How do we know what we know?

Why do we believe what we believe? How do we decide what is true, and what is important?

· internal consistency (details of the narrative agree with each other)
· external consistency (details of the narrative agree with information previously verified)
· insider details (information available only to an authentic source)
· dialog and dissent (narrative welcomes questions and challenges; fosters better understanding among divergent opinions)
· awareness of objections (narrative recognizes legitimate counter-arguments and seeks to refute them)
· nuance (recognition that a proposition may hold true in general and still admit of exceptions)
· the human voice (an intangible quality that may include a distinctive personality, awareness of ambivalence, self-analysis and self-criticism)

The internet is anarchical, and therefore makes great demands on the individual user in terms of critical thinking skills. How do we know to trust a site? We compare information from multiple sources, listen to different analyses, learn to weed out irrelevant input and compare the picture with what we know from our own previous experience.

With the traditional media, this is all delegated to the editor, publisher, producer, or university. Often we have to do this, because the material is specialized or technical in nature, or because individual contributors don't have the credibility to reliably provide the information we need.

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Originally posted 2004.

Behold their shining liberal utopias.

They were the smart ones, the enlightened ones, the ones with all the answers. They were going to show the way for the rest of us. Their wise governance was to be the model that would inspire emulation across the country and around the world.

So, are we impressed yet?

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Fifty governors walk into a bar ...

If you take 50 random people off the street, and you want to find out which ones are alcoholics, invite them all into a bar and buy them each ONE drink. And then watch to see what happens. Because some people can't stop at just one.

Those 50 people are the 50 state governors. The COVID-19 crisis gave them their first taste of unchecked, raw, 200-proof power. And we saw which ones got drunk on it.

Tech censorship.

facebook and youtube and twitter are ACTING like they've got something to hide. That's the thing. That's what they don't get. You may or may not have had an opinion about HCQ and C19, you may or may not think Stella Immanuel is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. But when the tech platforms suddenly come marching along in jackboots and disappearing articles and screaming about MISINFORMATION!!!! - they you've got to think something looks suspicious. They are showing with their own actions that there's something there.

This is the most 2020 headline you will read today.

San Francisco Man Sends Pal a Roll of Toilet Paper Via Drone.

Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.

Italy and France are now prescribing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as treatments for coronavirus patients.

In France, the government caved to pressure from renowned Dr. Didier Raoult, who led the new additional study on 80 patients, results show a combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin to be effective in treating COVID-19. Dr Didier Raoult, a professor of infectious diseases who works at La Timone hospital in Marseille, then declared in a video on YouTube that chloroquine was a cure for Covid-19 and should be used immediately.

Dr. Raoult reportedly walked out of the scientific advisory committee advising the government after allegations that the government was being influenced by the big pharmaceutical companies which wanted to block hydroxychloroquine because it was cheap, being out of patent.

In another report, France now allows drug chloroquine to be given to coronavirus patients with extreme case of the disease. Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday, “The anti-malarial drug chloroquine can be administered in France to patients suffering from the severest forms of the coronavirus but only under strict supervision.” Veran also cautioned: “The high council recommends not to use this treatment… with the exception of grave cases, hospitalized, on the basis of a decision taken by doctors and under strict surveillance.” ...

Nevada governor bans malaria drugs for coronavirus patients.

Nevada’s governor on Tuesday banned the use of anti-malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients.

Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak’s executive order came after President Trump touted the medication as holding promise for combating the illness.

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Door to door.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced during a press conference on Friday that the state would take drastic steps to “pin-point” individuals who had recently traveled to New York in an attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. ... Raimondo also announced that, starting Saturday, the National Guard will work with local law enforcement to go “door-to-door” in the state’s coastal communities, asking if anyone has come from New York and requesting their contact information.

Impressive. Efficient. And if they can do that, they can damn well find illegal aliens.

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China and COVID-19.

Via my friend Andy Ngo, Bruce Alyward, senior advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), dodges a question from Yvonne Tong from RTHK about prospects for Taiwan's admission to WHO.

'The World Health Organization’s (WHO) current Director-General and Marxist revolutionary Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is so deeply in bed with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that he and his organization should be completely discredited and ignored when it comes to dealing with the Chinese coronavirus.'

Boris Johnson threatens "day of reckoning" for China.

Once the threat of COVID-19 has faded ...

... it will be instructive to see which leaders are the most reluctant to relinquish the "emergency powers" they have summarily assumed.

Emergency!

Leftists love "states of emergency" because then all normal constraints and expectations are waived. Day-to-day technical and managerial competence is no longer scrutinized because "it's an emergency!" Any kind of action, no matter how ill-advised, can be justified because it's "doing something".

And then comes the need to "restore order" ...