EZRA LEVANT ｜ Should it be a hate crime to criticize Theresa Tam or Anthony Fauci？
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
164.08159
Summary
An academic journal is calling for it to be a hate crime to criticize Anthony Fauci. I'll read lengthy excerpts of it, and I'll show you what a real scientist sounds like. I introduce you to Dr. Richard Feynman, who I think was a brilliant physicist, Nobel Prize winner, worked on the Manhattan Project. And I'll tell you what he defines science as, a very simple definition.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello, my rebels. I can't even believe it. Actually, I totally can believe it.
00:00:03.620
An academic journal is calling for it to be a hate crime to criticize Anthony Fauci.
00:00:08.940
Oh, I'll take you through it. I'll read lengthy excerpts of it, and I'll show you
00:00:12.840
what a real scientist sounds like. I'll introduce you to Dr. Richard Feynman,
00:00:17.060
who I think was a brilliant physicist, Nobel Prize winner, worked on the Manhattan Project.
00:00:21.200
And I'll tell you what he defines science as, very simple definition.
00:00:25.020
And I think we've gotten away from that. That's on today's show.
00:00:27.120
I wish you had a video subscription. We call it Rebel News Plus, because you can see
00:00:31.480
all these things I'm going to show you, including Richard Feynman himself, who's a new hero of mine.
00:00:37.320
It's just eight bucks a month to become a video subscriber. We call it Rebel News Plus.
00:00:41.180
Just go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. You get my show every day,
00:00:46.500
plus shows from Sheila Gunnery, David Menzies, and Andrew Chapados. And the eight bucks a month,
00:00:50.860
it doesn't sound like a lot when you compare it to, say, I don't know, Netflix. But it sure means
00:00:55.780
a lot to us, because that's how we pay our bills. We don't take any of that Trudeau money.
00:00:59.700
So please consider getting a Rebel News Plus subscription. Actually, even if you don't
00:01:04.040
want to watch the video side of these podcasts, we sure could use the helm. Thanks. Here's today's
00:01:09.220
podcast. Tonight, should it be a hate crime to criticize Teresa Tam or Anthony Fauci? One academic
00:01:30.540
thinks so. It's August 4th, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.
00:01:33.900
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:39.960
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:44.040
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:01:49.900
You know, one of the greatest scientists of the modern era, a Nobel Prize winner, Richard Feynman,
00:02:00.620
born in 1918, he worked on the Manhattan Project when he was in his 20s. Here's his ID badge for Los
00:02:07.940
Alamos. He was 23. Can you believe it? After the war, he became a great popularizer of science.
00:02:16.200
He once said, and listen to this carefully, science is the belief in the ignorance of the
00:02:24.420
experts. But hang on, wasn't he an expert? What on earth did he mean? I think he meant science as an
00:02:30.900
approach, an activity, a process, a way of thinking, a way of testing. It's not an end in itself. It's a
00:02:37.040
means to an end, the end being the truth. The scientific method is to come up with a guess,
00:02:41.960
let's call it a hypothesis, and then run an experiment to test it against the truth.
00:02:48.960
Now I'm going to discuss how we would look for a new law. In general, we look for a new
00:02:54.440
law by the following process. First, we guess it. Then we, don't laugh, that's really true.
00:03:01.640
Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what, if this is right, if this law that
00:03:08.280
we guessed is right, we see what it would imply, and then we compare those computation results
00:03:14.720
to nature. Or we say compare to experiment or experience. Compare it directly with observation
00:03:23.600
to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong. In that simple statement is the key
00:03:37.120
to science. It doesn't make a difference how beautiful your guess is. It doesn't make a difference
00:03:41.200
how smart you are who made the guess or what his name is. If it disagrees with experiment,
00:03:49.120
Do you see Feynman's point? If you believe that we already know everything, or if you believe that
00:03:54.480
the experts are infallible, you wouldn't challenge existing knowledge. You wouldn't test it or dispute it.
00:04:00.480
So, when you hold up a man, a flawed sinner like we all are, and say, this man is science.
00:04:08.560
That's all right. That's not science. Maybe that's a religion. Maybe more likely it's a superstition,
00:04:13.840
or a cult even. But take a listen to Anthony Fauci saying he is science.
00:04:21.760
It's very dangerous, Chuck, because a lot of what you're seeing as attacks on me, quite frankly,
00:04:29.040
are attacks on science. Because all of the things that I have spoken about consistently from the
00:04:35.520
very beginning have been fundamentally based on science. Yeah, he absolutely loves it. He's a
00:04:41.120
narcissist in the first order. He's a media hound. I really don't know how Fauci does any work at all.
