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| Photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash |
That is why wise scientists are concerned that policing misinformation (particularly using blunt modern tools: censorship, shadow-banning and de-throttling) is dangerous. Policing is different than debating. It's different than rebutting. It's using the brute force of the modern algorithmic platforms to slow the spread of your opponent's ideas. I worry it has been misused.
--Vinay Prasad
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In a world where truth is pliable as plastic, it is immensely helpful to have people who can lead us through the haze. Vinay Prasad is one of these whose insights I have come to value during these past few harrowing years.
Here are some thoughts from a century ago about free thought and official propaganda in which Bertrand Russell asserts that we can't have freedom of thought as long as there are legal penalties for the expression of opinions. You can read an amplification of these ideas here: Bertrand Russell's Free Thought and Official Propaganda Has Much to Say about the Current State of Cancel Culture
The following is a short bio from the website of Dr. Prasad:
Vinay Prasad MD MPH is a hematologist-oncologist and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco. He runs the VKPrasad lab at UCSF, which studies cancer drugs, health policy, clinical trials and better decision making. He is author of over 350 academic articles, and the books Ending Medical Reversal (2015), and Malignant (2020). He hosts the oncology podcast Plenary Session, the general medicine podcast the VPZD show is active on Substack and runs a YouTube Channel VinayPrasadMDMPH. He tweets @VPrasadMDMPH.
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Related Links
Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm People with Cancer
By Vinayak K. Prasad
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