I'm sorry but the main stream media narratives about covid and climate change are no more reliable than they are about transgender ideology. I'm guessing that you haven't looked into them. If you did you would find that the covid narrative falls apart instantly. The evidence points in directions far far different from what our media is telling us. And I'm guessing that having a graduate degree in psychology, you are unable to judge which of the multiple different camps of scientists is correct on climate change (as am I). Only one set of ideas about climate change is being presented to the public, and it is being presented as "the correct science". This is simply not true. It is hotly contested by scientists. I have no idea which team is correct (because I'm a nurse with a masters in psychodynamic psychotherapy and so I can't understand the arguments well enough to parse whose correct unlike covid, vaccines and trans madness).
Thanks for your comment. I don't want to get too much into the weeds with Covid or climate change, because they're complex topics and I'd rather spend my limited time researching and writing about the main topics that this Substack focuses on. However, I did feel that your comment deserved a response.
As context for other readers, the paragraph which (I presume) Lilith is referring to is:
"By enlisting their journalists as foot soldiers on this side of the culture war, media outlets are losing credibility with middle New Zealand. This damages their ability to reach a broad audience with important information about topics such as vaccination and climate change—topics on which the “orthodox” position truly does have the science behind it. The solution is to permit a wider range of voices to be heard, and to not contaminate ostensibly neutral reporting with obvious propaganda."
My reference to vaccination and climate change was a brief aside.To clarify what I meant about 'the orthodox position' on these issues, I meant that:
1) The Covid vaccines that are widely used in Western countries are safe and effective, by the standards we usually judge medicines.
2) Climate change is being shaped by human activity, and will have serious adverse consequences we could mitigate by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
From my reading, there's extensive evidence suggesting that both of these statements are true (see below for links to articles summarising some of this evidence).
For example, let's very briefly compare the evidence for Covid vaccines with the evidence for gender medicine.
Cochrane Reviews are widely respected for their systematic reviews of medical evidence. Cochrane Reviews "analysed published data from 41 randomised controlled trials of 12 different COVID-19 vaccines, involving 433,838 people in various countries around the world" and concluded that "most protect against infection and severe or critical illness caused by the virus". With respect to risks of the vaccines, they found that "there was little or no difference between the number of people experiencing serious side effects after vaccination compared to those who were unvaccinated".
In contrast, when Cochrane Reviews tried to systematically analyse the evidence for gender medicine, they "found no RCTs that looked at whether hormone therapies are effective and safe when used to help transgender women to transition" and concluded that "This lack of studies shows a gap between current clinical practice and clinical research."
There are plenty of complexities around both Covid and climate change that deserve open and respectful debate, but that I don't want to get drawn into here. I certainly don't want to suggest that people should blindly believe everything they read in Stuff about those topics. But I do think that the preventable deaths and serious illnesses that occur due to a lack of vaccination are tragic.
I hope this clarifies my views on the issues I've mentioned, and the reasons for them.
References and further reading:
Cochrane review of COVID-19 vaccines shows they are effective
1) The Covid vaccines that are widely used in Western countries are safe and effective, by the standards we usually judge medicines.
2) Climate change is being shaped by human activity, and will have serious adverse consequences we could mitigate by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
I could not disagree with you more strongly. The "science" you are referencing in support of these ideas is junk. It is propaganda, not science. Even Antony Fuci now admits that the covid vaccine "probably should never have been put on the market" because it's so unsafe, and even Bill Gates now admits that it doesn't really work. You have to profoundly change the standards by which we judge medicine pre 2019 to even be able to call the pfizer jab a vaccine. The papers you are using to justify climate change and safe and effective are as bad as the papers that allege to prove that transing children is "fully reversable" and "life saving care."
I have no idea whether climate change is real, because though as a registered nurse and psychotherapist I am able to understand biological and medical research, that doesn't extend to physic's, chemistry, or geology. My deceased former climate science lecturer aunt (Jeannette Fitzsimons) certainly thought it was. But she didn't have a science background. On the other hand, former climate science lecturer, Rodney Hide, believes its all bunk, and he does have a science background. My understanding is that it is far from settled and that climate scientists and activist's take three approximate different positions, only one of which we get to hear about in the media.
I know it's very disturbing to realize, but the media, scientists and politicians all lying to us about trans issues is not a one off, it's a pattern. They are lying to us about literally everything.
