27 Comments

People forget that doctors were at the forefront of "the final solution" and belonged to the Nazi party at rates far higher than members of other professions. As soon as we stop seeing our primary responsibility as being to the individual human in front of us, we are going down a very dark path. And yet, every time I pick up a medical journal now, it seems as if at least half the content is about "social justice" or "equity" or "climate change." Perhaps the people who write these articles have good intentions. Perhaps they're just virtue-signalling. But let's do a little thought experiment: If I, as a physician, truly believe that my primary job is to promote racial "equity" (equality of outcome between racial groups) and to help reduce CO2 emissions, how will I treat, say, an elderly white patient with dementia? The logical answer would be to euthanize them. That, I fear, is where we are headed if we don't fight back against this insanity.

Expand full comment

Lawyers were also highly-represented, especially in the SD. Educators (especially university professors and lecturers) were also quite prominent.

Expand full comment

My thought is that those who are drawn to these professions want to be heroic. They see those professions as influential to society, and pick them for that reason.

Ironically, it makes us (former teacher here) susceptible to radical ways of solving those problems. Those that get caught up in ideologies think, "I want a good world, which is what this group is aiming for. Nothing can be achieved without teachers showing kids how to build this utopia. Just doing the job well isn't good enough. My students clare learning to read? Ok, but am I teaching them how to lead us to a better tomorrow?"

The NEA, one of the larger educator unions in the US, has been putting social justice on its magazine's front page for years. I stopped reading the it when I realized all the articles were the same: "Educator Jane Smith saw that the _______ community was underserved and overlooked, so she decided to do something about it." Few of the articles mentioned improving kids' learning, except through the SJ lens. Jane Smith improving as a teacher is nothing worth noting because she isn't contributing to a better society (or so the ideology would say).

Expand full comment

Many of the SD's intellectuals were looking to change society for what they considered the better (not unlike the NEA people you're mentioning). In fact, most of them believed in what they were doing before they joined the NSDAP (or in some cases before it even existed). Many also placed quite highly on their qualification exams and had successful careers outside the SD and the Party before they joined full-time. The parallels between them and many of the SJ people is quite disturbing if you look at it historically.

Expand full comment
Nov 16, 2023·edited Nov 18, 2023

The schools in my urban area all get the same funding, however in some areas parents show up to school events, help orient the kid daily towards good decision-making, instill work ethic and try to aim their kids at productive professions, or at least to be thoughtful about their future. Many of the lower income schools at least in Toronto particularly if they’re racialized have lots of programs targeted at them, more $$ allocated , but programs are biased to rights and entitlements and confidence building. I don’t know what the answer is but telling someone they can get resources allocated to them if they learn to leverage victim speak is not it. I am reminded of the words of the great Johnny rotten “I don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it.”

Expand full comment

There is a definite difference between being broke and being in poverty. People forget that.

One of the facets of poverty (both a cause and an effect) is poor decision-making. It's not talked about enough because people in poverty are pitied. Their lives are hard, but hand-outs won't break generational bad habits. If you give $100 to a parent that is broke, they will spend it on something beneficial for the family- groceries, clothes, rent money, fees for a sport/club their child wants to do. If you give $100 to a parent in poverty, they will buy something fun - alcohol, restaurant food, toys. It'll be spent on instant gratification.

A program in my community that is really beneficial is Circles. It aims to break generational poverty by partnering a person in poverty with someone more economically successful, and the whole club meets every month. The idea is that the person in poverty is building a social circle with others who want to do better. Those that are already doing better can provide guidance.

Expand full comment

I had roommates like this, never made rent on time but lived like lords for 5 days after pay, restaurants, cabs, smokes, shoes, clubs. Skipped school to watch daytime tv, smoke up, dropped out. Completely impulse driven and stubborn. Difficult behaviour to change.

What’s worse is as adults they have plenty to say about the trials and tribulations of low income and my status as someone who is “fortunate and privileged”. Difficult to be friends with them as they don’t see their own culpability in the life they manufactured for themselves but frown on my middle class lifestyle. Through this experience i have sympathy for those who truly are without choices, which are few in canada, and only disdain for people actively choosing poverty.

Expand full comment

That's it exactly. And they oftentimes don't value the possessions they do have. The kids from poverty were often the ones who would break classroom supplies, either carelessly or because they were tossing them around. All impulsive behavior and no longterm thinking.

My belief is that there should be programs and services in place for those that want to change. But people shouldn't be forced to use them or given resources totally free. For example, Circles is a free resource, but each family takes turns cooking a meal for everyone (groceries paid for by the service). They can't just sponge; there is responsibility involved.

