“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Facebook is a Disgrace to Our Nation
See “Facebook bans misinformation about all vaccines after years of controversy”:
Facebook has banned misinformation about all vaccines following years of harmful, unfounded health claims proliferating on its platform.
As part of its policy on Covid-19-related misinformation, Facebook will now remove posts with false claims about all vaccines, the company announced in a blogpost on Monday.
These new community guidelines apply to user-generated posts as well as paid advertisements, which were already banned from including such misinformation. Instagram users will face the same restrictions.
“We will begin enforcing this policy immediately, with a particular focus on Pages, groups and accounts that violate these rules,” said Guy Rosen, who oversees content decisions. “We’ll continue to expand our enforcement over the coming weeks.”
Do you think the people at Facebook realize that banning “misinformation” is the same as saying, “We know everything there is to know and the correct interpretations of everything, and we won’t allow alternate views to be discussed?”
Do you think they realize that they are trampling on our constitutional right to free speech and that they are harming our nation by not allowing alternate views to be discussed on their platform? Actually, it’s not their platform. It is a public utility, but that’s a story for another day.
If the people at Facebook don’t or can’t understand these things, they are playing an integral part in helping to create an Orwellian world. That is a world that rational people should not want to inhabit. It’s a world very much like the one that Adolf Hitler tried to create. It took a world war to solve that problem.
It would not shock me if Mark Zuckerberg or some higher-up at Facebook called for a book burning celebration. Their slogan might be something like this:
Don’t re-write history. Burn it down.
I say that only half in jest.
Anything that Challenges Conventional Wisdom is Attacked
There used to be a time when doctors didn’t understand the role germs play in deaths at hospitals. In 1850, a German doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis was punished mercilessly for suggesting that germs cause deaths and that if doctors simply washed their hands before and after seeing patients, the death rate at hospitals could be reduced dramatically.
See “In 1850, Ignaz Semmelweis saved lives with three words: wash your hands”:
On this date in 1850, a prickly Hungarian obstetrician named Ignaz Semmelweis stepped up to the podium of the Vienna Medical Society’s lecture hall. It was a grand and ornately decorated room where some of medicine’s greatest discoveries were first announced. The evening of May 15 would hardly be different — even if those present (and many more who merely read about it) did not acknowledge Semmelweis’s marvelous discovery for several decades.
What, exactly, was the doctor’s advice to his colleagues on that long ago night? It could be summed up in three little words: wash your hands!
At this late date, we all expect our doctors to wash their hands before examining us or performing an operation in order to prevent the spread of infection. Surprisingly, physicians did not begin to acknowledge the lifesaving power of this simple act until 1847.
It was then that Dr. Semmelweis began exhorting his fellow physicians at the famed Vienna General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus) to wash up before examining women about to deliver babies. His plea was far more than aesthetic; it was a matter of life and death and helped to prevent a deadly malady known as “childbed” or puerperal (from the Latin words for child and parent) fever.
For bringing the facts about germs to the attention of renowned doctors, Semmelweis was practically drummed out of medicine. The same type of thing happens when anyone challenges conventional wisdom anywhere, yet it is people like Semmelweis who drive innovation and improve our lives and our health.
In business, we call people like Semmelweis “disruptors”, because they are driving change. They are looked upon favorably today, but that wasn’t always the case. As recently as the 1970s, people in major companies who looked beyond the obvious and suggested new paradigms were seen as troublemakers.
You can bet that the people at Bell Labs who created the transistor encountered the same kind of resistance that Semmelweis experienced. Thanks to their pioneering work, today we take for granted computers, smart phones, and other electronic gadgets. Our world would not be the same without them. Turns out their disruption worked to our advantage.
Henry Ford was the butt of jokes when he started making automobiles to take the place of horses. Anyone daring to drive a “horseless carriage” down the street of any town would hear people yelling “Get a horse!” For simply driving an early automobile, people were regarded as villains.
People who pioneered airplanes experienced the same ridicule. Lord Kelvin, a prominent British mathematical physicist and engineer, explained the problem succinctly. He said, “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
To narrowminded people, certainty is wonderful even when it’s certainly wrong. Before flight became standard fare, otherwise intelligent people were known to say, “If God intended for people to fly, He would have given us wings.” With that kind of thinking, polio would still be with us today.
Arthur Schopenhauer, a prominent German philosopher, said that truth has to pass through 3 stages:
- First, it’s ridiculed.
