The great emerging theme from this week of rekindled Saint Fauci worship (in the face of considerable contrary evidence) is that one doesn’t dare to criticize a doctor, who is a trained expert. The clearest form of this credentialist fake argument comes from USA Today, which somehow still exists. Republican criticism of Saint Dr. Fauci, wrote the opinion columnist and physician Thomas Lew on Friday, “will sow incredible distrust and skepticism of science and public health experts.” Remember the name of the columnist, by the way, because you’ll be seeing it again in a moment.
If you criticize experts, people won’t trust expertise anymore. That’s why. The claim isn’t that they’re right; the claim is that criticizing them will make people not trust them, and then the claim just ends right there without examining the assumed premise that you should. If you tell people that the damaged and crumbling bridge is unstable and they shouldn’t cross it, they’ll stop trusting the bridge, and that’s wrong. People need bridges! Stop being anti-bridge!
The whole thing is exactly this empty. Here’s a second taste from the same op-ed thing: “We forget the anxiety and fear of this time, and that the nation needed a calming presence and expert authority, which Dr. Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, provided.”
It’s psychologically interesting to see the explicit argument that anxiety has to be soothed by authority, isn’t it?
So the purpose of authority is to calm people and address their anxiety, so you can’t question authority, because that causes doubt and reinforces anxiety. But was Saint Dr. Fauci factually correct about science and policy? Not discussed. See, you can’t discuss that, because it makes people feel the wrong things about people who wear white coats.
Shut up, he explained. Because he’s a doctor.
There’s a problem with this argument, and it has a name. Or, rather, it has dozens of names.
What I remember most clearly from the pandemic was doctors being attacked.
It’s the single thing I kept noticing. Everybody with eyes and ears noticed.
A bunch of extremely prominent public health experts from major research universities wrote and signed the Great Barrington Declaration, warning against the harms and limited value of mass lockdowns. They were endlessly vilified and demonized by critics like Thomas Lew at USA Today. That name should ring a bell, yeah?
You can’t criticize credentialed public health experts, which damages trust in expertise
The authors of the Great Barrington Declaration are evil and stupid, and you shouldn’t listen to them
Same people. Criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci “will sow incredible distrust and skepticism of science and public health experts,” but Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is the very devil himself. Which standard do they actually live by? I don’t need to say the answer out loud, because you know it.
The Idaho pathologist Ryan Cole — Dr. Ryan Cole — was an early critic of mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines, warning that they caused undisclosed side effects. He also prescribed Ivermectin to telemedicine patients. Critics aggressively tried to destroy his livelihood.
Dr. Peter McCullough, a highly credentialed cardiologist, lost his board certification for Covid dissent.
Wait, I thought we weren’t supposed to criticize credentialed medical experts.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden. Dr. Pierre Kory. Dr. Robert Malone. These guys:
They were relentlessly vilified. Did those attacks on physicians “sow incredible distrust and skepticism of science and public health experts,” or are we using the other standard for these two?
You can’t criticize credentialed experts, unless they disagree with Saint Dr. Fauci, in which case burn the witch. You can’t criticize doctors, who must be trusted, but don’t listen to these doctors, who can’t be trusted.
I’m suddenly remembering what 2020 and 2021 felt like, and I have a sudden headache. I would bet most of the medical dissidents have had a similar sensation over the last few days.
At the Federalist this week, I mostly labored in the fields of Saint Dr. Fauci:
On the habits of argument from authority and the policing efforts of the social status commissariat: “The Sick Cultural Dynamics Behind Fauci Worship Haven’t Waned A Bit.”
On the many officials who, like Fauci, didn’t believe their own hysterics: “There Were Thousands Of Faucis.” Vegan Skeletor is mentioned.
Response to the crap Democrats said during and after the Senate hearings: “The Fauci Debacle Is A Teaching Moment, Because The Democrat Playbook Never Changes.”
This one landed outside the Fauci box, returning to an old favorite theme: “Los Angeles Leaders Fail At Everything, And You’ll Never Guess Who They Blame.”
Back at it next week. Thanks for reading, and remember to believe in scien— NO, NOT THAT SCIENCE.
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