00:04:46.640
All he does is go on TV. He's a pundit. But if you challenge him, if you believe he's ignorant,
00:04:53.440
well, you will be told he is science. No, big guy, you are not science. You are a
00:05:00.000
politician who seeks to remove himself from scrutiny or criticism by invoking science,
00:05:04.880
as a pope might invoke infallibility. Now, that works for believers in a religion,
00:05:10.720
but science is sort of the opposite of religion in many ways. Certainly, when we make it a practical
00:05:16.400
thing like dealing with the virus, imagine this man saying that criticizing him is tantamount to
00:05:23.440
criticizing science itself, to criticizing reason itself. People should not be walking around with
00:05:29.440
masks. Let me just state for the record that masks are not theater. Wearing a mask might make people
00:05:35.600
feel a little bit better. Masks are protective. But it's not providing the perfect protection that
00:05:41.600
people think that it is. There has not been any indication that putting a mask on and wearing a
00:05:47.280
mask for a considerable period of time has any deleterious effects. There are unintended consequences.
00:05:53.760
People keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face. And can you get some schmutz
00:05:58.560
sort of staying inside there? Of course. You do not need to wear a mask indoors if, in fact,
00:06:04.320
you've been vaccinated. Good that you're vaccinated. But in a situation where you have people indoors,
00:06:09.520
particularly crowded, you should wear a mask. So even if you are vaccinated, you should wear a mask. If
00:06:15.360
in fact you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, you are protected and you do not need to wear a mask outdoors
00:06:21.280
or indoors. When the children go out into the community, you want them to continue to wear masks.
00:06:26.640
You know, if you look at children outside, particularly when they're with the family,
00:06:30.320
uh, walking down the street, playing a game or what have you, don't have to wear a mask.
00:06:36.000
The, the, the, the pediatric, the Academy of Pediatric actually makes that recommendation
00:06:40.720
that children should be wearing masks, uh, from two years old onward.
00:06:44.640
And you're asking now, if your child is a member of your household,
00:06:48.320
can you walk outdoors with your child without a mask? According to that chart, the answer is yes.
00:06:54.560
But the child can't not to beat it, beat it to death.
00:06:57.760
Yes. Yes. Because now the CDC says, I mean, I think I've got this right. One mask is better
00:07:02.960
than zero masks. Two masks is better than one mask, but you don't have to have double masks.
00:07:08.480
Is that right? I mean, you know, it became clear that cloth coverings that you didn't have to buy
00:07:13.680
in a store that you could make yourself were adequate and then you want it to fit better.
00:07:19.120
So one of the ways you could do it if you would like to is put a cloth mask over,
00:07:23.920
which actually here and here and here where you could get leakage in is much better contained.
00:07:31.120
Are you a double masker, Dr. Fauci? Look like you are.
00:07:34.880
Yeah. No, you're not the Pope and you're not much of a scientist, but I would like to hear more about
00:07:41.440
how he funded China's biological warfare research.
00:07:45.120
He doesn't dispute that he funded them. He just disputes that it was illegal.
00:07:51.200
Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement
00:07:56.880
of May 11th where you claimed that the NIH never funded gain of function research in Wuhan?
00:08:02.000
Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement.
00:08:09.760
This paper that you were referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not
00:08:18.240
being gain of function. What was, let me finish.
00:08:22.160
You take an animal virus and you increase its transmissibility to humans.
00:08:27.360
Yeah, that is correct. And, and Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about,
00:08:32.320
quite frankly. And I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about.
00:08:43.360
This is your definition that you guys wrote. It says that scientific research that increases the
00:08:50.160
transmility about transmissibility among animals is gain of function. They took animal viruses that
00:08:57.040
only occur in animals and they increase their transmissibility to humans. How you can say that
00:09:04.160
It's a dance and you're dancing around this because you're trying to obscure responsibility
00:09:09.200
for 4 million people dying around the world from a pandemic.
00:09:12.560
Hey, I would like to hear more about Fauci from Fauci on that, but I'm with Feynman.
