A battle between the “pros” and the “contras” is in full swing these days. The subject? Cancer, vaccination, children’s rights, parents’ rights, etc. The fight is full of ridiculousness because it is actually lacking clear, truthful arguments, not to mention “scientific”. There is an almost complete lack of specialists, that is exactly those who could come up with solid arguments, figures, and facts. But who needs all this when “I read on the Internet” or “I saw on TV” takes the place of studies, books, and research?
A little while ago, Umberto Eco said: “Social networks give the right to speak to legions of imbeciles who used to talk only at the bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community. They were immediately silenced, while now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel laureate. It is the invasion of imbeciles; …television promoted the village idiot to whom the viewer felt superior. The drama of the Internet is that it promoted the village idiot as the bearer of truth…no one is able to understand today if a website is credible or not”.
I allow myself to complete it: if it were onlythe idiots of the village,things still wouldn’t have been very bad, but nowthe madmenof the village are also free “on the net”, emitting delusions at a frightening speed. Enjoying an easily won celebrity, precisely thanks to TV exposure, former actresses, former presenters, former nurses…TV (as if they were nurses would still be something) turned overnight into transmitters of weight loss recipes, style of healthy living, slimming and beautifying treatments. However, their hyperinflated pride did not let them stop there and they also entered the realm of medicine, psychology, and other sciences. And that’s how they started pouring out their fables and delusions worthy of better causes regarding “heavy” topics: cancer, various drug treatments, vaccines, surgical interventions, etc. Many of their “arguments” are – texts written “on the net” by others like them, transparent from a professional point of view, without training and competence, so-called disgraced personalities, translations, or taking over from uncertain or thin sources.
And so, little by little, the internet was filled with a species of characters, self-taught, self-created from the nothingness of the virtual world. Their training? Their competence? Their experience? THE INTERNET! But that’s not the worst. No, because if he had read from the multitude of books and treatises available on the Internet, it would still have been something. No, they do not read texts longer than 3 pages. They do not have their own opinion formed in long years of study and direct experience, after reading and memorizing dozens and hundreds of specialized books, written by recognized personalities in the field. Not one of these “opinion-forming” characters spent long years of his life studying medicine, and psychology. He did not participate in countless presentations, training and improvement courses, or congresses. No, because who would waste their precious time with real, authentic study and research. Between a session at the hairdresser, a photo session, and an interview for a famous scandal magazine, don’t forget to blog about the latest treatments against cancer, because they read in a magazine when they were getting a pedicure, about (another) plant that cures any kind of cancer…
Interestingly, many of the characters in the discussion write obstinately about the world conspiracies, of medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, which would follow the decimation of the world population. They don’t realize that they actually produce the same effect on those who follow them avidly.
Here we come to the real problem: a specialist, in any mentioned field: medicine, pharmacy, psychology, will assumeresponsibility when he issues a document, with his own signature. It is the responsibility that comes from competence, conviction, and codes of ethics and good practices. It is also interesting to emphasize an equally important aspect. The true specialist will never issue absolute and generalizing opinions, because he has learned, at the cost of years and patience, that man is an imperfect being, and what suits one can harm another, that every man is unique. Moderation characterizes any genuine specialist.
Our character, not bound by any ethical code, because he does not belong to any profession, can allow himself to accuse, generalize and fable; it does not recognize any limit, because no, website traffic is more important than human ethics…
And look like this, although he “swears that he doesn’t want anyone’s harm”, our character plays exactly the game of the universal conspiracy: because of him, people will die, not vaccinated, not treated, not diagnosed in time. Basically, the world’s population is too large for the planet to support it. And natural selection does its job…
Instead of concluding, allow me a recommendation: be careful not onlywhatyou read, but alsowhereyou read it…
