What's so offensive about saying that "the COVID-19 vaccine is a Chinese bioweapon that has killed millions of Americans"?

Analyzing how the concept of "misinformation" functions to sacrifice truth to power

The concept of “misinformation” is not about facts; it is about feelings.

Let's be real.

These kinds of statements:

"Vaccines killed tens of millions of people"

"Vaccines are a bioweapon designed to depopulate America"

"Vaccines are a Chinese bioweapon"

are just a way for people to say they're really really angry about whatever stuff the vaccines symbolically represent to them.

We all intuitively know this.

To believe these kinds of statements, you have to have lost so much trust in the established institutions that you can go down a really dark rabbit-hole. These kinds of statements imply a radical view of how the world works.

Not only was an extremely unsafe vaccine released...

And thus not only do the bare minimum of safety checks not exist...

And not only were millions of people killed, whether by the Chinese Communist Party, Bill Gates, etc...

But all researchers worldwide conspired to hide the truth...

There are no whistleblowers...

And every single scientist who saw such a signal in the data dropped out of the project...

Or went along with fudging the analyses and data in the write-up of the papers.

These sorts of statements are wild things to believe.

Yet, why should we suppress such statements? It is extremely important for us to know that a certain proportion of people believe this. It's even more important if large numbers of people believe it. If large numbers of people really do feel that way about the vaccine, it's for a reason. Something is failing somewhere in society. Whether it's pharma or the economy or marriages or lead in the water pipes.

But something is sure going wrong if a significant number of people believe such a thing. And it is really good for society to have that information.

This is why misinformation is never misinformation. It always indicates something. And when we suppress information, we suppress that signal. And we need that signal to make good democratic and other policy decisions. We need to know how people are really thinking and feeling to best know how to make society function properly.

Without that signal, we don't know what is going on in society. And making decisions as a society without knowing what is going on in society is like flying with a blindfold.

We need that information.

So why do people want to suppress such important?

If you ask them, they start by saying something like, "it's not true, and it will mislead people."

But there is something really autistic about seeing people say "vaccines are a bioweapon designed to depopulate America" and getting big mad about it.

"That's not true!" the misinformation-obsessed individuals online say.

No way! It's not true? You don't say? Who freaking knew that the Chinese didn't create the COVID-19 vaccine to manufacture through Pfizer to kill capitalist pig Americans?

Who had any idea?

Come on dudes. Nobody believes this. Probably not even most of the people who say it.

And this is the crux of the matter.

This is why the term "misinformation" is so dishonest.

Almost everyone know that this statement about Chinese bioweapons and killing Americans is not true.

So why get upset about it? Why go to the lengths to suppress it? Why limit people's access to statements like these?

You see, the misinformation-obsessed don't actually care if people believe ridiculous or stupid things. Why should they? People believe ridiculous and stupid things all the time. Everyday, people are constantly believing ridiculous and stupid things and telling other people about them.

Just read most magazines in grocery store stands.

Why have the misinformation police said nothing about Cosmo?

On the contrary, and here's the kicker.

Just as the statement "the vaccine is a Chinese bioweapon that has killed millions of Americans" is so much more a statement of emotion and worldview than it is a sober expression of fact...

So too are "anti-misinformation researchers" and other concerned citizens not concerned by the factual content of the statement--but rather by the emotional and worldview valence of that statement.

The misinformation senders are sending. And the anti-misinformation people are receiving. They're all speaking the same language.

And that language really pisses off the anti-misinformation people.

It's not about the facts.

It's about the feels.

Here's the insight:

The anti-misinformation people are just as fixated on receiving that message emotionally as we all know the people sending that message are.

Now, the anti-misinformation people don't want to admit to this. They want to say, "look, the people spreading such messages are irrational, but look at us here: enlightened rational ones who can distinguish fact from fiction."

But it was never about fact or fiction. This framing is self-delusion. Anti-misinformation people hate the "Chinese bioweapon" message viscerally; this is what propels them to action. Not the factual content of the message.

The anti-misinformation people will say that they are concerned about the message because they want to save lives. But we can see that this is not true: why did the government and media work so hard to suppress the lab leak theory of COVID-19's origins? People were deplatformed from social media for spreading that one.

