let's talk about alternative facts alternative opinions
and such matters a lady wrote in an email earlier in the week to the ryan toberty show
and in it she was describing an individual i think was a family member who appeared to occupy a
parallel world to the writer of the email because they were completely given over to conspiracy
theories they were given over to alternative facts they were given over to getting their news from
online social media from facebook groups from whatsapp groups from youtube from
everywhere except traditional media traditional media being the likes of bbc rte
here is an interlude hi
a little break in our video um so the lady in question would have no truck whatsoever with
the irish times irish independent or the bbc channel for
traditional media sources she was getting her own facts her own opinions from her own groups friends
whatsapp groups all sorts of online media and the lady who wrote into today was just making
the point that regardless of the facts this lady had her own opinions and they were by and large
theories that you might describe as conspiracy theories theories that essentially were bordering
on woo-woo in other words with no basis in fact no basis in data no basis in science no basis in
evidence a few days later then i read of the high court case where justice mary irvine acceded to
and granted an application to the medical council to strike off a doctor
temporarily suspend the license of a doctor from salvage and county kildare dr waters is his name
and he was either working in a practice or owned the carried on the practice in salvage
and he had particular views as well about covet 19 and basically was saying that it was a scam
perpetrated by the state and by the government that it wasn't a real pandemic that it was
harmless enough that the wearing of face masks was a danger and all sorts of stuff like that
it struck me that everybody is entitled to their own opinions everybody's entitled to
their own view human endeavor and the human mind and society generally is improved
by the testing of ideas by varied opinions by alternative views
but different experiences and so on that's one controversial people are perfectly entitled to
have their own opinions and should be encouraged to have their own opinions it's good
it's good for society it's good for man but if people are arriving at alternative
opinions alternative ideas based on so-called alternative facts in other words got instinct
or statements or assertions that simply have no basis in fact have no basis
in data have no basis in evidence then we're all diminished in my view because
we are operating at that stage very much not like a human being a human person a
thinking rational being or behaving like an animal or even lower than an animal
because we are reacting and responding to good instincts to rumors to theories to anything but
sound facts sound evidence-based arguments and so we're all entitled to our own opinions and
it is healthy that we all have our own opinions but we're not entitled to our own facts
it is a fact that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west it is a fact
that summer and spring and autumn and winter are the four seasons it is a fact
that the earth is round and no amount of woo or wishing stuff into existence or
making speeches with loudspeakers or gathering groups into
like-minded conspiracies will change anything it won't bring facts into existence
so we're entitled we're all entitled to alternative views alternative opinions
they are to be encouraged but we're not entitled to make stuff up we're not entitled
to come to opinions based on facts that simply don't exist we're not entitled to pander
nonsense conspiracy theories and flat earth stuff anyway
it's just the thought this bank all the weekend this easter bank all the weekend
hope you have a nice weekend if you find the video thought provoking or useful or any way stimulating
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