Cranks love a heroic persecution narrative, and the climate science-denying right wing think tank American Institute of Economic Research (AIER) has a doozy: COVID-19 “anti-lockdown” cranks like Scott Atlas and those behind the Great Barrington Declaration are the new abolitionists! This is a page from the antivax playbook.
Mitch Horowitz argues that the late James Randi “destroyed skepticism.” Unfortunately his arguments are not what I’d call…skeptical.
Mike Adams has long used celebrities with cancer to claim “natural” treatments could cure them. Now he’s doing the same with Rush Limbaugh, although, compared to prior celebrities with cancer on whom he’s pulled this routine, this time Adams’s attack is muted.
There’s nothing new under the sun in conspiracy theories. That’s why Mike Adams “Oblivion Agenda” is just an antivaccine “depopulation” conspiracy theory updated for the era of COVID-19.
Apparently signed by thousands of scientists, the Great Barrington Declaration argues that lockdowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic do more harm than good and that society should use “Focused Protection” for the elderly and those at high risk for severe disease and death from COVID-19 while letting the young go about their business normally. A closer look reveals that COVID-19 deniers are taking a page from a very old denialist propaganda playbook.
