On January 2, Science Magazine published an article about fearless virologist Roberto Burioni who was on a 2016 TV talk show with two opponents of vaccines. In a terse rebuttal to the uninformed (think: ignorant)assertions made by the two skeptics, Burioni said,
The Earth is round, gasoline is flammable, and vaccines are safe and effective, all else are dangerous lies.
Link to Science Magazine story: Roberto Burioni said.
I can think of three other ideas that are false and yet widely held by millions of people—and each of these ideas has consequences, each leads to devastating problems. They are: “America is a democracy,” “Capitalism is the best economic system there is,” and “Economics is a Science.” It is true that democracy is the best form of government there is—but it is an ongoing tragedy that our national government is not a democracy.
Since the beginning,all of these false ideas have done great harm to our nation and they are still doing it. So long as we believe that we are already a democracy, we will not become a democracy. As long as we believe in capitalism we will never be able to install a system of economics that gives each citizen, from birth to death, equal access to the rights, resources, opportunities, and protections that are needed to give each of us a fair and honest chance to go as far in life as our talents and efforts can take us thereby giving each of us a fair and honest chance to build long lives worth living for ourselves and our loved ones, including a secure, comfortable retirement.
As long as we blindly embrace our republican form of government we will continue to mistreat the seven hated groups: not-white, not-male, not-Christian, not-heterosexual, not-well-to-do, not-native-born, and the disabled.
Put another way, any government (or any nation of people for that matter) which enables the murder by gunshot of its children while they are in school, at their desks, studying for that wonderful day when they will graduate and finally have the liberty to live their own lives, while they pursue their own happiness, is a government that has forever forfeited its right to rule, and as the Declaration of Independence commands, must be replaced.
The unyielding truth is, “America is a Republic,” and, as such, and as George Washington warned in his Farewell Address, will eventually destroy the nation. It seems to me that we could be watching Washington’s prophecy come true even as we speak.