More Minnesota Buffoonery

My home state continues to distinguish itself in a relatively inept response to the coronavirus, both creating a economy-destroying lockdown, while not protecting the most obviously at-risk groups.  And we have some real knuckleheads in our government.  A Harvard Professor of Medicine wrote a very thoughtful, and obviously well-informed piece about the need to adopt a different approach.  I posted on that earlier today and here is the link again.  (Spiked Article)  Now it would never occur to me to look at where the article was posted, I don’t know what Spiked is and I don’t care, I saw that the article was by a prominent physician and thought it would be worth reading.  It was. I have no idea why it was published on that site, as opposed to elsewhere.   A state legislator here passed the article around to all her colleagues.  You won’t believe one response.

Now normally I wouldn’t call people out by name, I would at most refer to them obliquely, unless they are very prominent, like our governor.  But this moron deserves to be called out.  Here is what he said:

“I just Googled Sp!ked-Online. Here is what I found at the top of the results page.

Spiked (also written as sp!ked) is a British Internet magazine focusing on politics, culture and society. The magazine was founded in 2001 with the same editor and many of the same contributors as Living Marxism, which had closed in 2000 after being sued for libel by ITN. It is funded in part by donations from the Charles Koch Foundation.

George Monbiot described it as supporting right and far right figures and as arguing against the exposure of dark money. Monbiot and fellow environmentalist Peter Melchett have said that some of its core editors have pursued an anti-environmentalist agenda, an accusation that has been rejected as a McCarthyite conspiracy theory. Activists associated with Spiked, sometimes described as part of ‘the Spiked network’, took part in Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party as candidates or publicists.

Well that’s a lot to unpack in a few paragraphs, however I would not consider this to be a fair, or balanced source of journalism. I respectfully decline the invitation to read the article.”

That is word-for-word from Rep. Jeff Brand.  This complete idiot, who somehow finds himself elected and responsible for making decisions that affect that whole state of Minnesota.  He doesn’t read the article and see what he thinks of the content.  Nooooooo, his first reaction is, let’s see who published it and what ideology they represent and then I will decide whether I read it.  Now, if it were printed by Mother Jones, he probably would read it.  How is this any way to make a responsible decision.  I don’t think I need to comment more on this irresponsible jackassery.