Bret Weinstein, Would-Be Galileo
Bret Weinstein is a name you might be familiar with. An evolutionary biologist, now self-titled “professor in exile,” he hosts The DarkHorse podcast with his wife, fellow evolutionary biologist Heather Heying. The podcast has nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube alone and has featured high-profile guests like Russell Brand, Sam Harris, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Weinstein has himself guested on The Joe Rogan Experience, seemingly the largest podcast in the world. And while his calm tone of voice may denote sound judgment, Weinstein has become an über-conspiracy theorist, to the point where he believes the Powers That Be are crafting fake conspiracies specifically to make him look stupid.
Sitting next to Dr. Pierre Kory, Weinstein explained to Rogan that ivermectin worked against COVID-19 and that the vaccines were dangerous. (This was the exact opposite of reality.) Importantly, Weinstein painted himself as part of a group of “heretics,” independent of the structures controlling others, hence free to analyze the data accurately and report on it without being muzzled. He became one of the leading figures of the pro-ivermectin contingent during the pandemic.
On the September 17th, 2024 episode of their DarkHorse podcast, Weinstein and Heying double down on their pseudoscientific perspective on the pandemic: ventilators were “very negative” and “not necessary” for COVID; ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are the “best drugs” against the virus; and it appears we are facing a “pandemic of the vaccinated.”
You may wonder how these extraordinary claims can still appear credible to their listeners. Part of the answer is that the podcast pair rarely commits to a position, preferring to ask questions and to hypothesize. A lot. Similarly, I could convince a number of listeners that the Earth is flat if I spent hours on my podcast laying conjecture after conjecture and simply asking questions about what may be hidden from us.
Weinstein wonders if the alleged “noisiness” of COVID diagnostic tests might be a feature not a bug, as it allows someone to claim anything at any moment. He tells Joe Rogan that the evidence for the HIV virus not causing AIDS is “surprisingly compelling.” Similarly, the poliovirus might not cause polio but might simply be a “fellow traveller” in people who have the disease, which is actually caused by pesticides. Also, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might be Fidel Castro’s son (“the evidence seems kinda good,” says Heying before dismissing its relevance) and he is also gay (“this is now officially known,” says her husband).
Some conspiracy theorists fret over an alleged “deep state.” For others, it’s the Bildenberg Group, or the World Economic Forum at Davos, or a Satanic cabal, or history’s classic villain: the Jews. For Weinstein, it’s Goliath.
Goliath is the name he gives to the shadowy powers conspiring against the world and against Weinstein personally. The Israel-Palestine conflict unfurling now? That’s Goliath trying to bury the voices of the COVID dissidents like Weinstein under 24/7 news coverage of a world event. He has also hinted at Goliath trying to get him to die by suicide. One day, a browser window allegedly appeared on Weinstein’s phone with a DuckDuckGo search engine page with the search bar containing the word “suicide.” Weinstein believes this might have been a threat, because he and his wife have been “a sticky wicket” for Goliath.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-...be-galileo
Bret Weinstein is a name you might be familiar with. An evolutionary biologist, now self-titled “professor in exile,” he hosts The DarkHorse podcast with his wife, fellow evolutionary biologist Heather Heying. The podcast has nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube alone and has featured high-profile guests like Russell Brand, Sam Harris, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Weinstein has himself guested on The Joe Rogan Experience, seemingly the largest podcast in the world. And while his calm tone of voice may denote sound judgment, Weinstein has become an über-conspiracy theorist, to the point where he believes the Powers That Be are crafting fake conspiracies specifically to make him look stupid.
Sitting next to Dr. Pierre Kory, Weinstein explained to Rogan that ivermectin worked against COVID-19 and that the vaccines were dangerous. (This was the exact opposite of reality.) Importantly, Weinstein painted himself as part of a group of “heretics,” independent of the structures controlling others, hence free to analyze the data accurately and report on it without being muzzled. He became one of the leading figures of the pro-ivermectin contingent during the pandemic.
On the September 17th, 2024 episode of their DarkHorse podcast, Weinstein and Heying double down on their pseudoscientific perspective on the pandemic: ventilators were “very negative” and “not necessary” for COVID; ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are the “best drugs” against the virus; and it appears we are facing a “pandemic of the vaccinated.”
You may wonder how these extraordinary claims can still appear credible to their listeners. Part of the answer is that the podcast pair rarely commits to a position, preferring to ask questions and to hypothesize. A lot. Similarly, I could convince a number of listeners that the Earth is flat if I spent hours on my podcast laying conjecture after conjecture and simply asking questions about what may be hidden from us.
Weinstein wonders if the alleged “noisiness” of COVID diagnostic tests might be a feature not a bug, as it allows someone to claim anything at any moment. He tells Joe Rogan that the evidence for the HIV virus not causing AIDS is “surprisingly compelling.” Similarly, the poliovirus might not cause polio but might simply be a “fellow traveller” in people who have the disease, which is actually caused by pesticides. Also, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might be Fidel Castro’s son (“the evidence seems kinda good,” says Heying before dismissing its relevance) and he is also gay (“this is now officially known,” says her husband).
Some conspiracy theorists fret over an alleged “deep state.” For others, it’s the Bildenberg Group, or the World Economic Forum at Davos, or a Satanic cabal, or history’s classic villain: the Jews. For Weinstein, it’s Goliath.
Goliath is the name he gives to the shadowy powers conspiring against the world and against Weinstein personally. The Israel-Palestine conflict unfurling now? That’s Goliath trying to bury the voices of the COVID dissidents like Weinstein under 24/7 news coverage of a world event. He has also hinted at Goliath trying to get him to die by suicide. One day, a browser window allegedly appeared on Weinstein’s phone with a DuckDuckGo search engine page with the search bar containing the word “suicide.” Weinstein believes this might have been a threat, because he and his wife have been “a sticky wicket” for Goliath.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-...be-galileo
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"