00:09:17.840
It's a form of Socrates, the philosopher, when he said that true wisdom comes from knowing that
00:09:22.880
you know nothing. When Feynman says challenge the experts, imagine the hubris and saying that you
00:09:27.760
know everything. That's not just the view of Fauci though. It's the view of the entire public
00:09:31.840
health establishment throughout this entire pandemic. And it's absolutely laughable given
00:09:36.480
how absurd their statements are. If you think Fauci is bad, get a load of all these little mini-me
00:09:42.800
Fauci's around the world. Here's three chief public health officers from different Australian states.
00:09:48.880
Just listen to them purely making it up. No talking. No being friends. Don't touch a soccer ball.
00:09:58.480
Just inventing things. But how dare you challenge them?
00:10:02.000
Think about whether you need to do online shopping this week. Do you need those people out in the
00:10:12.880
community delivering packages and things? Maybe just leave them for a week. And click and collect. Do you
00:10:20.240
really need that furniture that I know you can go and click and collect, which is safer,
00:10:25.280
absolutely, than going into the store. We're looking at the seating at the moment and of course we're
00:10:31.680
looking at the ball. Because sometimes the ball, not that I've been to many football games, I have
00:10:36.720
noticed occasionally it does get kicked into the crowd. And we are working through the details of
00:10:42.560
what that will mean. If you are at Adelaide Oval and the ball comes towards you, my advice to you is
00:10:48.640
to duck and just do not touch that ball. We leave our house that anyone with us and anyone we come into
00:10:54.720
contact with could convey the virus. So whilst it is in human nature to engage in conversation with
00:11:04.560
others, to be friendly, unfortunately this is not the time to do that. So even if you run into your next
00:11:12.560
door neighbor, in the shopping center, in the Coles, while you're at Coles Wars or Aldi or any other
00:11:20.000
grocery shop, don't start up a conversation. Yeah, no, can I get a bit of that Feynman truth
00:11:25.680
again? Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts. You betcha. Or I might say it's the
00:11:31.360
belief that experts can be wrong and that a true expert would like to know he's wrong, actually,
00:11:37.120
and would actually invite criticism. It's hard to admit you're wrong. As Shakespeare said in Much
00:11:41.840
Ado About Nothing, happy are they that hear their detractions and can put them to mending.
00:11:48.720
He said it as a joke. People hate being proved wrong. But if you're strong enough and self-confident
00:11:55.680
enough and noble enough, you can bear it and maybe even improve by it. But not if you love being on TV
00:12:00.720
too much, if you love power too much. And say if you, I don't know, work for a billion-dollar drug company that
00:12:06.080
wants to keep things going just the way they are right now. But look at this story. Look at this.
00:12:13.760
Scientific journal papers suggest making it a federal hate crime to criticize Fauci.
00:12:19.520
That's a story in the National Pulse. I'll read. A scientific journal article
00:12:24.320
authored by Professor Peter Hotez, a frequent guest on corporate media networks, called to, quote,
00:12:30.720
extend federal hate crime protections for scientists facing criticism from alleged far-right extremists,
00:12:36.880
according to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.
00:12:44.880
Now, it's true. I couldn't believe it. But I looked up the original scholarly paper.
00:12:49.200
I wonder what Dr. Feynman, if he were still around, would say about all these journals that are just
00:12:56.080
politics dressed up as science. Mounting anti-science aggression in the United States. Oh, wow.
00:13:04.320
There is a troubling new expansion of anti-science aggression in the United States.
00:13:07.920
It's arising from far-right extremism, including some elected members of the U.S. Congress,
00:13:14.960
and conservative news outlets that target prominent biological scientists fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:13:22.480
Well, is that a scientific term, far-right extremism? I wonder how many genders
00:13:27.680
scientist Peter Hotez thinks there are. I wonder if he believes in science or in politics. I'm kidding.
00:13:34.880
I already know. And by the way, I can tell you as many people on the left opposed this new science-y
00:13:40.400
corporate lockdown cult as people on the right do, just ask Naomi Wolf or Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
00:13:47.280
A band of ultra-conservative members of the U.S. Congress and other public officials with far-right leanings
00:13:53.840
are waging organized and seemingly well-coordinated attacks against prominent U.S. biological scientists.