Addit. In my 30 years of nursing and 48 years of life I have encountered two people injured by non covid vaccines. An ICU patient who caught polio from her daughter's nappy post her daughter getting the old oral polio vaccine, and a charge nurse who developed a facial palsy that may or may not have been a result of the flu vaccine. There are four people in my family alone who have been injured by the pfizer covid "vaccine." My uncle had a heart attack later in the day after his second dose. My aunt needs a heart valve replacement. My mother suddenly developed kidney failure for reasons her GP could not fathom (taking no other medication that is known to cause kidney problems), and I got long covid from my first dose and myocarditis from my second. The Cochrane review is lying to you.
how about dirt under ppls fingernails and pets that roam the neighborhood? why not talk about those issues? bcuz that has nothing to do with the mens rights movement pushing gender ideology who are erasing the rights of half a doz groups and harming kids and dysphoric ppl.
She said in her article that one of the problems with the media lying about the violence against Posie Parkers supporters and what a woman is is that it causes the public to distrust the media and it is important for the public to trust the media because they often get it right on important things like vaccines/covid and climate change. Thus I am pointing out that the media has not been getting it right about vaccines/covid or climate change, and that if you think that they have been then you haven't been paying attention.
It's kind of important whether the media is systematically lying to us about a whole host of different things (covid, vaccines, the US proxy war, whether or not the Ukrainians are Nazi's, climate change) or just one particular thing. The implications of these two different positions are profound.
Laura, you ask some very good questions to which many of us would like some answers. Some real answers, especially as it is becoming obvious that in many other countries child mutilation practices are finally being abandoned as the research clearly demonstrates that you cannot fix a psychological problem with harmful drugs and surgeries. I would also invite Ms. Ghahraman to return to the country her parents wisely fled, where her public statements would lead to her being jailed, rather than hailed as some sort of rainbow heroine. And I would really like someone from the Green Party to explain to NZers why they have abandoned the environmental stance that put them into power. Because you cannot support at the same time both a care for the environment and climate change and a lifestyle that is totally dependent on a lifetime supply of imported plastic goods and manufactured drugs.
I'm sorry but the main stream media narratives about covid and climate change are no more reliable than they are about transgender ideology. I'm guessing that you haven't looked into them. If you did you would find that the covid narrative falls apart instantly. The evidence points in directions far far different from what our media is telling us. And I'm guessing that having a graduate degree in psychology, you are unable to judge which of the multiple different camps of scientists is correct on climate change (as am I). Only one set of ideas about climate change is being presented to the public, and it is being presented as "the correct science". This is simply not true. It is hotly contested by scientists. I have no idea which team is correct (because I'm a nurse with a masters in psychodynamic psychotherapy and so I can't understand the arguments well enough to parse whose correct unlike covid, vaccines and trans madness).
Hi Lilith,
Thanks for your comment. I don't want to get too much into the weeds with Covid or climate change, because they're complex topics and I'd rather spend my limited time researching and writing about the main topics that this Substack focuses on. However, I did feel that your comment deserved a response.
As context for other readers, the paragraph which (I presume) Lilith is referring to is:
"By enlisting their journalists as foot soldiers on this side of the culture war, media outlets are losing credibility with middle New Zealand. This damages their ability to reach a broad audience with important information about topics such as vaccination and climate change—topics on which the “orthodox” position truly does have the science behind it. The solution is to permit a wider range of voices to be heard, and to not contaminate ostensibly neutral reporting with obvious propaganda."
My reference to vaccination and climate change was a brief aside.To clarify what I meant about 'the orthodox position' on these issues, I meant that:
1) The Covid vaccines that are widely used in Western countries are safe and effective, by the standards we usually judge medicines.
2) Climate change is being shaped by human activity, and will have serious adverse consequences we could mitigate by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
From my reading, there's extensive evidence suggesting that both of these statements are true (see below for links to articles summarising some of this evidence).
For example, let's very briefly compare the evidence for Covid vaccines with the evidence for gender medicine.
Cochrane Reviews are widely respected for their systematic reviews of medical evidence. Cochrane Reviews "analysed published data from 41 randomised controlled trials of 12 different COVID-19 vaccines, involving 433,838 people in various countries around the world" and concluded that "most protect against infection and severe or critical illness caused by the virus". With respect to risks of the vaccines, they found that "there was little or no difference between the number of people experiencing serious side effects after vaccination compared to those who were unvaccinated".
In contrast, when Cochrane Reviews tried to systematically analyse the evidence for gender medicine, they "found no RCTs that looked at whether hormone therapies are effective and safe when used to help transgender women to transition" and concluded that "This lack of studies shows a gap between current clinical practice and clinical research."
