Newsletter Feedback

One of the joys or risks (depending on your perspective) of writing these newsletters is that we sometimes receive negative feedback. A few weeks ago I wrote about QAnon and the realisations that believers were having that the predictions of Q hadn't panned out. From this I received the following feedback. My comments in [red].

“If these are your viewpoints, then I wonder if you consider information available from sources other than mainstream media, which you clearly echo in your "newsletter" (I say "yours" for a reason). [While it's good to consider other sources, at least the mainstream media is written by professional journalists, who, while not perfect and have biases, at least are trained. What other sources would you suggest that are accessible from here in NZ?]

I am an American, but in NZ for 45 years. Herewith, my responses to TWO examples from your diatribe:

I can vouch for the existence of high-level pedophile rings and their protection under certain domains [Then I really hope you've done something about this, such as reporting to relevant authorities!]. This reality is tossed as nonsense and minimised by your mockingbird article about "Q beliefs" and what not.

This is the very reason why this horrible crime continues unabated (100,000 missing children in USA - never recovered [Not sure of the source of your 100,000 number (and over what period of time?), but this article provides some interesting background, showing that the number of children missing and never seen again is quite small.]) and this certainly does occur through these rings here in [Location supplied] (I'm an ex-secondary teacher). All protected.

Aren't you skeptical? [Yes, that's my role]

Was there election fraud? Is Biden for real the most popular President "eva"? [I believe that this is a reasonable conclusion given the polarisation of the electorate. Many people were highly motivated on both sides meaning a high turnout.]

I saw the votes being changed onscreen during the election night (did you?) [I saw reports of videos but I think there are more prosaic explanations, such as errors being corrected, than election fraud.]

I have seen CCTV of ballots dragged out and counted (multiple times) after everyone ordered home (have you?). [No, I've not seen evidence that votes were counted and added to a total multiple times. How credible is your evidence, and would this account for enough error to sway the result?]

I have seen videos of dumped ballots - for President Trump, of course (have you?) [No, and again, how significant would this be even if this was the case?]

How many dead people? And after you die, you re-register as a Democrat? Thousands, wtf? [Evidence? While there may be isolated cases of this happening, is it widespread enough to affect the outcome?]

I have watched the testimony of many and seen their affidavits under penalty of perjury (>20,000 recorded) from nearly every one of about 5,000 reporting counties in the USA (have you?) [If there was credible evidence of fraud, why wasn't it presented in the numerous court cases brought?]

Aren't you skeptical? [Yes, but not credulous]

I could go on, but I'm afraid you are not as skeptical as I. Good luck in your quest to find real answers.”

To me this illustrates the difference between skepticism and unbridled gullibility in buying into conspiracy theories. To me skepticism must be exercised with caution. With specific regard to the US election, if there was clear evidence of large scale fraud it would have been produced in the numerous court cases that the Trump team lost. For the fraud to rise to a level that could determine the outcome would require a vast conspiracy which would likely be exposed very quickly.

We should listen to actual experts, who have commented that the recent US election was the most secure ever.