00:13:59.840
In parallel, conservative news outlets repeatedly and purposefully promote disinformation designed
00:14:06.240
to portray key American scientists as enemies. Okay, so we know if he thinks there are ultra-conservative
00:14:14.320
members of Congress. We know if that's what he thinks. We know where he's positioned himself. He's
00:14:19.920
on the far left himself. He posits a conspiracy theory that there's some sort of coordination to
00:14:26.240
this, like some master control switch or something, because it's impossible for this scientician to
00:14:32.960
believe that people would naturally and on their own possibly be critical of the biggest civil
00:14:38.000
liberties attack in our history. I love that one line, purposely promote disinformation. Again,
00:14:43.440
he just cannot believe that anyone would truly disagree with him. So they must knowingly be lying,
00:14:49.360
not actually expressing an alternative point of view. I don't think he's very science-y. I don't think he
00:14:53.520
follows Feynman's rule. And then he plays the victim, which is unusual for a scientician.
00:14:59.680
As a consequence, many of us receive threats via email and on social media, while some are
00:15:05.760
stalked at home to create an unprecedented culture of anti-science intimidation.
00:15:11.840
Now, I've had a few death threats in my life that were real enough and scary enough that I
00:15:16.800
believed they were a risk. And I know what I did. I called the police. And in one case,
00:15:24.000
the police called me to tell me about it. And I know what I didn't do. I didn't write a long
00:15:31.040
academic paper about it and publish it to the world in some sort of pity party. That's just not how it
00:15:37.440
really is if you're really scared, as opposed to just being a cry-bully, a thin-skinned, dish-it-out-but-can't-take-a-critic.
00:15:44.160
This isn't science. This is punditry. But here's what this guy considered to be a hate crime.
00:15:51.680
In June, the Republicans organized a House Select Subcommittee on the origins of COVID-19
00:15:58.000
with the presumption that it was ignited by gain-of-function genetic engineering research
00:16:03.200
from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Despite evidence pointing to spillover from a viral infection
00:16:09.200
in bats to additional mammals and ultimately humans accounting for previous coronavirus epidemics,
00:16:14.720
the hearings took on a sinister tone, pointing fingers at virologists both in the U.S. and China.
00:16:20.960
Got it. So there was a sinister tone. Yeah, I think so, given that we're talking about funding biological
00:16:28.480
warfare research in China. I'd call that sinister. A disease that has killed millions and destroyed our
00:16:34.800
freeway of life. Yeah, these are sinister issues. But you see, he's trying to shut down that scientific
00:16:41.280
process of inquiry that Feynman talked about. Have a hypothesis and test it. He does not want his
00:16:46.800
hypothesis tested. Alongside the June Republican COVID-19 origins hearing, Senator Ron Johnson
00:16:55.920
organized a roundtable in Milwaukee to highlight the rare adverse side effects from COVID-19 vaccines.
00:17:02.160
Okay, so help me out. Is it science-y to talk about side effects or does science say we can't
00:17:09.600
talk about it? Is this guy saying side effects don't happen or that you can only talk about them in a
00:17:15.600
certain way or only the right people can talk about it? And shouldn't this whole thing here
00:17:20.000
be in a private diary as opposed to an academic paper? During a June 2021 interview with the staunchly
00:17:27.680
conservative Florida governor, a Fox News anchor referred to me as infamous and notorious.
00:17:35.840
Infamous, notorious. Those are adjectives, they're criticisms. But illegal hate crimes?
00:17:43.600
Hey, buddy, you just called the people you hate a bunch of names, but they can't call you names back?
00:17:50.960
Is that science? Is that what this is about in the scientific journal? The American for the
00:17:58.400
America first element of the far right focuses on nativism, anti-immigration, and a foreign policy
00:18:04.240
built around strong military buildup and deterrence and confrontation with China. I thought we were
00:18:10.000
talking about a virus. You're talking about Trump now and foreign policy? He goes on to talk about Hitler
00:18:17.120
and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. Frankly, it was a roller coaster of emotions. I really felt like I was
00:18:24.160
reading a personal diary and I shouldn't be learning so much about his feelings. He was just oversharing.
00:18:30.800
But then this scientist came up with his advice, which you can't criticize because then you're criticizing
00:18:37.520
science itself, you see. We should look at expanded protection mechanisms for scientists currently
00:18:44.800
targeted by far right extremism in the United States. Representative Paul Tonko has introduced
00:18:50.800
a bill known as the Scientific Integrity Act of 2021 to protect U.S. government scientists from
00:18:55.360
political interference. But this needs to be extended for scientists at private research universities and
00:19:00.160
institutes. Still another possibility is to extend federal hate crime protections. Got it. Are you sure that this
00:19:10.400
is all science? To protect you from criticism? Isn't criticism an essential part of science? Isn't it, in fact,
00:19:20.720
the basis of all science? As Feynman said, the process of doubting everything, everyone, especially the experts.
