Censorships and their Antidotes in Covid Times

Persecution of those with differing views is alive, well and kicking. Energised by the Covid pandemic.

A defrocked philosopher and bon viveur, Giordano Bruno committed a heinous crime: his philosophy did not agree with the official science embodied by the Catholic Church. Bruno thought the earth rotated around other planets and the universe was infinite: real heresy. After eight years of detention, unlike Galileo, he refused to recant and was burned at the stake in AD 1600.

Bruno’s end was extreme. Although it would not happen nowadays, the persecution principle is alive and kicking. It has been energised but also brought to the surface by the Covid pandemic.

A recent publication on censorship and suppression and its tactics and counter-tactics drew our attention. The study was based on interviews with established scientists “who were censored for their heterodox views on COVID-19”.

Participants reported 12 censorship and suppression tactics used by the medical establishment and the media due to their critical or unorthodox positions on COVID-19. Our analysis is that these fall into three…