Truth Decay

Posted on November 16, 2020 by Skid

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When a philandering and failed NY real estate “mogul” began to muse about becoming the President of the United States, all of the storm warning flags should have gone up. When we saw how the arrogant reality TV “star” ran his board, we should have closed the beaches. But when he began to promote conspiracy birther theories about the 44th President of the United States, we should have boarded up the windows and left town. And left him behind.

From his full page attacks on the innocent Central Park Five to the Pizzagate Pedophile Ring, he openly revealed his true character and the depth of his intelligence as if shallowness and stupidity were traits to be admired. And the shallow and the stupid bought it hook, line, and sinker.

The truth decay spread rampantly through social media and complicit corporate media. It spead through conspiracy operatives like Steve Bannon and Roger Stone and infected all who could not see the little man behind the curtain. In Canada, it spread through the Conservative Party of Canada, through the provincial Conservatives, through the Wexiters, through the Yellow Vesters, through the “Freedom Rally” #COVIDIOTS, through the religious wrong and the evangelical illiterate.

There is no easy treatment for this truth decay. Even normal tooth decay treatment by fluoride would get the conspiracy theorists out screaming about a government conspiracy to poison our drinking water. No, this truth decay is going to require intense conversion therapy for the brain to make the transition from stupidity to a modicum of intelligence. Gravity works.

With almost 50% of Americans and 30% of Canadians infected by truth decay, it bodes well for the future of education. Forget the 3R’s of Rage, Rant, and Reject the facts. Let’s move forward in 2021 with the 3E’s: lessons in Ecology, Economics and Ethics will be a good curriculum for 2021.

The way I see it.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

*image from rand.com

The Most Dangerous Game

Posted on November 15, 2020 by Skid

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A scenario is playing out in the United States right now that could be the most dangerous game in the history of the US. The Game Master is Roger Stone and the game is called “Stop the Steal” and the players are deluded and disillusioned citizens. Stone incorporated what he likes to call a “grassroots movement” several years ago amid a massive fundraising effort. His “Stop the Steal” business is now engaged in deliberately inciting Americans to violence and sedition by denying the legitimate results of a secure 2020 election process.

By now it should be clear to most of the intelligent world that Joseph R. Biden is the winner of the 2020 election and the legitimate President-Elect of the US. But the Stone crowd, including people like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany continue to use their now illegitimate pulpits to falsely claim that Trump is about to transition to a second term in office.

Mike “smug mug” Pompeo should be tossed out of office right now, but is instead on a contaminating 7 country farewell international tour. Kayleigh “my mouth turns excrement into sugar” McEnany continues to lie through her plasticly perfect smile every time she opens her mouth.

The most dangerous game they are playing is that they are feeding oxygen and fuel into the fire of a dangerously deluded and angry mob of Trumpists, Instead of acknowledging that Biden won “by a landslide” – to quote former president 45 when he received the same 306 Electoral College votes in 2016 – the Trump fanatics insist on the exact opposite.

With armed Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys and Riot Girls threatening violence in the streets, Trump could be forcing America into a state of total anarchy, where military intervention and nationwide curfews could become the order of the day. He deliberately did not do what he should have done – concede – because he can never admit that he lost. And aided by Roger Stone and Steve Bannon and the GOP and his loyal staff he will continue to play this most dangerous game until he is removed from office.

In the short story of the same name, the protagonist wins in the end. Enjoy that first night’s sleep in the big bed, President Biden.

The way I see it.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

*image from nytimes

Don’t be a Larry

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Skid

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Recently the Mayors of the Region of Peel – Patrick Brown of Brampton, Bonnie Crombie of Mississauga, and Allan Thompson of Caledon – pulled a Larry. Many of us will remember Larry Vaughan, the obdurate mayor of the fictional oceanside town of Amity, the setting for the Steven Spielberg movie Jaws.

To refresh: Larry wanted to keep the beaches open for the money that tourist season would bring to the local businesses, even in the face of well-bitten body parts piling up on the beach and scientific experts letting him know that death was swimming in the waters offshore.

