Monday, September 23, 2024

Our So-called ‘Experts’ and their Silly Group-speak Letters; Victor Davis Hanson

As a general rule, anytime we read an election-cycle solicited letter from retired functionaries, replete with their grandiose former titles, we should completely discount it.VDH

American Greatness
They inevitably were rounded up by politicos. The signees in many cases are likely angling for a return to government; in others, they are loudly virtue-signaling—and in nearly all instances, are usually wrong but will never issue a second letter of apology when their concocted expertise and pretentiousness are thoroughly discredited by subsequent events.
"One of the most preposterous recent trends has been the political use of supposed expert letters and declarations of support from so-called “authorities.”
"These pretentious testimonies of purported professionalism are different from the usual inane candidate endorsements from celebrities and politicos.
"Instead, they are used by politicians to impress and persuade the public to follow the “expertise,” “science,” or “authorities” to support all sorts of injurious initiatives and policies—of dubious value and otherwise without much political support.
"Think of all the health experts who collectively swore to us that the COVID mRNA vaccinations would give us ironclad and lasting protection from being either infectious or infected and were without any side effects.
"Other “authorities” assured us the first nationwide lockdown in U.S. history would stop COVID without hurting the social or economic life of the country.
"Ditto testimonies about the pangolin-bat origins of COVID or the authenticity of the bogus Steele dossier.
"Do we still remember the 1,200 healthcare “professionals” who in June 2020 told us that hitting the streets in mass numbers to protest during the post-George Floyd riots was a legitimate exemption from their own prior insistence on a complete nationwide quarantine? Or as these ideologues lectured us as “experts”:
" 'We wanted to present a narrative that prioritizes opposition to racism as vital to the public health, including the epidemic response. We believe that the way forward is not to suppress protests in the name of public health but to respond to protesters demands in the name of public health.”
"To convince the public to get behind the agendas of politicians—increasingly on the left—ideologues round up groups of politically kindred professors, researchers, retired officials, and former bureaucrats to show off their supposed expertise and convince the public by means of their “authority”." . . .   Sen. Rubio discusses gaslighting

Clueless or Deluded? 700 'National Security Officials' Release Letter Endorsing Kamala Harris – RedState   "Of all the things that Kamala Harris is unfit to do, of all the duties she should never be entrusted with, commander-in-chief of the American armed forces and the national intelligence apparatus has to be at the top of the list. That is not, however, preventing over 700 "national security officials" from endorsing her in her POTUS run. That's an endorsement that is almost as chilling as her endorsement by the tax collectors union." . . .
"Vice President Harris, if we're being perfectly honest, has no leadership qualities whatsoever. She is not prepared. In the few softball interviews she has done, she has yet to give one direct answer, even to the list of carefully prepared softball questions she has had gently lobbed at her. Even in her one debate with former President Trump, her "rebuttals" were weak - not one direct answer, not one unambiguous policy position." . . . 

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