ANYONE with an Internet connection, which will soon exceed 30% of the world population, will have access to massive flows of information, much of which is misleading.

Some information is held back, or deliberately “redacted” which can also be misleading. A possibly relevant case study is the World Health Organisation, a team led by a non-medic of dubious background, which “misinformed” about both Covid-19’s origins and its vaccinations, as has recently been exposed.

The World Health Organisation is currently attempting to set up an international regulatory system of controls over pharmaceuticals, medical research and reportage, compulsory vaccination, travel, employment and much more.

This is a proposed system of international control, supposedly from scientific specialists, motivated by threats of a future pandemic, to which governments might conform due to misplaced political expediency.

Scientific disagreements will be discouraged through “deplatforming” with attributions of “conspiracy theorising,” and with legal sanctions. Populations will be controlled by restrictions of finance, travel, medical access, child rearing and education.

General human vulnerability to lies (broadly defined as deliberate misinformation) needs attention at the moment.

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Recent major lies in business and in the media should be noted because of their enormous current and potential impacts on our lives. Ponzi schemes have been massively corrupt systems of lies.

Madoff, New York, published annual returns of 10% on his fabricated business and had attracted billions of dollars to his fake investment scheme. In the early stages, requests for refunds were paid off immediately, at the high rates, to investors. This created its own publicity! Investors followed up and begged Madoff to accept their money.

Briefly, it was discovered (2008) that Madoff had been running out of cash to pay back investors who tried to withdraw funds when the global market suddenly turned down. The lying scheme was thus exposed! Madoff called in his two sons, and explained to them that the business had been a “huge lie.” The sons reported him, and he was arrested.

The net fraud had been between US$10 billion and US$17 billion. Astute economic commentator J. K. Galbraith once remarked that:“It takes approximately a decade for the economic, banking and financial sectors to forget about earlier disasters”.

Earlier than predicted by Galbraith, guess what, in 2023 Sam Bankman-Fried was charged for large donations to politicians who, in various ways, had enabled him to lie about benefits to be expected from investments into his crypto currency exchange FTX.

Bankman-Fried is in court as I write, having defrauded multiple billions of US dollars from his Ponzi afflicted superrich investors.

Amazingly, he had been allowed to spend a recent period of bail in the luxury of a multi-million property, which his business had donated to his parents.

Anyone, who sets out to reduce their excessive proportion of fat, and improve health, by making lifestyle dietary adjustments must anticipate the risks involved.

Those who take semiglutides, such as Ozempic or Wegovy, will experience much less difficulty in turning down fattening food, as they will not be as hungry or gain as much pleasure as previously, from satisfying their hunger.

Research does show that while you are taking the drug you will lose weight.

However, for most people, especially those, who do not receive the support of health insurance, the expense can be too high.

Also, the evidence is clear that, when one stops taking these semiglutides, one risks regaining the greater part of the weight lost under the drug. And some of that weight might not be fat, but muscle mass which you shouldnot want to lose.

So far I have exposed a sample of the dangers of misinformation, some of which we should consider opposing in our own interests. Others include Covid-19 misinformation, especially on vaccinations of young children; anti-animal for pro-carb claims, denial of the link between “gain of function” research and the Wuhan laboratory, and various techniques of persuasion with data, such as relative versus absolute risk, “up to” claims, and refusals by scientific journals to publish anything but statistically significant results, while denying important “null results” in comprehensively sampled experimentation.

Mention some of the above at a convivial dinner party and you are likely to be rejected as a racist, conspiracy theorist, Nazi/Hitler, holocaust denier, pro-Israel deviant.

Yes — the ironies of that admixture are flagrantly clear. The costs of asserting your independence of judgement can be very painful. You can lose your job, your social status, your close friends and, importantly there are health implications.

“Standing up against the crowd” is usually a physiologically damaging, cortisol evoking, stressful event. But such stress has not gone unrecognised.

For example, GB Shaw’s comment on independence of judgment:“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one insists on trying to adapt the world to himself. So all progress depends upon the unreasonable man”.

So, supporting what you perceive to be the truth against social opposition can be very damaging to the individual. Persuading others against their accepted beliefs may not be in one’s personal interests. The risks are high, and the benefits may never be established. In brief, if we stand up for the truth (as we perceive it) against social opposition, we risk being vilified, rejected, physically attacked and dismissed from our jobs.

We must accept the inevitable outcomes of sustained high stress, which are declines in mental and physical health and a shorter, more troubled life.

A psychologist’s advice — fight for the truth only if you understand the ratio of risks to possible beneficial consequences. Consider Voltaire’s comment on this “I am in favour of boldness, but I do not want to become a martyr”.

  • Harrison is managing director and senior consultant with Human Resources (Pvt) Ltd, an internationally qualified psychologist, ex-professor and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. — 0772 400 220  or (024) 2700867, (024) 2700643 or hres263@gmail.com

 
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