Brownstone Institute Articles, News, Research, and Commentary on public health, science, economics, & social theory
ChatGPT and the like remind us that machines are not human beings and human beings are not machines. Machines do not approve and disapprove as human beings do. Machines do not have sentiments. They do not have a conscience. They do not have moral responsibility. We do.
The Morality of Language in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Read More »
Above all, the next public health emergency should be met with more humility and less arrogance. A once-in-a century crisis requires a spirit of open-mindedness. The same so-called experts who have been sneering about “following the science” need to take a dose of their own medicine. Public trust in medical scientists has plummeted to 29% according to Pew Research.
The Three Most Important Lessons from Three Years of Hell Read More »
It’s over, that phase of American history, when a bunch of people baptized in the values of the 1960s, could be expected to provide the intellectual framework necessary to move society forward. There is no recovery from what they did, they collaborated with the enemy when the fate of society was on the line. To use their favorite phrase — they became “constitutive of” the predatory system they once sought to critique. Our society is so corrupt that the term “intellectual” no longer has a coherent meaning.
How Did the World’s Smartest People Fail So Miserably? Read More »
Drugmakers rely on shady promotional gimmicks to keep the cost of brand-name medicine high, and you’ve seen them in action. In the many, many, many television commercials you’ve seen for various drugs—and Big Pharma is the second largest advertiser by industry—consider how many mention a coupon the manufacturer offers. In fact, the share of brand-name prescription drug spending that included a coupon rose from 26 percent in 2007 to 90 percent in 2017.
Big Pharma’s Co-Pay Coupon Racket Read More »
And then we realized that the separation was destined to continue, we had no choice but to come to terms with the days ahead. In short, we returned to our prison-house, we had nothing left us but the past, and even if some were tempted to live in the future, they had speedily to abandon the idea—anyhow, as soon as could be—once they felt the wounds that the imagination inflicts on those who yield themselves to it.
Albert Camus on the Denial of Freedom Read More »
Two key bricks seem to have already fallen from the COVID vaccines’ narrative – the one about their fantastic efficacy against infections and the one about their superb safety. However, one stubborn narrative brick seems to stand still, leading many people to believe that the booster doses of the vaccines are capable of providing long-term protection against severe illness and deaths (despite their failure to protect against infections).
The Final Brick in the Vaccine Efficacy Narrative Read More »
The pandemic has shown us that research outputs can be statistical artefacts, made to order for an agenda. The most blatant example of this is the claim that the vaccines are 95 percent effective, which continues to be made even though 95 percent of people in the US have been infected. Both these facts cannot be true. If this fundamental brick turns out not to be objective truth, what else can we rely on?
Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom – Always! Read More »
If this turns out to be deliberate and Elon sticks with it, the effect on chilling research, writing, and free speech will be even worse than when Elon took over Twitter. It will also seriously hurt Substack too. There are huge businesses that are thriving there. It is one of the few bright spots on the Internet today. A loss of reach here will mean the further cartelization of opinion and ideas.
Twitter’s Extremely Dangerous Attack on Substack Read More »
Within weeks of Pfizer publishing its data on waning efficacy, President Biden mandated all federal workers (and employees of contractors) to get vaccinated within 75 days, otherwise they’d face punishment or have their employment terminated.
Pfizer Hid Data on Waning Immunity Read More »
Because lies embraced our whole culture since 2020, and because public intellectuals for the most part did not stand up to the lies at the time, and because many even participated in the lies (hello, Sam Harris); since horrible things happened to those of us who did stand up to the lies — most public intellectuals at this moment cannot address the really important events of the recent past.
The Tragedy of the Brooklyn Literary Scene Read More »
The tellers of tales can write stories but they cannot invent their own realities. There will be no restoration of liberty, rights, and truth until we come to terms with what happened, why, and how to prevent it in the future. Playing along with this conspiracy of silence surrounding a policy that effectively blotted out every advance in human rights since the Magna Carta is a disastrous error that could lead to the entrenchment of a new dark age.
Don’t Let Them Memory-Hole This Read More »
Three years ago I felt the depth of the darkness which had entered the world, and I was moved to choose defiance in favor of the light. This brought my path to be part of the good work being done here at Brownstone. A Happy Easter to all, and let us continue the good fight against weaponized fear which seeks to prevent us from experiencing our highest goods.
Reflections on the Triduum: Can the Darkness Turn to Light? Read More »
