Richard Seymour responds to listener's questions
Added 2023-03-03 11:45:49 +0000 UTCRichard Seymour returns to respond to listener's questions on the so-called lockdown sceptics. We talked about the leaking of former UK health secretary Matt Hancock's pandemic WhatsApp messages, and whether they vindicate the arguments of lockdown critics such as Isabel Oakeshott. Amongst the other excellent questions sent in, Richard responded regarding the widely cited Cochrane study that challenged the efficacy of mask wearing, the motivation of self-described socialists who are apparently comfortable aligning themselves with the libertarian right, and finally the US department of energy's recent statement on the lab leak theory of Covid19's origins.
Comments
Thanks for this. Would be interested to do some more reading on the question at 14.53. All recomendations welcome but particularly seminal texts critising technocracy would be great.
Jacob Burden
2023-03-06 16:07:52 +0000 UTCAt the risk of pursuing RS across different Patreon posts (I’m fine with him, honest) I’d just like to question whether that line between ‘lockdown-sceptic’ and ‘this particular lockdown is bad because…’ is as impermeable as he argues. I think it was because of the lurching (even more apparent in countries that had strict and, dare I say, quite crazy 8pm curfews) whereby things are safe one minute, amber alert the next, based on apparently arbitrary criteria, together with a failure of mitigation/prevention (we all agree on school ventilation, but also re-siting of institutions where necessary). The thing is most people who have justified complaints about how this was handled might well blame the whole thing. As a parent I had big problems regarding how schools dealt with things and how that interacted with lockdown laws (and yes, curfew). I’d also acknowledge that Jeremy Corbyn’s last Commons performances as Labour leader were very effective at stating the case for furlough, and in some ways represented his (belated) finest hour as labour leader. My criticism of the SCP MPs is that as legislators they aren’t councillors - yes, they do often represent the poorest areas of England - but there are institutions such as the NHS that rely upon international links and movement of people and items. Closing borders was never a serious medium-term option. Finally also on this subject… I have a suspicion a campaign to rejoin the EU will emerge before too long and rather than being couched emotionally it will be based more on the need to save the NHS, to ensure it gets at least some of the staff it needs, via EU freedom of movement. This won’t get us straight back in, but might get us to a position of Associate Membership. I guess other than the need to eat, and have enough nurses, this will also be driven because the capacities of the U.K. state, U.K. politics, to actually take ‘advantage’ of Brexit simply do not exist, either on the left or right. The mechanisms aren’t there, and won’t be, so it’s all pointless, pissing in the wind.
Carl Rowlands
2023-03-05 15:11:39 +0000 UTCgo off king 👑
David
2023-03-04 04:00:44 +0000 UTC
