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I am disillusioned and have lost respect for too many once respected voices.

I recently finished Dr. Mary Newport's book, "Alzheimer's: What if there was a cure?" She published it in 2011. It is as valid and current now as when it was published. Her experiences trying to help her husband, and what she learned are important. The first part of the book details her personal experience trying to get her husband help. When she stumbled onto a way to help him that actually seemed to work, she was blocked time and again by the Alzheimer's Association.

The researchers she eventually connected with had trouble getting funding because their work would not have enriched any pharmaceutical company.

It's all so sad.

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The amount of distress this causes me is beyond easy description. From my 'tweens on, "science" has been my rock. The solid foundation of my belief system. To realize that it has become a game, that can be "gamed" to greater rewards than come to people doing actual, replicatable science is a shock. It bodes ill for any society that lets it happen. Far worse (although possibly related to) than Dr. Edward Dutton's proliferation of "spiteful mutants". Not everyone agrees that the loss of religious faith in modern times is such a bad thing, but I can't see that the loss of the Scientific Method to data manipulation can bring anything but a bad end to the society that it happens to.

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It does feel like a piece of the puzzle that may address the Fermi paradox--if life is so abundant in the Universe, where is it all? I have previously, half-jokingly, suggested that the rise of post-modernism, which might well happen to all conscious life at some point, could be the culprit. I see in this abandonment of science for profits and social reality a related truth.

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I am crafting a short story, the gist of which is the discovery of a planet with a long collapsed civilization and the ecology that sustained it. The cause turns out to be a planet-wide fear of some catastrophe (global warming, imminent ice age, cometary collision or something) that leads to an ill-advised geoengineering attempt that leads to ecological collapse. A warning about unintended consequences that is unlikely to sway anyone.

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I don’t know—it sounds pretty great to me. With the right style and story, and some luck, maybe it hits exactly how and where it needs to. I’ll be interested to read it when you are ready to share.

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Well that's actually hilarious Heather. I just recently learned that xenopronouns are a thing.

I'll copy and paste text from the wiki, but it's all so absolutely absurd:

"Xenopronouns are a type of hypothetical neopronouns that cannot be understood by humans and/or expressed through human language. Theoretical examples of xenopronouns include;

Pronouns that involve concepts that humans do not have words for.

Pronouns whose meanings cannot be translated into any human language.

Pronouns that include sounds that would be impossible for humans to make, if spoken.

Pronouns that include movements that would be impossible for humans to do, if signed.

Pronouns expressed through a from of communication that humans cannot use.

No specific examples of xenopronouns can be provided because, by their nature, it would be impossible to express through human language. For those that do use xenopronouns, for communication in human language they may use auxiliary (alternate) pronouns or wish to be treated as nullpronominal."

https://pronoun.fandom.com/wiki/Xenopronouns

Yes, this is actually a thing! I can't remember if you and Bret have covered xenopronouns before so I'm posting it for others.

So I wonder if a society that adopts such pronouns are just not deserving of making contact and being probed, or maybe an alien species that adopts such pronouns cease to exist because they themselves (metaphorically) cease to exist?

Not sure, but this is as all the young kids say "batshit crazy"!

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I’ve been waiting for this post. Thank you.

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So have I! Seriously, thank you. This could easily be a book, this topic. Or a lifetime of books. But this essay is a start.

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I’ve just finished your book and I’m looking forward to re reading it (likely more than once). It’s excellent! I’m so grateful to have discovered “DarkHorse” way back when it was first launched, and for the education (and laughter) you and Bret have so generously shared. Thank you!

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Thank you for your kind words. We are so grateful that people are finding and reading A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century. It--like this essay--could easily be many more books. In fact, in part, this is what was imagined--every chapter, and in some cases, every section within each chapter, could be expanded into its own tome. It is, therefore, dense in places, and almost everyone will disagree with something that they find there. That is a good thing! And yet, while we do not seek to comfort our readers, this is true: those who have come to adopt an evolutionary perspective on the world--even those who also retain religion in their lives--are often better able to navigate, to make sense, and to make decisions, and as a result, are more centered and sane. This is what we hope to facilitate.

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Excellently written. Thank you.

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This post is very timely Heather.

