Letter to the Editor: Dr Stephen Malthouse

Letter to the Grapevine, Jan 30, 2024

Submitted by Stephen Malthouse, MD

Dear editor,

The Grapevine has provided a community mirror by publishing dissenting opinions, so it is not surprising that some don’t like what they see. Censorship is a tool for hollow men and those would-be tyrants that lack the substance to defend their opinions.

Aren’t we tired of the fake names and avatars of Facebook and Twitter that allow us to censor, vilify and marginalize, without responsibility? The clever comeback. The intellectual snippet. God – give me a real newspaper! Then there are the ad hominem attacks and the false debating tactics that use consensus and expert authority, instead of evidence, to strike down an opponent. How tiresome! Combine this with gaslighting, lying and intellectual laziness and you could be describing a visit to the doctor after a Covid vaccine injury. 

Yet, there are other methods to convince and coerce that do not require your frontal cortex. “Be kind, be calm, be safe” is a classic brainwashing slogan, almost certainly created by a psych team and aimed at your subconscious. How similar it is to “Build Back Better”, which requires destroying everything first, usually in the name of safety. Fifth generation warfare is a psyop that does not require bullets and, like the boiling frog, its insidious implementation leaves the enemy unaware that they are even in a war. Denman seems like that – oblivious to the coming calamities. Drinking tea and tending flowers while the cell door is closing. Who is there to warn us?

Under a regime of extreme censorship, it is almost impossible to find the truth. Politically motivated Google algorithms only bring up a one-sided narrative (who still uses Google anyway?). Our usual sources of information, the CBC, Global and CTV, have been turned into propaganda machines that receive huge payoffs from the Liberals, abetted by the NDP, Conservatives and Greens. Unless we know where to look, like The Highwire or Shadoe Davis, or subscribe to uncensored substack articles, we will be left with using common sense and reading the Grapevine. The former is one of the senses that disappeared with Covid, but we still have the Islands’ newspaper and an editor that believes in free speech. Our community cannot afford to lose either of them.