- Second, it’s violently opposed.
- Third, it’s accepted as self-evident.
Pioneers in every industry experience the negative effects of stages 1 and 2. In stage 3, the early naysayers step in trying to take create for the work of the ridiculed and castigated pioneers. That’s one very good reason why we should never try to re-write history. The history of social media won’t look kindly upon Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg and his team.
Lest we forget, Zuckerberg is not the brains behind Facebook. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss sued him for stealing their idea for the social networking platform while they were students at Harvard. The Winklevoss twins won a $65 million settlement. That’s a mere pittance compared to Zuckerberg’s billions, but the point is that Zuckerberg gets credit that he doesn’t deserve.
Zuckerberg is not doing a good job now. For more on him, see “WSJ: Zuckerberg tells staff to ‘inflict pain’ on Apple as privacy battle intensifies”. As I said, history won’t treat him kindly.
Below is a letter from then Governor of New York Martin Van Buren to President Andrew Jackson. Van Buren is addressing his concerns about railroads:
January 31, 1829
To President Jackson,
The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of a new form of transportation known as “railroads.” The federal government must preserve the canals for the following reasons:
One. If canal boats are supplanted by “railroads,” serious unemployment will result. Captains, cooks, drivers, hostlers, repairmen and lock tenders will be left without means of livelihood, not to mention the numerous farmers now employed in growing hay for the horses.
Two. Boat builders would suffer, and towline, whip and harness makers would be left destitute.
Three. Canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States. In the event of the expected trouble with England, the Erie Canal would be the only means by which we could ever move the supplies so vital to waging modern war.
As you may well know, Mr. President, “railroad” carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of fifteen miles per hour by “engines” which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.
Martin Van Buren
Government of New York
Van Buren actually wrote that letter and sent it to President Jackson. When I read it, I’m reminded of something Herb Stein told me while he was a faculty member at the University of Virginia. He said, “Neil, one evidence of the strength of our nation is that we can prosper despite our poor quality of presidential leadership.” Herb served as Richard Nixon’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He had first-hand experience.
Today, we take railroads for granted, but we depend on them for the economic vitality of our nation. In the early days of the industry, railway companies had to go through the same trial by fire that Semmelweis went through.
As I said, it happens anytime anyone challenges conventional wisdom, the status quo. Change of any type is resisted. Try telling the typical churchgoer that the Messiah’s Name isn’t Jesus and that He is Yahweh, and you will see what I mean. Those are irrefutable truths, but typical churchgoers become indignant when they hear it.
Why? It’s because they haven’t heard it before. That sounds ridiculous, but it’s right on the money.
Marin Van Buren served as President of the United States for one term: from March 4, 1837 to March 4, 1841. Some scholars give him credit for contributions to the American political system. They are being too kind. He was not a good president, but our nation survived him.
Van Buren is best known for his miserable handling of the economic Panic of 1837. Thanks to Van Buren’s ineptitude, our country suffered greatly. You can bet that his biggest problem was between his ears. He simply could not accept anything that challenged the status quo.
Van Buren and Zuckerberg Have a Lot in Common
Martin Van Buren and Mark Zuckerberg have a lot in common. A few years ago, Facebook was heralded as the leader in a new industry: Social media. Today, Facebook is a disgrace to our nation.
President Biden may not know it, but he has a big problem on his hands, and it’s getting worse by the day. If he fails to address it correctly, he will be making a huge mistake.
The future of Biden’s presidency may depend on the way he deals with problems in the media: Establishment media and social media. They are not the arbiters of truth. They are tearing away at the underpinnings of our Constitution, things like freedom of speech. That can’t be tolerated.
For What it’s Worth
It’s a hop, skip, and jump from Facebook deciding to censor “misinformation about vaccines” to Facebook censoring criticism of Facebook. That day may be just around the corner. Don’t rule it out.
Also, for What it’s Worth
I have received my first Covid-19 vaccination. I will get my second shot in a few days. I didn’t have a choice, because I have a lot of work to do in Israel. If I am not vaccinated, I won’t be allowed to enter the country.
Katie decided not to be vaccinated at this time. In due course, she will have to take into account flying into and out of Israel, too. That is her decision, not mine.
If I knew for certain what the right course of action is, I would tell Katie that she needs to get vaccinated, but I don’t know. Pretending that I do know would be ridiculous.
I do know this, though: If Katie doesn’t get vaccinated, she won’t be joining me in Israel, even for a short visit.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
