Thread by @safridis

.""ENDURED"" a VidConf with some key Pak "Thought Leaders"
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Lessons Learned:

1) Even when facing a Global Pandemic that could kill THEIR OWN family members.. shameless sycophancy, petty politics & confirmation bias were STILL THE MOST important traits among many
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1/n

2) A sizeable chunk of the 'left wing' press in Pakistan (esp the English speaking contingent), & this includes owners.... seem to be either inhumanly-callous or among the dumbest conspiracy theorists around
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2/n

3) Even after the #Corona has garnered worldwide attention for 2 months.. NONE of the participants had read a SINGLE book or journal article on pandemics/epidemics .(& yes, I actually asked that question in the VidConf)
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Let that sink in..NONE of them.. not even ONE

3/n

4) Their entire depth of knowledge on this & all previous pandemics/epidemics came from newspaper articles & social media messages/posts
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(some present had participated in &/or made their own video messages about Corona origin conspiracies)
4/n

5) With the exception of 2 people.. the remainder were completely oblivious about how China,Japan,South Korea, Taiwan & Vietnam have fought the pandemic..
Almost ALL were CERTAIN these countries had ""nationwide curfews but called them lock downs for PR"' (to quote one)
5/n

6) Now... despite this extremely shallow knowledge base the one thing almost all of them were CERTAIN about was the validity of their criticism of the policy path taken by the governments of the world, especially Pakistan's govt
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6/n

Bertrand Russell probably captured that VidConf best in his essay 'The Triumph of Stupidity'
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"The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt"

7/7