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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026

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mm'kay, you are correct he did not talk about bleach specifically, but "noises about cool science" appear perplexing.

Donald Trump (29:39): A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you're totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that too. Sounds interesting, right? 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. Steve, please.

"Light inside the body" "is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside" "it gets in the lungs" I have trouble understanding what he could possibly mean, but it's not like the headlines were a total fabrication as Shades is insinuating. Like, BBC reporting here seems to stick to the facts

I never read this transcript before, so if I am feeling charitable, my interpretation is that he was rambling and made a brain-fart because he heard Bryan use the verb "inject" in a difference sense and he jumped to thinking of injections as medical procedure. But I don't think high-IQ people make that sort of, uh, connections.

Iirc, "light inside the body" was an experimental ventilator that was clear, with an effort at disinfectant UV light emitters on the inside. The idea was to reduce the rate at which the vents themselves gave people infections in hospitals. Never heard anything else about them afterwards, so I guess it didn't pan out.

IMO, there are 2.5 possible interpretations of what he said:

  • He asked the scientists whether they were going to test injecting disinfectant as a treatment (and implicitly suggested that they do so); or

  • He described how the scientists already were planning to test injecting disinfectant as a treatment.

IMO, that makes the BBC headline of "Outcry after Trump suggests injecting disinfectant as treatment", where the suggestion implicitly is directed at laymen rather than at scientists, pretty close to "total fabrication".

(The second "IMO" is intentional, since there are two separate opinions here, the second contingent on the first. Wasn't there some arguing on this website a zillion years ago regarding how much a person should clarify that he is merely stating his opinion, rather than "building consensus" by pretending that his opinion is just a fact?)