I am an anti-Trump Democrat but very early in the pandemic I became extremely alarmed about the vaccine. I have a background in science and what I was frantically reading every day, 9 hours a day, did not look good at all. I was in a group of scientists, doctors and an actuary which read more than 1600 articles together. I can tell you the experimental designs showing that hydroxychloroquine and later ivermectin could not treat covid quickly and easily were incredibly so poorly designed as to be bogus. A well-designed experiment that did show hydroxychloroquine to work was discredited.
Why rig the experiments? Because the CDC states that if there is a cure for a disease you cannot produce a vaccine.
If you are a Dem reading this your immediate reaction is to call me a misinformation spreader. You might even get furious. Let’s examine what that accusation accomplishes.
Along with another propaganda term, “perfectly safe” it is used to iron in a trust of the covid vaccine. But any opposition triggers emotional experiences such as outrage and righteousness. Puzzling. Why the reaction?
Further, the result is that the term “misinformation” shames and harms the one you accuse of it. It attempts to separate them from society labeling them poor citizens. It suppresses free speech. It has resulted in scientists and doctors being fired.
I originally thought that only Dems were promoting misinformation accusations because some right wing sources were the ones questioning the safety of the covid vaccine, but now I think it goes deeper.
I have both left- and right-wing friends and to a man both have another issue over which they respond with outrage and righteousness. Psychologically, here’s what happens with the triggering of righteousness and outrage. There are pleasure centers in the brain that get stimulated so that experiencing it becomes almost addictive. It is fun to be right.
The beliefs driving the fun are:
I am discerning, I am informed, and the other side is not. I am superior intellectually. Anybody buying the other side’s ideas is a fool and likely stupid.
And so the brain delivers a feedback loop of positive reinforcement that continues forever. You might even call it self love and admiration.
The new misinformation has to do with chosen news sources. The left has theirs and the right has theirs and anything accidentally read from the other side is misinformation. Accompanied by anger righteousness so thrilling it HAS to be the truth.
I will give an example. I read something in Epoch Times (right wing) that was scientifically sound and wanted to share it with my Dem friend. She became outraged. Demanded that I never send her anything from such a non-credible source again. She was completely unable to read the scientific presentation.
Something is scary wrong about that. That means that incoming information is being blocked. And we are feeling pleasure blocking it.
I had the same thing happen with a Trump-loving Republican friend. I was astounded to find that he had not seen anything negative about Trump. Nothing. In fact, he considered Trump a gentleman and a kind person. When I offered to send him live-streamed things that Trump has said that are objectionable to anyone, he said, “I won’t look at them because they come from mainstream media.”
Incoming information is blocked on both sides because it is labeled as misinformation. I call it the installing of the concrete brain.
And thus we stay forever divided and angry.