A reading from the book of 3b3d64-
“Fauciism was a political campaign led by American immunologist Anthony Fauci against well-established, science-based epidemiological and immunological principles in the early 21st century, rejecting natural immunity in favor of vaccine-derived immunity, as well as expanding non-pharmaceutical interventions. In time, the term has come to be identified as any deliberate distortion of scientific facts or theories for purposes that are deemed politically, religiously, or socially desirable.”
The above is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article for Lysenkoism with some key words changed. To provide a quick rundown of Lysenkoism; a scientist in the USSR named Trofim Lysenko was able to convince the government to reject widely-accepted ideas on genetics, particularly pertaining to agriculture. Numerous critics found themselves silenced, imprisoned, and even killed. Unsurprisingly, his ideas didn’t work, and in fact exacerbated the food shortages that were already taking place. Adoption of his ideas by Communist China likely contributed to the Great Famine.
The parallels are disturbing.
While we don’t know how much damage has been caused by the mismanaged response to coronavirus, the answer is “significantly more than none.” People may not be starving to death (yet), but substance abuse, mental illness, and deaths of despair are all up. There will almost certainly be a measurable decrease in life expectancy due to these factors and lost economic opportunities.
So why does this happen? Many reasons, but besides the low-hanging fruit of egomania and personal gain, a comparison can be made with the current financial system. Both modern “science” and finance create a priestly caste through credentialism, making it easy to dismiss criticism from those who lack “sufficient qualifications.” We’ve all heard these excuses. “Oh, so you know better than a PhD epidemiologist” sounds a lot like; “You’re not an accredited investor (based on these arbitrary rules we made up), so you can’t participate.”
Bullshit. Science is merely the process of making and testing observations about the world. Anyone can do it. The unknown peasant who figured out this one weird trick — planting legumes after cereal crops prevents depletion of soil nutrients — didn’t have a PhD, didn’t get published in a journal, and sure as hell didn’t get a book deal. But whoever it was did much more good for agriculture (and humanity) than Lysenko.
Systems like Phonon allows people a level playing field with credentialed elites, both in finance and ultimately in the dissemination of truth. Centralized decision making in the hands of one or a few works when those in charge are competent and have the best interests of the masses in mind. But when adherence to dogma or perverse incentives are prioritized over results, it’s time for a new system.
Phonon is that system.