But Larry ignored that evidence and expertise, and more death followed, and the beaches closed completely.

So when business owners came complaining to our Region of Peel Mayors, they naturally turned to the Province. Unfortunately, the Ford government had just appointed an “Expert Panel” of economic advisors who were all too ready to relax the restrictions recommended by the Chief Medical Officers of Canada, Ontario, Toronto, and Peel.

The new system is known as the COVID-19 response framework: keeping Ontario safe and open. More correctly it should be titled “Keeping Ontario Open and Safe” since it tends to be more economic than medical in intent. The levels go from Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red, and finally to LOCKDOWN,

Under the guise of “defending local business”, the government permitted the Region of Peel to move Peel Region to Red–Control level, a more business friendly level than the current modified Stage 2. The next day, The Region of Peel Public Health nixed that idea and imposed the more restrictive measures, specifically:

REGION OF PEEL ENHANCED PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES

Peel Public Health is strongly urging all residents to:

Restrict close contact to your household and essential supports

Cease all indoor social gatherings and visits (with exceptions for emergencies, renovations or one-on-teaching / tutoring)

Limit outside trips to essential activities only, and

Cancel, postpone or hold virtually any in-person activities.

Now, dear Mayors in the Region of Peel, when we are in the middle of a global pandemic with COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths climbing to new records each day, don’t be a Larry. Close the beaches. And business owners, yes, businesses will suffer during a pandemic of this scale. The Bubonic Plague was a real downer on local economics unless you were a casket maker or gravedigger.

I live in Caledon, home to 85,000 souls, only a small percentage of whom are local business owners and their employees. In fact, the five biggest employers in Caledon are Delegant Construction, Mars Foods, Canadian Tire Distribution Centre, Verdi Construction, and Husky Injection Mouldings.

In Caledon, blessed with abundant walking and hiking trails and bubbling springs, surely we don’t need any fitness clubs and bars open as indoor venues to disperse virus laden droplets and aerosols, when we can exercise in the fresh air and drink spring water.

We are in the middle of the health crisis of the decade, perhaps the century. Listen to the medical and scientific expertise intended to protect the health and safety of the entire community. The coronavirus is saying, “You can pay me now or you can pay me later.” Remember that you are the Mayors of all of the citizens of the Region of Peel, not just the business owners. When it comes time to pay the bill, the tab is on you.

The way I see it.

***
Skid Crease, Caledon

*image from Twitter.com

What we have here is Failure to Unite

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Skid

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… or how computer science algorithms changed the world.

***

Once upon a time this was our teacher:

We listened to the stories of Earth and the grand liturgy of the universe for hundreds of thousands of years. And then we, a storytelling species, created mythologies to explain our existence. And slowly our understanding grew and we began to replace mythologies with scientific knowledge.

And then we replaced knowledge with search engine computer algorithms.

Our favourite search engine tells us: “Algorithms are simply instructions for solving a problem or completing a task. Recipes are algorithms, as are math equations. Computer code is algorithmic. The internet runs on algorithms and all online searching is accomplished through them.”

Algorithms in and of themselves are neither good not bad, but in a world tending to more and more search engine tribalism, the outcomes can be disastrous.

Once upon a time, there were rules of engagement, especially among the testosterone fired males of our species. Like in boxing, when two men faced off they engaged the Marquis of Queensbury rules. You didn’t throw sand in a guy’s face and sucker punch him, you didn’t kick your opponent in the testicles, and you certainly didn’t pummel him when he was down. Then came Mixed Martial “Arts” and the rules changed.

In the good old days, when political rivals disagreed, you either pulled a sword or a gun or a vial of poison and did away with that meddlesome priest or opposition leader (some still play by the old rules, eh Vlad?) Today you are more likely to be drowned in a Tsunami of fake news and deep state conspiracy theories and the stupidity of your own, or doctored, inappropriate emails and intimate Facebook photos.

