my on the spot gatos™ have smuggled out this video of jerome adams taunting twitter about lacking credentials and ability to assess data.
it was like watching mr magoo tell lewis hamilton that he should not have a driver’s license.
and it did not go the way he planned.
first, some background:
of all the deeply unqualified and “not even useless but outright harmful” public health figures who have played roles in the disturbing drama devolved to farce of the last couple of years, i have a special place in my little feline heart for former US surgeon general jerome adams.
he was so far over his head right from the start that he could not even tell he was over his head. he’s vain, arrogant, desperately stupid, and fabulously strident. always wrong, never in doubt.
truly, the first rule of dunning krueger club is “you don’t know you’re in dunning krueger club”
he’s been blown out of the water more times than a fish that lives in a grenade testing pond.
he is the literal poster child for circular appeals to one’s own authority and woo-woo and therefore a perfect object lesson in why “the experts” are so terrified of “the amateurs.”
it’s because we keep knocking them on their pedantic posteriors.
and they obviously do not belong in this ring.
and if they are forced to engage, this fact cannot be hidden.
they are frauds and fakes relying on position and credential to mask ineptitude, subject matter illiteracy, and slavish conformity to political diktat.
it’s all woo-woo.
certain internet felines were heard to opine:
i’m not going to mince words here: nearly all the policy arm of public health is woo-woo.
these alleged epidemiologists and modelers and academics were a bunch of cloistered frauds pushing hocus pocus from the mountain top temples. and they have learned nothing. they got it this wrong in march of 2020. and they were still getting it this wrong 2 years later.
the full story of woo-woo can be read below.
but nothing cements theory like an object lesson.
so let’s use jerome. he’s earned it.
who could forget his oscar for “most histrionic hypochondriac in an airport” so soon on the heels of this role as “only an idiot would wear a mask on an airplane dude”?
such range in an actor! i can see why the academy loves this guy…
(full story HERE)
and he’s just determined not to go away. apparently, he’d like another 5 minutes attached to his 15 minutes of famous inadequacy.
he pushed the hilariously made up “swiss cheese” model of covid defense, but the fact of the matter is stark: the real swiss cheese resides between his ears.
he squawks
but this is just appeal to authority wrapped up in phony crybully appeals to emotion to escape the simple fact that the safety he cites is non-extant.
“your liberty must cede way to my superstitious anxiety” is nether a sound basis for science or for a free society. it’s performative neurocracy as pretext for technocratic authoritarian imposition.
and let’s face it, if pinocchio told as many lies as the CDC over the last 2 years we could have laid him on his back and built the first space elevator. (frankly, we might be to mars by now)
some quick framing on woo-woo (from article linked above)
and so we set up jerome’s latest foray into claiming authority, and this one was as spectacular in its tone deaf arrogance as it was ill conceived and ill received.
we start here with a classic appeal to credentialism. only the anointed may analyze.
and note the cowardly finish. personal attacks and “we’re done here.”
(for those not familiar with the issue, read kelley’s excellent work here. she GUTTED the CDC on claims that covid was a top cause of death for children. another win for amateurs, another total loss for “expert authorities.” another “study” demolished in 3 days by real open review.)
then kelly politely, but directly corrects him:
jerome did not know or understand the data. he did not even know it had been changed. he’s parroting party line and getting it wrong.
and he quickly realizes it.
so he shifts to personal attacks like the out of his depth peter principled phony he is:
kelley’s response of “actually, no. this is not even hard and i claim no special smartness. just basic diligence” is wonderfully symbolic.
what’s truly telling here is the nature of the exchange. one side argues from credential and insult and dismissal. the other from humility and data.
which one do you trust?
and, of course, the greatest fear of the appellant to authority is that one of even greater authority will step in and call you out.
so when one of the top epidemiologists in the entire world piles on, well, bad day for jerry.
where does one retreat from here?
and so to martin, i present the coveted gatodunk™ award.
that was a thing of beauty.
well played, sir.
but not even that can rein in jerome. he’s still out getting mauled for pretending to have played for the other side:
but we’ve got loads of receipts on that one.
claiming that every child must climb the himalayas and return with a feather from the elusive jub-jub bird or a written exemption from a certified frumious bandersnatch is not being “on the side of school opening” and the evidence that normal school is and always was safe has been out for 2 years.
social media is a fabulous thing:
many-splendored and devilishly double-edged.
it’s a source of influence and reach, but also a great equalizer because others may speak too and it has killed the “one to many one-way broadcast model.”
not even sam colt has done more to make men equal.
trust in talking heads who cannot withstand the public gallery is dropping like the price of nantucket red shorts after labor day.
and it’s just going to keep getting worse.
imagine how potent this could be were this agora made truly impartial and open to all views.
imagine what a world we might create.
imagine real peer review and unfettered debate and discourse.
the cure for bad speech is always more speech.
and the cure for idiots is giving them a soapbox and letting them lay their idiocy plain.
if we free it, this is the medium that will change everything.
LFG.
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