There are plenty of complexities around both Covid and climate change that deserve open and respectful debate, but that I don't want to get drawn into here. I certainly don't want to suggest that people should blindly believe everything they read in Stuff about those topics. But I do think that the preventable deaths and serious illnesses that occur due to a lack of vaccination are tragic.
I hope this clarifies my views on the issues I've mentioned, and the reasons for them.
References and further reading:
Cochrane review of COVID-19 vaccines shows they are effective
https://www.cochrane.org/news/cochrane-review-covid-19-vaccines-shows-they-are-effective
Maximum Truth: DEEP DIVE: Covid Myths
https://maximumtruth.substack.com/p/deep-dive-covid-myths
Skeptoid: The Simple Proof of Man-Made Global Warming
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4549
Skeptoid: Climate Change Checkup: 2023 Edition
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4872
Cochrane Reviews: Does hormone therapy help transgender women undergoing gender reassignment to transition?
https://www.cochrane.org/CD013138/TOBACCO_does-hormone-therapy-help-transgender-women-undergoing-gender-reassignment-transition
1) The Covid vaccines that are widely used in Western countries are safe and effective, by the standards we usually judge medicines.
2) Climate change is being shaped by human activity, and will have serious adverse consequences we could mitigate by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
I could not disagree with you more strongly. The "science" you are referencing in support of these ideas is junk. It is propaganda, not science. Even Antony Fuci now admits that the covid vaccine "probably should never have been put on the market" because it's so unsafe, and even Bill Gates now admits that it doesn't really work. You have to profoundly change the standards by which we judge medicine pre 2019 to even be able to call the pfizer jab a vaccine. The papers you are using to justify climate change and safe and effective are as bad as the papers that allege to prove that transing children is "fully reversable" and "life saving care."
I have no idea whether climate change is real, because though as a registered nurse and psychotherapist I am able to understand biological and medical research, that doesn't extend to physic's, chemistry, or geology. My deceased former climate science lecturer aunt (Jeannette Fitzsimons) certainly thought it was. But she didn't have a science background. On the other hand, former climate science lecturer, Rodney Hide, believes its all bunk, and he does have a science background. My understanding is that it is far from settled and that climate scientists and activist's take three approximate different positions, only one of which we get to hear about in the media.
I know it's very disturbing to realize, but the media, scientists and politicians all lying to us about trans issues is not a one off, it's a pattern. They are lying to us about literally everything.
Addit. In my 30 years of nursing and 48 years of life I have encountered two people injured by non covid vaccines. An ICU patient who caught polio from her daughter's nappy post her daughter getting the old oral polio vaccine, and a charge nurse who developed a facial palsy that may or may not have been a result of the flu vaccine. There are four people in my family alone who have been injured by the pfizer covid "vaccine." My uncle had a heart attack later in the day after his second dose. My aunt needs a heart valve replacement. My mother suddenly developed kidney failure for reasons her GP could not fathom (taking no other medication that is known to cause kidney problems), and I got long covid from my first dose and myocarditis from my second. The Cochrane review is lying to you.
how about dirt under ppls fingernails and pets that roam the neighborhood? why not talk about those issues? bcuz that has nothing to do with the mens rights movement pushing gender ideology who are erasing the rights of half a doz groups and harming kids and dysphoric ppl.
She said in her article that one of the problems with the media lying about the violence against Posie Parkers supporters and what a woman is is that it causes the public to distrust the media and it is important for the public to trust the media because they often get it right on important things like vaccines/covid and climate change. Thus I am pointing out that the media has not been getting it right about vaccines/covid or climate change, and that if you think that they have been then you haven't been paying attention.
It's kind of important whether the media is systematically lying to us about a whole host of different things (covid, vaccines, the US proxy war, whether or not the Ukrainians are Nazi's, climate change) or just one particular thing. The implications of these two different positions are profound.
Laura, you ask some very good questions to which many of us would like some answers. Some real answers, especially as it is becoming obvious that in many other countries child mutilation practices are finally being abandoned as the research clearly demonstrates that you cannot fix a psychological problem with harmful drugs and surgeries. I would also invite Ms. Ghahraman to return to the country her parents wisely fled, where her public statements would lead to her being jailed, rather than hailed as some sort of rainbow heroine. And I would really like someone from the Green Party to explain to NZers why they have abandoned the environmental stance that put them into power. Because you cannot support at the same time both a care for the environment and climate change and a lifestyle that is totally dependent on a lifetime supply of imported plastic goods and manufactured drugs.