The asymmetric advantage of anti-vaxxers and other denialists

According to the “The Anti-Vaxx Playbook“

• Health professionals need to persuade the public to take an action.
• Anti-vaxxers need only to create doubt as to its efficacy, safety or necessity.
• That’s why anti-vaxxers operate by asking questions

and the anti-denialist core messages should be

1. Covid is deadly

2. Vaccines are one of the safest, most effective, most consequential medical inventions. They have saved countless people from disease, disability and death.

3. Doctors and scientists are motivated by wanting to help people.

A.D. 2100 — the unlivable planet Earth

According to David Wallace-Wells in “The Uninhabitable Earth”

Absent a significant adjustment to how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the Earth will likely become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century.

“Results-oriented control freaks not always best managers”

According to Nancy Bazilchuk

Management is a process in which an individual encourages a group to reach a common goal.

and

Most studies of different management styles show that managers who care about their employees and trust that the employees themselves know best how to do their job get the best results, says Martinsen.

But despite this, there are very few job advertisements that actually include these characteristics in the job description for an executive position, he said.

“Obviously, ‘We’re looking for a manager who is kind of nice’, is a little too soft,” he said.

Many company boards would prefer to hire a “result-oriented, focused leader”, but Martinsen says it’s a myth that this is the most effective management form for a company.

Optimizing your value to the people that can help you reach your full potential

In “If the average person in the room isn’t smarter than you, you’re in the wrong room“, I asked

a huge part of success is getting involved with smart, successful, big-thinking people, thereby raising your standards and learning from their example. But … the problem is, what’s in it for them?

conditionalcognition replied

Talented folks are not talented in all arenas. Regardless of how successful a particular person may be at certain things (i.e. business, basketball, design), there isn’t a person that can be one of the best at everything. Keeping this in mind, people looking to learn from others in a particular field need to identify what skills/talents can be shared with the “experts,” so they value the exchange of time, ideas and talents.

and I agreed

Yes. And, because intellectual diversity (of thinking styles, backgrounds, etc.) is as vital to social/scientific progress as genetic diversity is to evolutionary adaptability, you can probably optimize your value to the people you want to interact with by cultivating those aspects of yourself that are most authentically you.

 

Trump elected by Big Data – the impact of Cambridge Analytica

Personality-based advertising.

University of South Wales: Cyber University of the year: Four years running: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

Imagine the influence of a London based company, which acted as the catalyst that powered both BREXIT and President Trump’s campaign to success.

What if I told you that Trump was elected by Big Data analysis, carried out by a British company, and that this company can swing elections.  You probably already know the strength of Cambridge Analytica in winning elections, but the video below is for those who may not have realised what was happening.

Here’s the Trump campaign video:

Every single adult in America has been analysed by Cambridge Analytica.  Next they altered the campaign message to each individual’s personality.

So before you get bored.. I always warned you about the dangers of Big Data. This is one of the side effects – one British company can make Presidents.

In Europe there are several elections in the next year.  How much would you pay Cambridge Analytica to win an…

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“If anyone strikes you on the right cheek”: The day Martin Luther King was punched twice by a Nazi

Brad Pierce's Blog

According to Ron Rosenbaum interviewing MLK biographer Taylor Branch about his “battle to prevent Dr. King’s profoundly considered theory of nonviolence from being relegated to history, and not recognized for its relevance to the issues America and the world faces today”

King’s practice, Branch says, was complex and radical and has been often misunderstood. Some of his closest supporters had their doubts about King’s own commitment to nonviolence—whether it was “personal” or just an abstraction for him.

…

During a meeting of King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a man rose up from the audience, leapt onto the stage and smashed King in the face. Punched him hard. And then punched him again.

After the first punch, Branch recounts, King just dropped his hands and stood there, allowed the assailant (who turned out to be a member of the American Nazi Party) to punch him again. And when King’s associates tried…

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They didn’t have the arguments on their side, but they had all the energy

According to Stephen Moss in “A few months ago, I woke up to Brexit. Here’s my advice to US voters”

Our arrogance had lost us the referendum.

The neighbourhood in which I live had been festooned with Leave posters. The Leavers really wanted this and were prepared to make public their preference. In sporting parlance, they were up for it. The then Ukip leader Nigel Farage said his supporters would “crawl over broken glass” to get to polling stations to vote to leave the EU, and he was right. Leave may not have had the arguments on their side, but they had all the energy. Remain, who didn’t put up posters or show any passion for their cause, were supine in the face of their rhetoric. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” How right Yeats was.

Does all this remind you of anyone? Trump may talk nonsense a lot of the time, but there’s no denying his energy, passion and rhetorical skill. I watched several of the debates involving the Republican hopefuls, and he was incredibly bullish and entertaining. There was no denying he was box office.

“Do you have these symptoms? Here is the problem I think you have and here is how I can help you solve it.”

According to Sean Murphy in “Three Sales Pitches That Never Really Work”

Approaching Early Customers

• Poor: “Would you like to play with this?”
• Poor:  “Would you like to use this?”
• Poor:  “Would you feel bad if our free product was discontinued?”
• Poor:  “You would be really stupid not to try our product.”
• Better:  “Do you have these symptoms? Here is the problem we think you have and here is how we can help you solve it.”

The world-saving cool of Vasili Arkhipov

According to Robert Krulwich in “You (and Almost Everyone You Know) Owe Your Life to This Man” about Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov

The debate between the captain and Arkhipov took place in an old, diesel-powered submarine designed for Arctic travel but stuck in a climate that was close to unendurable. And yet, Arkhipov kept his cool. After their confrontation, the missile was not readied for firing.

Looking back, it all came down to Arkhipov. Everyone agrees that he’s the guy who stopped the captain. He’s the one who stood in the way.

Nuclear weapons are inherently dangerous. […] the world is very, very lucky that at one critical moment, someone calm enough, careful enough, and cool enough was there to say no.

See also “USA plans to spend at least $1,000,000,000,000 on preparations for nuclear war over the next 30 years“.

“No one wants to be the last ostrich to pull its head out of the sand.”

According to Huw Price in “Is the cold fusion egg about to hatch?”

I proposed in my essay that science should be more tolerant of its mavericks, when so much is at stake. If I’m right, then the reputation trap itself is the thing that should be condemned and ridiculed, not the science of LENR.

Not surprisingly, some readers weren’t convinced. Some concerned commentators even worried about what the piece would do to my own reputation. So, three months later, am I having any regrets?

On the contrary, the story has become even more interesting, in my view. I want to offer some updates for readers who weren’t persuaded last time that these developments were worth following for themselves. And I want to sound a note of caution for anyone who still feels confident that they can continue to ignore the field. If LENR is on the verge of a comeback, the reputation trap will turn inside out very, very quickly. No one wants to be the last ostrich to pull its head out of the sand. You have been warned!

Tip of the hat to Frank Acland.