Covid came from nature.
The covid vaccine stopped the virus dead in its tracks by halting transmission (and was the safest vaccine ever made)
A rogue Ukrainian militia probably blew up Nord Stream. The USA or NATO allies had no involvement.
Cigarettes don’t cause cancer.
Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The Tuskegee experiments never happened.
There’s nothing even questionable about the deaths of JFK or Jeffery Epstein.
The internment of Japanese-American citizens under FDR wasn’t racist and was a calculated and intelligent national security move.
Did I mention that the Taliban have been defeated and could never take Kabul from the superior equipped afghan army?
When thinking of a list of narratives such as those listed above, and how in hindsight it’s easy to say we should know better or at least be skeptical, I think of something else. The other day I heard someone talk about how we may also think of those narratives that were genuinely believed and were wrong and now our world is different.
-People would never hijack planes and crash them into buildings .
-In 2007 there is little to no volatility, and in fact nothing is a safer bet, than the housing market.
-It’s been generations since a pandemic brought countries to their knees so let’s, functionally anyway, not prepare for it.
-etc
Not hard at all for me to imagine a future where we look back at such a list of black swan events and shake our head at the narratives:
-Proxy wars with nuclear powers always work out
-The more distinct contingents that have nuclear weapons in this world, the safer the world is
Throw in a future where, due to the obvious trajectory of AI and media -you, me, world leaders -will not be able to discern truth from fake - whether it be photo, video, or audio.
It’s not hard to imagine that we are approaching a crisis of narrative, and thus a crisis of response. Particularly in situations where response must be immediate.
We are running out of time.