Now to recap and then extend our insight:

What people talking about vaccine bioweapons really mean to express is something about the way they feel and see things. Boy do we know that. But what we don't think about as often: the so-called "anti-misinformation scientists" are operating on the same level.

They're less upset about the fact that it is not true, and more upset about the fact that it is a negative sentiment expressed about vaccines. The sentiment--the feeling--it is offensive to people who love vaccines.

And more than that, it is offensive to people who think the pharmaceutical industry and medical establishment have integrity. It is offensive to people who think that these institutions are great forces of good. It is offensive to people who still have great faith in the academic-medical institutions and the promise that they make about the future of human progress. They're upset because their whole worldview, perhaps one that they believe even to a nearly religious level (as I once did), is being contradicted.

They're upset because they have just witnessed a form of secular blasphemy against their secular religion.

And internally, they gasp in shock.

Thus, "misinformation" was never really about misinformation and never will be. When someone says they are interested in misinformation, well, sure, they are interested in what is commonly designated by that term. But they are not interested in fighting misinformation because it is misinformation--they are interested in fighting it because of the way it makes them feel, because of the dissonance that that worldview and feelings expressed by that misinformation has with their own worldview and feelings.

I should know. I fought and debunked "misinformation" online for half a decade.

Before continuing, let's see what we have achieved here. When people say "vaccines are a Chinese bioweapon killing millions of people", they presumably are making a statement of fact.

This is the exoteric, or outside, meaning of the statement.

But deeper than that, they are expressing something much more primordial about identity, worldview, feelings, hopes and dreams, and so forth.

This is the esoteric, or inside, meaning of the statement.

The exoteric meaning is the one that everyone knows. But the esoteric meaning is the true, operative meaning that interfaces so strongly with the world and with other people.

Yet we have the same duality in the phrase "misinformation" itself.

The exoteric meaning is something like "false information". This is really not very interesting.

But the esoteric--and true--meaning is something like "a sentiment that I do not like, that contradicts my worldview and offends my sensibilities."

Misinformation is said to be about the exoteric meaning, but it's really about the esoteric meaning. And that's what the phrase misinformation is meant to hide. The phrase misinformation is a ruse, a deception. It's a lie. It was never about misinformation.

So what is it about?

When someone says, "The COVID-19 vaccine is a bioweapon that has killed millions of Americans", they are casting something of a spell. They are saying "fuck this shit, who is with me?"

And this spell is received loud and clear. The misinformation people widen their eyes, hit the flag button, and say internally, "No, oh my God, no. Not fuck this shit!"

This is the real work of anti-misinformation people.

Their work is more about suppressing sentiment, suppressing a worldview that they hate. It is more about wanting other people who might relate to that worldview to feel alone in their beliefs--to feel that they are weird. To suppress the collective animal spirits that might surge if voice were given to such dissent. To crush the opponent, en masse, who has the "wrong" view of the world. To ensure that no mutiny is afoot, that it might be smashed at the first whisper.

That is why, despite being very important information for all of us to have--to know that so many people feel and view things in such a way--the authorities want to suppress it. Despite being very important information, it is in fact a form of threat, and it is being received as a threat. And the job of the anti-misinformation people is to deal with that threat.

Everyone, the person who is sending the "misinformation" and the person who is receiving it--everyone--is operating at an animal level.

Deep down, everyone knows that "vaccines are a bioweapon designed to depopulate America" reflects a worldview and not necessarily a discrete belief.

Everyone knows that it reflects anger, distrust, alienation from the pharmaceutical and medical industries--and maybe a great deal more.

And that awareness--that is what the misinformation-obsessed hate.

And now we get to our real payoff.

This is also why things that challenge the establishment but are true--this is why these statements get treated exactly the same way as "the vaccine is a Chinese bioweapon".

Because these statements, although true, are seen as heresy, as threats to the establishment. And that is what is really motivating the authorities to take such statements down.

In fact, the authorities might be even more aggressive toward truthful statements that are considered sophisticated than against "there is a microchip in the vaccine" statements.

This is because misinformation-industrial-complex has always been about suppressing views that threaten power. It has never been about misinformation. It has never been about truth.

What the analysis of the esoteric and exoteric meanings of the misinformation concept reveals is that the misinformation-industrial-complex has always been about power.