Also, I believe in freedom to choose...and freedom to experience the consequences. People don't change when you make them. They change when they want to and not a minute sooner.

Expand full comment

I think this sounds very intriguing! Could you post more about it please??

Expand full comment

Sure! Did you mean poverty vs. being broke or the Circles program?

Expand full comment

Psychopaths actually, especially narcissistic ones are drawn to medical, legal, political, military, and higher corporate professions at a much higher rate than the average apparently. With teachers I suspect that narcissists are quite attracted to having a captive audience of students they can influence.

Expand full comment

Psychopaths are statistically over represented among physicians, especially surgeons for example. Therefore, unfortunately that makes complete sense. Canada has legalized and even encourages euthanasia. What has happened to the West?

Expand full comment

Thank you. This trend is highly concerning and often very far from based in principles of biology, let alone medicine. Rather than addressing racism, it paradoxically further embeds it, despite the ponderous literature (much before 2020...) pointing out how "race" is a socially constructed fiction. Looking at someone, guessing their "race", and making a social-justice inflected decision about how to partition care is misguided on so many levels. A truly advanced practice of medicine would be more informed by eg rapid genomic sequencing (precision medicine) in combination with family history rather than how curly someone's hair is, or the precise color of their skin.

Expand full comment

Anyone wishing to stick a wrench in the works of woke ideology can do so by championing the cause of trans-racialism. Stand back and watch the fireworks!

Expand full comment

What if we all "opt out"?? Just put "other" or "prefer not to say" or "mixed race"? I'm serious! They can't force you to declare your race! Without a DNA test it's largely conjecture anyway. JUST SAY NO TO RACE!

Expand full comment

It isn’t just conjecture; however I also agree that race isn’t “real” but instead just a(n old stupid) “social construct”.) I have already stopped providing certain information on forms recently because of the hateful craziness of all of this stuff and nonsense.

Expand full comment

The individual person in front of you--that's how to think of any person with whom you speak or interact. Not their immutable physical characteristics.

Expand full comment

To bring about change would require courage and It’s in very short supply these days. We seem to be overpopulated by spinelessness. People in professions such as medicine that one would have thought had to possess some level of valor and integrity are rolled over in their first challenge. So they save their professional skins, if they even do that, and lose their humanity. What a high price to pay for acceptance by bullying goons in the AMA.

Courage is not completely depleted yet though. This article was written by the good Dr Aida Cerondolo, and we read it so we still have hope that the world has decent, courageous and concerned citizens. And even some doctors who prefer to be true to their oath rather than capitulate to woke ideology. At least they can sleep easy at night and look themselves in the mirror in the morning. There’s incalculable value in that.

Expand full comment

It’s often the less talented who become bureaucrats who then lord their power others. The AMA I suspect, is full of them.

Expand full comment

"But linking immutable characteristics such as skin color with power and privilege in the medical setting rationalizes the distribution of care based on arbitrary factors in the name of a greater good called social justice. This hazards some patients with negatively designated characteristics as being viewed as less valuable than others, potentially impeding the care they need."

"The New York State Department of Health prioritized immutable characteristics when recommending that monoclonal antibodies and antivirals to treat COVID-19 be fast-tracked for those of 'non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity' because 'longstanding systemic health and social inequities have contributed to an increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19.' This approach bypassed patients at risk for severe disease simply because they were born the wrong color."

How can these race-conscious attitudes, policies and practices not result in the systemic violation of laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or ethnicity? Since the actors themselves and quite possibly the legislative and executive branches of state government are captured by racial and ethnic identity group politics, it is going to take a campaign of litigation to stop the abuses and restore the medical establishment to the status quo before George Floyd or whichever event normalized reverse discrimination.

Care must be taken to avoid engaging law firms such as the America First Legal Foundation, a project of the fascist Stephen Miller that is actively litigating against the excesses of America's progressives.

Expand full comment

The label "progressive" reeks of elitism and dishonesty

Expand full comment

I have been waiting in anticipation for rational physicians to speak up and take back our healthcare.

Expand full comment

As a cultural anthropologist I'm in agreement that typing of humans must change. At the same time as medicine, the government must also change its type casting.

Your last statements rang true years ago that practitioners were doing their best. I fear this is no longer the case as corporations looking at profits have greatly changed the entire system of health care. Perhaps a good subject to address

Expand full comment

Scary and dangerous.

Expand full comment