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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022

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Twitter Files 10

Another thread, another author writing for the Twitter Files. Link

David Zweig writes the following.

  1. Twitter and other important internet platforms (Google, Facebook, etc.) were in meetings with the Trump WH since the start of the pandemic to help combat misinformation. The Trump WH was concerned with 5G conspiracies, "runs on grocery stores", and "panic buying".

  2. The Biden WH on the other hand was concerned about Covid. They wanted high-profile anti-vaxx accounts taken offline, noting people like Alex Berenson. The justification was that Covid misinformation was killing lots of people.

  3. Twitter did not immediately capitulate, they were internally hesitant and debating as to whether to suppress people spouting arguments that went against government positions on the topic. But this does not mean that they didn't suppress people.

  4. Twitter's moderation, as you might expect, consists of machine-learning bots at the first layer, then contracted moderators from the Phillipines, and lastly review by "higher level employees" (implied American, or familiar with the culture).

  5. Twitter took the establishment position on Covid, sure, but this went far beyond just applying the "misinformation" tag to people saying vaccines don't work or that Covid is a hoax. It went as far as slapping that label on anyone saying anything that contradicted the mainstream CDC position on anything Covid-related or Covid-narrative-related. In most cases, the same message was seen ("Misleading: Learn why health officials recommend the vaccine for most people") and could no longer be interacted with. Some examples:

    • Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, argued that not everyone needed to take a vaccine, and that it was good for old people and their caretakers, but children and people with natural immunity were fine.

    • @KellyKGA cited CDC statistics to argue that Covid was not the leading cause of child deaths from disease.

    • @_euzebiusz_ cited a study which argued that mRNA vaccines were associated with cardiac arrests.

I have to say, if there was ever a case that reeked of TDS to me, it would be Jim Baker complaining and asking why Donald Trump saying "Don't be afraid of Covid" wasn't a violation of the company's Covid policies, to which Yoel Roth reminded him that it was a "broad, optimistic statement". Or maybe Baker just had a day of Covid-brain, who knows?

In any case, I'm really annoyed that Zweig doesn't talk at all about the Trump WH and what Twitter did or did not do during that time, or about any other requests the Biden WH might have made. Yeah, it's Covid and all that, but are you seriously telling me the Biden WH didn't ask about other topics? At least tell us if so. Tell us about how many requests were made, percentages of fulfilled requests, etc. You could very much do that here and make a stronger, more principled point.

As for what was said, I don't really think it's new. Even if you didn't have the Twitter Files, you could look at the cases that are given as examples and come to the same conclusion - Twitter was suppressing anything that was against establishment narratives on Covid.

P.S: whoever got him his evidence/screenshots should be fired, who uses Twitter even semi-professionally and posts pictures of a computer monitor instead of screenshots?

As for what was said, I don't really think it's new. Even if you didn't have the Twitter Files, you could look at the cases that are given as examples and come to the same conclusion - Twitter was suppressing anything that was against establishment narratives on Covid.

As with most conspiracy facts, when they come out, the significance is not that they are new. The significance is that we have yet another proof that the crazy conspiracy theory guys who said it from the start were actually right all along. And The Experts (TM) who denied that is is about controlling the narrative and suppressing the debate, and claimed it's only to combat "dangerous health misinformation" that could "hurt people", lied to us all along. It's not new, just now we have the receipts.

Said what from the start? There's quite a bit of nonsense in that category, most of which is still not backed up by these press releases.

The people who were relatively level-headed at the start, saying things like "kids under 16 really have no reason to use up doses," have been reasonably validated. Those paranoid about microchips and 5G and injecting bleach disinfectant have not. Keep that in mind before trying to encourage people to follow the independent free-thinkers. I still don't believe their success will generalize.

Injecting bleach is actually a valid treatment. I’ve had it done to me it works. For specifically a viral infection in my eye.

And granted I didn’t actually use bleach but betadine a strong disinfectant used to clean things after surgery. I can’t even remember if Trump said bleach or just disinfectant.

Nasal spray disinfectants I believe have strong studies on them for fighting COVID.

And you can buy it at wal-mart to throat gargle.

The whole bleach thing was a leftist conspiracy that rightists believes it. But there’s also similar medical usages to kill viruses.

Here’s Trumps actual comment

He continued.

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful."

All of which is a scientifically studied with positive results COVID treatment (inhaling nasal disinfectants)

Injecting bleach is actually a valid treatment. I’ve had it done to me it works. For specifically a viral infection in my eye.

I, and I think many other people want more information about this.

Notice how the following paragraph I mention using betadine and not bleach (and Trump never said bleach but a disinfectant).

And yes this treatment was painful. But I also had a nasty eye virus and was unable to look at light for weeks before this treatment. It’s not the least bit enjoyable to apply a strong disinfectant directly to your eye.

https://www.reviewofoptometry.com/article/whats-the-buzz-about-betadine

And it was studied as a nasal spray for covid https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/Article/2022/February/Study-finds-nasal-spray-could-aid-battle-against-COVID

Again trump said disinfectant and bleach was blueanon. Drinking disinfectant probably wouldn’t work but it is used to reduce viral load when the virus is in the eyes, ears, throats.