In light of all of this COVID nonsense and trying to make sense of what's going on, I've become a bit disillusioned for the fact that I think bad science is happening on all sides, even among COVID zealots and COVID critics. It sort of tells me that not many people are taking the time to analyze some of the studies they're citing, with one of the most notable ones being this Icelandic study suggesting that vaccines are leading to higher reinfection among the vaccinated vs the unvaccinated. I pointed out so many problems with this study and yet it was touted as a absolute truth by so many:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2794886

https://moderndiscontent.substack.com/p/evidence-of-higher-reinfection-among

A pretty recent (relatively recent) study that has come under heavy scrutiny was the study about certain bacteria using arsenic rather than phosphorus as a building block for molecules, and last year two additional studies came out refuting these claims. It was highly controversial, yet was spread worldwide when the study first came out.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/120709-arsenic-space-nasa-science-felisa-wolfe-simon

I think this is a growing problem as science tries to be more appealing and more hip. It's like science can't market itself on its own merits and studies, and instead has to make it appear so appealing, hence such websites as I "F*ing Love Science" which takes science and presents it in a manner that one would only find fitting for websites such as Buzzfeed. It's why abstracts and titles are so misleading as they are generally the only points of contact that the public, and especially science reporters, make with the actual study.

I've actually wondered if science itself should have an audit of science, in a sense that scientists should look back on older studies that serve as the bedrock for modern fields and try to replicate/reproduce their findings. I think we'd be surprised to find out that many of these studies were either tenuous or had their findings grossly exaggerated.

On that note, another thing I have seen propped up but have been rather critical of was Original Antigenic Sin, and Brian Mowrey of Unglossed has done a great job of essentially auditing the work of Francis and colleagues who brought forth the idea of OAS. We have to keep in mind that OAS came at a time when not much was known about the immune system- no knowledge of memory B cells or T cells were around at the time, which meant researchers just knew "of" antibodies and worked their findings around this concept alone.

https://unglossed.substack.com/p/oas-review-timeline

Well, at this point I can't quite remember where I was going with this post, but I suppose I will end it by saying that science has done itself no favors in the way it presents itself. Science needs to be grounded, it needs to be real, and sometimes that means it sacrifices the "wow" factor for transparency. One great thing COVID has done is that it allowed people a window into the field of science, but since most of these studies have not been peer-reviewed we have to kind of take on the role of being editors/peer-reviewers, and I think it's that aspect that many of us on both sides fail to grasp and leads to the over extrapolation that I fear is becoming a big issue.

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Much to reply to here, and as usual: thank you for the thoughtfulness and detail here. In particular, I am compelled by your point that science trying to frame itself as "appealing and hip" is creating some of the problem. Even those who drive cultural change, the youngest and (if only because so young) least wise among us, generally recognize that bedrock is important, that we cannot build on a foundation of fluff and fantasy. And it's not as if individual *scientists* can't be "appealing and hip," it's the move to make the process of science itself "accessible" in a way that undermines what it is, that is the problem. So many people with advanced degrees in science couldn't recognize a hypothesis if it smacked them in the face. They may be proficient in methods--generally high tech, generally recipe-like in their implementation--but there is no scientific prowess in that. It's glorified assembly-line work. Scientists are excited by uncertainty, by discovery, by the unknown; by their own creative spark, and by discovering both when they have been right, and when they have been wrong. It's not the same "excitement" when you discover you've been right, as when you've been wrong, but it's exhilarating either way. And if you aren't fundamentally driven to explore and discover what is true, what are you doing in science?

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In peace,

So you're saying scientists should regularly examine their conscience.

Scientists must be faithful to objective truth, never despair that truth can be found, endure suffering for the truth patiently, be humble in expressing what they have found so far to be true, and be content with small, and not grand, findings of features of objective truth. So as to die in friendship with truth, and be a good example to us all.

This all sounds very familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on where I have heard it before...

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I reread this while I ate my lunch. I kept thinking of 'the Dr.' Fauci. I came here not for what you know Heather, which is alot!, but for *how* you think. Somehow proprioceptively? A concept I picked up from David Bohm.

Again great piece.

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Glad I'm not the only one here familiar with David Bohm.

I just posted this on the main thread...

MONEY HAS REPLACED HUMAN VALUES

"We are faced with a breakdown of general social order and human values that threatens stability [and survival] throughout the world. Existing knowledge cannot meet this challenge. Something much deeper is needed, a completely new approach. I am suggesting that the very means by which we try to solve our problems is the problem. The source of our problems is within the structure of thought itself."

~ David Bohm (1981)

***

NOTHING will change fundamentally, until we fundamentally change the way we perceive and treat children. Until then, we will continue to see childhood adversity re-enacted upon EVERY aspect of society.

Furthermore, childhood adversity more often than not consists of imposing utterly INSANE societal standards of "normalcy" on children, to which they MUST conform, in order to survive, at a time when they are too young to understand and reject the madness being imposed on them.

The "masses" are essentially clueless and unaware of their own conditioning...

***

“The total neglect or trivialization of the childhood factor operative in the context of violence and the way it evolves in early infancy sometimes leads to explanations that are not only unconvincing and abortive but actively deflect attention away from the genuine roots of violence."