Want to embarrass a rival in the old days? Put it in an Irish ballad, hold a woman’s mending circle, or write a satiric poem or essay. Today? Why you just start a “community” Facebook group or send scurrilous rumours to the New York Post or the Toronto Sun, or almost any corporate for-profit media outlet, and your dirt is digested by millions almost instantly. And those millions then play broken telephone with your illegitimate alternative truths and the dumbing us down spreads … like a virus for which there is no vaccine except the Sixth Extinction.

Locally, Doug Ford no longer needs Ontario Today, his former private propaganda media outlet, because CP24 gives him and his sycophants all the air time they need. The Conservative Party of Canada doesn’t need poison because they get a platform from CBC’s Power and Politics pundits. Well informed, educated, Intelligent, empathetic people used to sit down and discuss issues. Today, “In Search Engines We Trust” as computer algorithms tribalize our thought processes into porridge.

Last night’s Presidential Debate, which was neither presidential nor a debate, and it’s aftermath, was a classic example. One candidate was in full tribal outcry promoting “Red MAGA cap States” over “Blue States” and one candidate quietly trying to make a case for “United States” and an audience jumping from the MUTE button to an AI algorithm from Google to try to find out who won.

The US has pulled out of UN agreements and the World Health Organization. In Canada, the far right Ultra Conservative Party governing Wexit Albertans are talking about leaving the UN and the WHO.

What we have here is failure to unite. Would you rather be poisoned by Putin or tribalized by Trumpists? Always remember that Artificial Intelligence is artificial.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

* image courtesy of NASA

The Real Pandemic is Not COVID-19

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Skid

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The real pandemic is the attack on intelligence. As the COVID-19 novel coronavirus has spread around the globe, it has exposed the sad truth that humans are more susceptible to the myths of conspiratorial gossip than to the data of scientific research.

We are still caught up in a “Burn The Witch” mentality – if she’s still alive after we submerge her (and her black cat) in the purifying waters of stupidity, she must be witch! Burn the witch! Consider what we know and don’t know about the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19.

This virus may or may not have its source in sewage waters laden with the waste of various animal species, or in the wet markets of Wuhan, but science is pretty sure it didn’t start out in a hostile foreign nation’s chemical lab or a pedophilic pizza shop in New York. And science doesn’t always get it right the first time. Remember when the theory of continental drift was mocked by mainstream geographers and geologists?

The same with masks in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak – don’t wear a mask here, wear a mask there, masks don’t work, masks do work. And then the data slowly solidified by May that wearing a mask helped to prevent the spread of virus laden droplets and aerosols significantly. We have known for six months now that masks work, and yet we have “Freedom Rally” conspiracy laden anti-maskers protesting for their right to infect and be infected.

Science is still, as Carl Sagan said, a candle in the dark against a demon-haunted world. We take the best information we have at the time and act on it, patiently wait until our preconceptions are satisfied or banished, arrive at new knowledge and adjust our actions. As noted in past blogs, science is an adversarial discipline. If one comes up with a new theory, it is the responsibility of every other practicing, published, peer reviewed and skunkworks scientist to challenge, test and either prove or disprove that theory.

Though over 97% of those meteorological scientists qualified to comment intelligently on the subject have concluded that natural climate change accelerated by human activities on the planet has reached an emergency level, it is still debated by media pundits and their politically motivated guests. It is a similar story with the coronavirus pandemic where qualified scientists and doctors are urging communities around the world to follow recommended health guidelines while they urgently try to create safe and approved vaccines, as political psychopaths and media apparachiks attack their messages.

Overshadowing the scientific and medical messages, in great part due to a media that thrives on hyping emergencies, disasters, and political “scandals” for its corporate ratings, is the deadlier pandemic. This infection comes from giving the “alternative truth” group, including paid actors who pretend to be “concerned parents”, the same amount of air time, or more, than legitimate scientists, ethical journalists and trusted educators.

When a world “leader” is identified by the World Health Organization as the leading cause of misinformation about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, you have a bigger problem than a deadly microscopic virus. You have the deliberate dumbing down of human intelligence that pushes herd stupidity to the brink of the Sixth Extinction.