This insanity should never have happened
The pandemic was a dark time for this country. While other nations might be used to at least momentary bought of authoritarianism, that’s not supposed to happen here.
We were told to stay home. People had the police called on them for going for a walk. Others saw their livelihoods ripped away from them.
And then we have the efforts toward censorship.
You see, some people didn’t agree with the official line. They voiced their opinions. For their sins, they saw their reach on social media winnowed down to nothing. Their voices couldn’t be heard by anyone.
And that was only part of the problem.
So, they’re fighting back against what happened, and they just cleared a key hurdle in that fight.
Doctors with dissenting views on COVID-19 and abortion can proceed with their First Amendment lawsuit, a federal appeals court ruled on June 3.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) sued on the doctors’ behalf and argued that “medical specialty certifiers” and the government conspired to punish the doctors for their views.
A lower court dismissed the AAPS lawsuit on standing grounds and with prejudice, meaning the AAPS could not refile. The appeals court modified the dismissal to “without prejudice,” allowing the AAPS to refile.
The doctors represented by the AAPS “spoke critically of positions taken by Dr. Anthony Fauci, lockdowns, mask mandates, Covid vaccination, and abortion,” resulting in an alleged “coordinated [effort] to censor and chill” their speech.
We know there was some effort with regard to social media, as made clear via the Twitter Files, but that wasn’t all. If it were, it would have been bad enough, but it wasn’t.
You see, their livelihoods were also threatened.
The medical certifiers “expressly threatened to strip certification from otherwise qualified physicians who express[ed] such views.”
Because “[b]oard certifications constitute a de facto essential credential for physicians to practice,” the medical certifiers “exercise great power over physicians’ speech,” the appellate opinion notes.
One medical certifier, for example, exercised that power by “sending letters to all certified physicians threatening to strip them of their invaluable certification” on July 7, 2022.
In other words, they were threatened with professional punishment for voicing contrary opinions.
And the thing is a lot of what some of those doctors were saying was true. There was no scientific basis for many of the protocols being foisted on the American people. We were told contrary information, none of which was remotely true somehow. We saw our entire economy shut down, families lives ruined, people prohibited from spending time with loved ones during their final hours, protocols involving children kept them from learning, and a litany of other sins that all stemmed from non-scientific decisions and these guys called it out.
Then, in response, their jobs were essentially threatened.
Let’s be real here, if you knew your doctor lost his board certification, how would you take it? Some would ask questions as to why they lost it, but others would assume that he’d done something wrong. In a manner of speaking, they’d be right, but those patients would assume that they did something that would impact patient care, which wasn’t the case at all.
The effort sought to browbeat doctors into compliance, and I’m thoroughly disgusted by this.
The medical establishment, which includes both governmental entities and non-governmental groups, sought to keep discussion out of the public’s view. They wanted capitulation, not debate.
Here’s the thing, though. When someone does everything they can to silence debate, it’s because they know they can’t actually defend what they’re trying to do. Those who know they are right and have the evidence supporting them don’t fear debate. They might be annoyed by the need for it but they don’t fear it. They don’t need to silence people for having contrary opinions.
Instead, they engage in that debate and defend their position. They lay the evidence out for all to see, and then allow the public to see for themselves.
The fact that the medical establishment had no interest in that and instead resorted to attacking the free speech of those who disagreed is troubling. Those involved need to be punished in some manner. There needs to be a clear notice that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated in a free society.
This is the problem with the whole “disinformation” hysteria, though. It allows those who can’t win a debate to simply make sure we never get to have one.
As a result, pretty much all of us suffered to some degree or another. This is just one aspect of the evils done to the American people in the name of fighting COVID-19, but it also makes it clear that if they’re not held accountable, it will probably happen again.
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