Today is World AIDS Day. One expected to be bludgeoned by propaganda. Instead, there was an unprecedented outbreak of real and candid reportage. This article linked below, featured as the only article about “World AIDs Day” on AOL News, is stunning both for what it says and for what it does not say. A few passing and obligatory catechisms tossed to the AIDS Church but none of the usual breathless obscenities. It actually reads like a discerning human being wrote it, not a parakeet.
This strikes me as significant. Radical change in consciousness is now inevitable. If AOL News can do it, anybody can.
http://news.aol.com/health/article/some-say-aids-crisis-is-overblown/263374
Also:
http://www.scienceguardian.com/blog/critics-of-hiv-paradigm-broadcast.htm
{ 13 comments }
Incoherence is not clarity.
And who would know better, McK?
Yes, Celia, it’s been a long time coming but it’s been apparent to me since I embarked upon public exploration of this issue on this blog a few years ago that a change was on its way. I gave up any thought that I, as a blogger, could be more than a tiny mover on the matter; try as I might, I could never muster much support from more than a handful of my fellow bloggers on this. Most in the blogosphere were either completely uninterested, frightened to take a stand, or decided I was batty and needed to have the shit slapped out of me.
And of the skeptics, I could get none to follow my advice on how to start a blog and how to promote it and be a part of it to fight back. Even some brilliant skeptics could never figure it out (Hank being one of the only exceptions). Wasting time in other blogs’ comments instead of starting your own blog to promote the issue–they never seemed to get why that was more important, orders of magnitude more important than getting into flame wars in some other blogger’s comments section.
So now I just wait and watch and periodically post updates like this one you’ve posted here, noting how the cracks in the wall are growing deeper, longer, wider. The contradictions in the paradigm have not grown less over the years, they’ve grown greater; the hysteria of those who wish to destroy the critics proved unable to stop it from happening, especially as the old grayhairs gradually retired wealthy on the drugs and testing kits they sold, leaving it to a young generation of barely-coherent "scientists" to defend an indefensible paradigm just so they could keep their miserable jobs and feel important. With self-righteous assholes willing to tag along with them the whole way, eager to bash the shit out of anyone who dared have a questioning thought in their heads, while actual scientists with huge contributions to make got destroyed.
But I’ll never stop saying it: the entire problem was not just the usual problem of a rigid orthodoxy punishing dissenters. Always the biggest problem was that those defending the paradigm had millions and even billions of dollars on the line, extremely wealthy ones at the top, and lower-level grunts with entire careers with mortgage and house payments and college tuition scaring them to keep them in line and/or give them something to defend whether they really truly BELIEVED what they were defending or not.
There’s only so long you can sustain that, though, as the money slowly oozes away and a younger generation, unhindered by the fears of the previous generation, starts asking hard questions without fear of being destroyed for it.
We killed countless people iatrogenically. We let others starve or die of dysentery, cholera, malaria, while AIDS sucked all the money away from where it was really needed. We destroyed innocent people who just wanted to ask tough questions. It’s what happened.
I doubt the paradigm has more than a decade left of life in it as anything but a minor note, something routinely checked for and otherwise ignored, with doctors saying, “oh, yeah, you have that, well before we put you on any drugs we’ll just watch you and treat any symptoms you might have but otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
The millions dead will probably have no one to remember them though. Nor the ones called racists, homophobes, and nutjob conspiracy theorists.
Roger England is quoted in the article:
"The global HIV industry is too big and out of control. We have created a monster with too many vested interests and reputations at stake, … too many relatively well paid HIV staff in affected countries, and too many rock stars with AIDS support as a fashion accessory," he wrote in the British Medical Journal in May.
Thatsabout right, I reckon:)
HBarnes
Another good quote from the article above:
"Diarrhea kills five times as many kids as AIDS," said John Oldfield, executive vice president of Water Advocates, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes clean water and sanitation.
Water Advocates is a heluva organization. They got more common sense in their little pinkies than the collective virology establishment at the NIH
HB
I don’t want to say anything but Hank Barnes is not a brilliant skeptic.
Actually, Dean, AnthonyL did start a blog called New Aids Review which is now an echo chamber called Science Guardian. They now have at least four commenters. Of late, "Bad Behavior has blocked 1118 access attempts in the last 7 days."
Two other blogs were created at that time which soon became extinct.
Then, there was another one with the Groucho Marx theme that wouldn’t permit contrary commentary but plenty of Dr. Dach and his rejuvenation/longevity propaganda.
Whatever happened to that guy ?
Hank is really quite an excellent blogger and an insightful commenter, although he turned things over to another guy who doesn’t quite understand the blogging thing although he has done a good job in other areas.
AnthonyL does a pretty good job as a blogger, although he ignored much of my advice.
That is it. There could have been dozens of others to open their blogs, which would have made a bigger impact. They just weren’t interested, or, they thought they could be more effective leaving comments on hostile bloggers’ sites INSTEAD of opening their own blogs. They didn’t understand why your own blog is much more important in such an endeavor. Ah well. Call me Cassandra.
Doesn’t matter now. Too many young scientists, and scientists in competing medical fields, and health workers in competing fields, and journalists are now on the hunt. It’s just a matter of time.
A lot of very, very good people, and very dedicated medical professionals, were hoodwinked. And a whole lot of people died needlessly. Not due to any fucking grand "conspiracy" either, but due to a very small handful of greedy and self-centered people, a lot of other very timid people, and a whole lot of good intentions out of people who should have known better. It’s a very human story, and really not uncommon–just one with uncommonly tragic consequences this time around.
It’s only a matter of time, McKiernan. That slight sting you feel may be an actual moment of clarity coming on for you, though.
Dean,
Don’t spend a lotta time worrying about whatever old man McKiernan is babbling about. The issue is AIDS World Day and its gradual fade into obscurity.
I re-quote and re-emphasize a fact from above:
"Diarrhea kills five times as many kids as AIDS," said John Oldfield, executive vice president of Water Advocates, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes clean water and sanitation.
Do you think all these committed, concerned air-head movie stars and activists are gonna start wearin’ brown ribbons to fight diarrhea?:)
Doesn’t quite fit the narrative!
HB
Dean,
The bad news is that Hank Barnes was/is liar from the git- go.
While he was entering these discussions on HIV/AIDS back in late 2004 under his pseudonym of Hank the dumber, the lawyer was receiving an award as attorney David Steele under the auspices of S.A.R.A.H.
Goodness, he never quite really told the DW readership that.
Of course, the current issue is diarrhea.
But don’t listen to an old man, what would they know.
Uhm, in what way would that be a lie, McKiernan? And what would it have to do with anything else at all? You’ve got me lost–again.
Ahh, Yes, McKiernan, the cyberspace cross between Inspector Clouseau and Mr. Magoo rears his ugly head again.
The issue ain’t pseudonyms, "Yossarian "or "Catch-22"
The issue ain’t awards I’ve won.
For the third time, I re-iterate a FACT:
"Diarrhea kills five times as many kids as AIDS," said John Oldfield, executive vice president of Water Advocates, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes clean water and sanitation.
Don’t forget your brown ribbon, Mack!
HankieBarnes
So, uhm, winning an award from a non-profit group equals… what kind of lie again?
I’m still completely lost here.
Redaction:Â Â
The bad news is that Hank Barnes was/is liar from the git- go.Comments on this entry are closed.