The following are some examples of big lies told to the public.
These are covered in the book 99 Lies, which comes with
The Secrets Package, but the segment on airport/airplane security
is updated here, and there is a fascinating video you'll want
to see. Think those security measures are all about your safety?
Think again...
We start with a look at the common perception that public
health officials work for your benefit. This is one of the many
"feel good lies" that keep the public compliant with
the wishes of those in power.
Are Public Health Officials Looking Out for You?
In order to motivate people to cooperate in public health
campaigns, government employees appeal to self interest, letting
people believe that their individual health is the goal. In reality,
these measures are meant to treat health issues on a societal
scale, even when that goes against the interests of a given individual.
For example, suppose the risk of getting Polio was slightly greater
from the vaccine itself than from just going without it (in fact,
according to the The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, "the
risk of paralytic polio associated with continued routine use
of oral polio vaccine (OPV) is deemed greater than the risk of
imported wild virus."--which is why they are encouraging
the use of the safer IPV vaccine). As an individual, you would
be better off without it, but if everyone gets it, the disease
can eventually be eliminated from a population. That is
the goal of the government, and they won't necessarily let you
know that your health is being risked for that goal.
(In 99 Lies I look at an example of tuberculosis vaccinations
given to a group of people without any warning of the particular
risks they faced from them.)
Despite the conspiracy theories of the anti-vaccination crowd,
public health campaigns involving vaccinations can work as planned.
But the plan is not to do what is best for each individual. That's
why we need honest information, so we can decide for ourselves
how much to risk for "the good of society."
Is Airport Security All About Security?
In 99 Lies I note that the planes that hit the World Trade
Centers were taken over with box cutters, and the rules which
followed, banning nail clippers and other objects, were largely
irrelevant. After all, a piece of broken mirror, sharpened plastic
knife, or a pen held to the throat were still possible, and a
threat equal to those box cutters. Meanwhile, while laws and
regulations were supposedly improving maters, in one case security
screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport failed 20 of
22 security tests. Guns and more got through.
I refer to it all as "security theater." We take
off shoes and go through new screening devices to convince the
public that things are safe. Certainly some regulations are meant
to make air travel safer, but there is also a need to impress
the public for political purposes. Recent fraudulent claims of
the TSA make me more convinced of this. Check out the following
video, for example...
Security theater is all about big lies. They feel they have
to keep the show going.
Low Fat Diets Are Best?
As in most areas of life, there are fads in medicine. As humans,
we like simple formulas to follow, so we are inclined to create
them, even when based on poor evidence. Keeping fat intake low
is a simple idea, but does it keep you healthier?
The whole idea that high-fat diets cause more heart disease,
cancer and strokes ignored the reality that there are populations
of people with high-fat diets that don't have a high incidence
of these problems. The type of fats you eat matters more than
the amount. Now the science is showing that low-fat isn't necessarily
better.
Research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and
costing more than $400 million and involving 49,000 subjects
has shown low-fat diets to have no significant affect on rates
of heart disease, strokes or various common cancers. In fact,
even though LDL cholesterol levels were higher among the higher-fat
diet group, there was no noticeable increase in their risk for
heart disease.