~ Alice Miller

Full article 👇🏼

http://psychohistory.com/articles/the-political-consequences-of-child-abuse/

~*~

THE CHILDREN’S FIRE ...

"What kind of a society is it, that does NOT place the Children's Fire at the very centre of its institutions of power?

It's an INSANE society!"

~ Tim "Mac" Macartney

#TheChildrensFire

Please Watch this Video presentation:

https://youtu.be/1JchSac-VP0

~*~

http://psychohistory.com/books/the-origins-of-war-in-child-abuse/chapter-2-why-males-are-more-violent/

~*~

https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/dissolving-my-vaxxed-illusions?s=r

~*~

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🙂👍

"David Joseph Bohm FRS[1] (/boʊm/; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American-Brazilian-British scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century[2] and who contributed unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bohm

Remember reading bits and pieces about him, probably related to consciousness.

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Been there. Honesty is tough

Removing yourself from the observation...

When you know what the pass fail criteria are

When you know the team is under pressure to get a product, already late, out to the market

When the reading you are observing has sufficient noise that you wouldn't be faulted for recording a positive result, even if you could just as easily record a fail.

It's easy to give in to the moment and let your bias creep in - even if this product keeps an air plane in the air, or a reactor under control.

If you can't handle it, get a different job.

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Per footnote 9, "Pointing out that the emperor has no clothes" should be "Pointing out that the transwoman has no womb".

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🙂 Indeed. Though maybe more to the point is that they have no ovaries, much less functional ones since those are the "sine qua non" for "female":

"female (adjective): Of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs, distinguished biologically by the production of gametes (ova) which can be fertilized by male gametes."

https://www.lexico.com/definition/female

No ovaries, not a female; no tickee, no washee. 😉

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Not terribly impressed that you've deleted one of my comments. Rather gutless, rather hypocritical to be throwing stones at those being "science-ish" and then refusing to address evidence of your own "malfeasance" on that score.

Others may wish to consider my further elaborations on that point in your Audio post:

https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/on-fraud-audio-edition/comment/8602034

Stay tuned for my own Substack post on the topic, including various screenshots for posterity - "j'accuse", indeed.

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The corruption of Big Science is enabled by Big Brother capture and collusion with Big Industry.

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MONEY HAS REPLACED HUMAN VALUES

"We are faced with a breakdown of general social order and human values that threatens stability [and survival] throughout the world. Existing knowledge cannot meet this challenge. Something much deeper is needed, a completely new approach. I am suggesting that the very means by which we try to solve our problems is the problem. The source of our problems is within the structure of thought itself."

~ David Bohm (1981)

***

NOTHING will change fundamentally, until we fundamentally change the way we perceive and treat children. Until then, we will continue to see childhood adversity re-enacted upon EVERY aspect of society.

Furthermore, childhood adversity more often than not consists of imposing utterly INSANE societal standards of "normalcy" on children, to which they MUST conform, in order to survive, at a time when they are too young to understand and reject the madness being imposed on them.

The "masses" are essentially clueless and unaware of their own conditioning...

***

“The total neglect or trivialization of the childhood factor operative in the context of violence and the way it evolves in early infancy sometimes leads to explanations that are not only unconvincing and abortive but actively deflect attention away from the genuine roots of violence."

~ Alice Miller

Full article 👇🏼

http://psychohistory.com/articles/the-political-consequences-of-child-abuse/

~*~

THE CHILDREN’S FIRE ...

"What kind of a society is it, that does NOT place the Children's Fire at the very centre of its institutions of power?

It's an INSANE society!"

~ Tim "Mac" Macartney

#TheChildrensFire

Please Watch this Video presentation:

https://youtu.be/1JchSac-VP0

~*~

http://psychohistory.com/books/the-origins-of-war-in-child-abuse/chapter-2-why-males-are-more-violent/

~*~

https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/dissolving-my-vaxxed-illusions?s=r

~*~

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At my school in the early 90's, a first physics professor measured the results of his own experiment using a detector designed and built by a second physics professor.

The first professor detected and published what were perceived as scientifically significant results, bringing some significant attention to his work.

Statistical significance (as opposed to perceived scientific significance), while present, was marginal because the effect size detected was a little too close to the resolution/sensitivity/noise rejection limit of the detector.

So the second professor designed and built a new detector with about 1000x the sensitivity/noise rejection of the original. When it was offered, the first professor declined to use it. At the time I left school, the second professor was building his own copy of the first's experimental apparatus to run the confirmatory experiments himself.

Science is hardly immune to corruption, especially in areas that cannot practically or are not even attempted to be replicated (such as due to lack of interest, lack of resources, lack of courage to challenge the orthodoxy, or whatever else).

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Excellent!

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