Notices by Auscandoc (auscandoc@med-mastodon.com), page 3

Opinion: We're taking the wrong approach to counteracting #ConspiracyTheories - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-07-28/conspiracy-theories-trump-assassination-qanon “ardent #conspiracy theory adopters seldom have a desire to be accurately informed. #Belief in the unbelievable, in many cases, stems from desperation to meet fundamental human needs, such as feeling valued and having a purpose. (1/4)

Over the last three years, while interviewing hundreds of #disinformation-splintered families, it has become clear to me that facts alone can’t fix this. The solution begins with treating conspiracy theory obsession not as a sickness but as a symptom.” (2/4)

“Conspiracy-theory-entranced seniors have described .. how, before adopting a QAnon-like brand of what some called “activism,” they felt as if society no longer valued or had use for them. Facing what experts have identified as an “epidemic of loneliness,” they yearned for purpose, community and fulfillment.” (3/4)

“We’re living in a moment where a slew of critical stressors, including an unprecedented election season and an artificial intelligence boom, are fueling a tsunami of disinformation and leaving many of us mentally and emotionally compromised. As more Americans turn to conspiracy theories to cope, we must remind ourselves that we can’t do away with delusions that meet people’s fundamental needs by simply debunking them. We need to focus on the cause, not the symptom” (4/4)

One of Earth's major #CarbonSinks collapsed in 2023 | New Scientist https://www.newscientist.com/article/2440453-one-of-earths-major-carbon-sinks-collapsed-in-2023/ “Extreme #heat, #drought and #wildfires #caused forests and other land ecosystems to emit almost as much #CarbonDioxide as they removed from the atmosphere in 2023, nearly canceling out a major natural sink of the #GreenhouseGas.

Is climate change accelerating and is it worse than we expected? (1/2)

Researchers say the temporary decline of this sink – which usually removes about a quarter of our annual #CO2emissions from the atmosphere – bodes ill for how these ecosystems will respond to future #ClimateChange.” (2/2)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/wildfire-threatening-jasper-national-park-and-town-prompts-evacuation-order-1.7272029 “An encroaching #wildfire that forced thousands of people to flee the community of #Jasper overnight is now burning 12 kilometres south of the #Alberta mountain town as shifting winds threaten to fan the flames.”

#ClimateCrisis

Most recent update on modifiable risk factors that are attributable to ~40% of cancers via @erictopol

https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21858

@aardvark @kaye The HHGTTG predicted everything.

Vaccines Work! 2024 Edition - ScienceUpFirst https://www.scienceupfirst.com/project/vaccines-work-2024-edition/ “the lives of 146 million children under the age of five have been saved, 101 million of those being under one year old, leading to a 40% reduction in global infant mortality. It is worth noting that vaccination against measles alone is responsible for saving 60% of those lives” #VaccinesSaveLives

“There’s nothing wrong with contrarianism per se. It’s just that we live in a world where facts exist,” said Murdoch, a senior research associate with the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law.

Murdoch said there is a vast amount of science that shows the vaccines are overwhelmingly safe.

“Smith also made the claim that the organizers have invited a variety of doctors. I think that is also a reckless misrepresentation,” Murdoch said. (2/4)

“The problem is that the information ecosystem has moved away from reliance on evidence to reliance on ideology and identity politics and extremism.”

Murdoch said the idea that contrarian voices were not considered during the #pandemic is “a false narrative.” (3/4)

Meanwhile in Albertastan

Alberta premier’s support for #TownHall questioning #COVIDvaccines worries experts | Globalnews.ca https://globalnews.ca/news/10511738/danielle-smith-covid-vaccine-town-hall/

“Blake Murdoch at the University of Alberta said #DanielleSmith framing the town hall as a chance to look at the international evidence of harm to children by COVID vaccines is a “reckless misrepresentation of what this event” is based on the guest list. (1/4)

“The issue is not that there is a difference of opinion here. It’s that there is a huge amount of science that shows that these #VaccinesSaveLives and they are overwhelmingly safe so to claim otherwise becomes a statement of #misinformation,” (4/4)

@WhippoorwillSong Yes the article speaks to this. Quite elegantly put I think.

“It’s commonly assumed that education inoculates against conspiratorial thinking. However, schooling is not a foolproof safeguard against paranoid thinking.”

And

“Education and conspiratorial thinking have an ambivalent relationship”

How Three Big #ConspiracyTheories Took Root in Canada | The Walrus https://thewalrus.ca/conspiracy-theories-canada/ (1/4)

“An important dynamic of people falling into a #conspiratorial milieu is how such theories can help rationalize difficulties an individual may be experiencing by flattening complexity and providing answers that soothe and distract from uncomfortable realities. (2/4)

Rather than accepting that negative circumstances were often the result of individual choices in the face of a global pandemic, #AntiVaccine conspiracists evoke global-domination conspiracies about the #WorldEconomicForum to explain away a complicated situation and ameliorate responsibility for personal circumstances.” (3/4)

“Fringe beliefs are fringe until they’re not, and the mainstreaming process can be aided by academics and other prominent thinkers. Education is an important tool in building up bulwarks against conspiratorial thinking, but it’s not a silver bullet. Conspiracism masquerading as legitimate thought is influencing educated, powerful Canadians.” (4/4)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/05/16/opinion/anti-vaxxers-are-winning-war “These facts will have little purchase on the feelings of those attending this event, though. The roster of speakers includes a number of doctors who trade in conspiracy theories about so-called “turbo cancers” caused by the vaccine and the list of their colleagues who have supposedly died prematurely as a result of taking it. (1/2)