow of information, you might say, was like trying to keep out mosquitoes with a chain-link fence. Now, Joe-Bob from backwoods Montana could make a YouTube video that somebody in Tokyo tweets out that runs on BBC news the next day.

This is a problem for those who are afraid of the light. As we have recently discussed, the truth has nothing to fear. If you light a torch, you don’t have to worry about somebody coming in with a dark-projector. Darkness has a way of melting when the lights are on. But if you’re trying to preserve darkness, you aren’t going to be OK with visitors touching the lightswitch. If you’re selling tofu patties, business is great until somebody shows up with the real thing, and this is why you have to keep that Angus off the market.

“For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” John 3:20, NASB

So now we are seeing the raising up of new gates. Now, let’s be clear- social media companies are ostensibly private, and I am a firm believer in the rights of private individuals to run their private companies however they want without government intervention (to a point, obviously).

But what we are seeing now is the application of political pressure onto private individuals and companies, building new gates and posting PC police out front wearing very official looking Fact Checker badges. It is an unhealthy marriage, but a necessary one if we are going to keep the lights off.

In other words, while the shock troops are in the streets chucking Molotov cocktails, the senior officers are at the gates making sure that the only news that gets out is news marked with the correct hashtags. That’s the only way to ensure that everyone realizes that this isn’t a Marxo-terrorist riot; it’s a fellowship of concerned grandmothers who are gently burning down small businesses until stuff is more justicey. If it weren’t for these guys faithfully doing their jobs, we might start asking questions like “how did Epstein manage that?!?” or “how does the virus know what political event it’s at?” or other such.

Put that flashlight away, my friend. Here’s some ketchup for your tofu.

2. Fool Me Once

There is a clear argumentative trajectory from those who advocate The Approved Narrative, and it goes something like this: “you believe those quack doctors instead of prestigious and credible organizations like the CDC, the FDA, the WHO, and the LOL? Clearly you have no interest in looking into studies that disagree with your position. Clearly you are anti-science. The science is settled, don’t you know?”

Yes, well, so I hear. But I managed to smuggle a flashlight past security, and I’m having fun waving it around.

Firstly, you said something about credibility.

When the purveyors of The Approved Narrative tell us that masks don’t help, and then that they do help, and that participating in Trump rallies or lockdown protests are clearly a foolish risk while stealing a TV from a Target practically scares COVID away, and that we have to take a few weeks to slow the spread, by which we mean a few years to develop a vaccine, that millions were going to die, until they didn’t, that hydroxychloroquine was dangerous, until the study was retracted, that these “prevention measures” are all about health and saving lives even as the collateral damage becomes more and more obvious, and that even suggesting the use of a well-established and safe medicine as a possible aid against COVID is Very Very Bad and not a choice worth offering to doctors and patients– I’m sorry, but y’all just took your credibility, wadded it up, and tossed it into a burning courthouse. You will forgive me for looking askance at the “settled science,” especially since the more I look at it the more it looks like a political billy club.

Secondly, while we are talking about credibility, I would like to know why the defenders of The Approved Narrative have not provided some solid refutation to the quack doctors and the nonsense that they have spouted, instead of convenient dismissals, editorializing, and ad hominems. It shouldn’t be that hard to show that the studies that they reference are fakes, or that they aren’t real doctors, or something.

Unless maybe the studies aren’t fakes, and the doctors are real, or something.

At the end of the day, medicine is a science. And science isn’t supposed to be afraid of competing theories. I have no problem with morphing recommendations; of course, as a disease becomes better understood, ways to combat it become clearer as well. I do, however, have a problem with recommendations that morph based on political expediency, that are selective in the evidence considered, and that are unwilling to countenance alternative suggestions.

3. It’s Not Really About Medicine At All

Now, I’m no doctor, and I readily admit that there are many, many people more qualified to argue both sides of this medical argument than I am. But really, COVID is not the issue here. My concern in this post is not a medical concern; it is a worldview concern. We are watching the construction of a monolithic zeitgest; the promotion and protection of an approved narrative to which all must bow. Power has a way of corrupting. The folks who are willing to take you to court to force you to call a man a woman will not hesitate to throw you in the Twitter gulag for the same offense. It is wise to be sparing in the power granted to sinful men; they will not readily give the scepter back once it is in their hands.

How long do you think it will be until the gates built on the pretense of “COVID misinformation” are used to regulate “political misinformation” and “reproductive choice misinformation” and “heteronormative misinformation”?

I’ve been reminded by one of my most frequent intellectual sparring partners that “private companies are not required to help you lie.” Quite right. They are also not required to help you tell the truth. And guess who gets to determine what’s a lie and what is the truth?

The gatekeepers.

And this is why this issue should be concerning to everyone watching. When a private company has an agenda- like The Young Turks, or The Daily Wire- we know that, and accept their editorializing as part of the package. But when a fleet of private companies are acting in concert to suppress information in response to political pressure, we are not in Kansas anymore. We are rockin’ that whole Brave New World look.

It doesn’t matter what your take on COVID is. Deadly pandemic? Over-marketed flu? Hydroxychloroquine is the cure, or possibly helpful, or irrelevant quackery? Masks? No masks? Hazmat suit?

At a more foundational level than the scientific debate about Coronavirus is a worldview issue that should concern us all- the centralization of control vs. the freedom of information. Why should this concern us as Christians? Because it is loving our neighbor to protect their liberty, their access to truth, and to potentially helpful and hopeful information. But, at a deeper level, this should concern us because Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6). This is ultimately a Gospel issue that runs far deeper than a drug or a disease; where the father of lies has ascendency, he will use his power to silence the truth, and he will not stop with silencing just one truth. He will come after the Word and the worship of God. It is a futile effort; He Who sits in the heavens laughs. The Truth has nothing to fear, and if we are in His ranks then neither do we. (Matt. 16:18)

But let’s not kid ourselves. This is not about COVID. This is an issue of darkness vs. light, and it is in the interest of every believer to stand up for the light, and for our ability to speak the truth.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31-32, NASB

#COVID #Hydroxychloroquine