00:19:30.320
He makes one last mention of the Holocaust. As Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once
00:19:37.920
pointed out, neutrality or silence favors the oppressor. We must take steps to protect our
00:19:43.280
scientists and take swift and positive action to counter the growing wave of far-right anti-science
00:19:48.080
aggression. Not taking action is a tacit endorsement and a guarantee that the integrity and productivity of
00:19:53.520
science in the United States will be eroded or lose ground. Now, I'm not sure if any violence has been
00:19:58.640
done to any scientist in America. And obviously, I'm against violence. But of all the people I've
00:20:04.080
mentioned here, the only one who was brutally attacked was Republican Senator Rand Paul.
00:20:11.440
Fauci's critic was attacked. He was attacked and had his ribs broken, serious injuries by a left-wing
00:20:17.680
Trump hater. Anti-science aggression. You know, I think the anti-science aggression
00:20:24.160
is coming from this snowflake who wants to shut up everyone who disagrees with him. It's a laugh.
00:20:32.320
It's embarrassing. It's a joke. It's not science. But you know what? He's actually getting his way.
00:20:55.680
I cannot wait. That is so exciting. And the thing is, it is so exciting.
00:21:26.960
If someone were to say that the son of the president has dirty deals with the former mayor of Moscow,
00:21:34.540
with Ukrainian natural gas companies, with Chinese oligarchs in the Communist Party,
00:21:39.740
someone would say, no, no one would believe it. Come on, you have to be more nuanced.
00:21:43.820
And then if you said a newspaper, one of the oldest in America, the New York Post,
00:21:48.320
tried to talk about this in the election, and they were censored,
00:21:52.600
people would say, no, that's too on the nose. That's not going to happen.
00:21:56.020
And there was a hard drive with not only photos and emails,
00:22:00.180
but videos of hunters smoking crack with prostitutes. No, that's impossible.
00:22:06.040
This is a story stranger than fiction, and yet it is barely told.
00:22:14.980
But luckily, Hollywood's dissident filmmaker, Phelan McAleer, is on the case,
00:22:22.300
and you know that he will tell the story that others won't.
00:22:25.620
What a pleasure to have producer Phelan with us today.
00:22:28.400
Phelan, we've talked about My Son Hunter before, when you were just starting it.
00:22:34.040
Looks like you've had some great success so far crowdfunding it, but you're not quite done.
00:22:38.760
Tell us how you've been doing. Yeah, well, we've hit a million.
00:22:42.300
We're at $1,050,000 now, I think. We still have to get another $750,000.
00:22:48.880
But people have been amazing. I think we've got 10,000 small donations.
00:22:52.220
Many of them, we always notice a boom after we come on your show, Ezra,
00:22:57.420
because, funny enough, Canadians care about the truth.
00:23:00.680
I think they've seen the truth being suppressed so much in their own country
00:23:09.740
We're going to be filming in Serbia, which will double as the Ukraine.
00:23:16.360
So it's going to be great. It's going to happen.
00:23:18.840
And, you know, we've got lots of great news happening as well.
00:23:21.920
Well, I just heard that you signed on a big-name director.
00:23:25.620
And that's the thing. Anyone can make sort of a homemade movie.
00:23:29.080
But to tap into the kind of actual Hollywood A-listers,
00:23:33.620
I'm talking about celebrities that everyone knows by sight.
00:23:38.140
So Robert Davi, who's got to be in more than 100 movies,
00:23:44.020
I mean, Die Hard, obviously, a Christmas favorite.
00:23:49.580
That's a guy, that is a serious Hollywood player.
00:23:52.760
I'm impressed that he's got the courage to be an outsider
00:24:01.360
Yeah, well, there are courageous people out there.
00:24:03.740
Yeah, Robert, he's been in everything from The Goonies
00:24:11.280
I mean, to be honest, I told him this yesterday.
00:24:13.580
I said, I almost didn't send him, make him an offer
00:24:18.700
I thought that's how, you know, how Hollywood he was.
00:24:53.800
and I'm from Ireland, so we know all about addictions.
00:25:02.420
It's why this person got these deals at that time.
00:25:30.020
But that's not the reason people are mad at Hunter Biden.
00:25:33.500
Even to this day, he does these childish artworks
00:25:43.020
If a Chinese buyer gave a half a million dollar
00:25:50.260
But to buy some art for half a million dollars,
00:25:58.000
I mean, Hunter was on a podcast at the weekend saying,
00:26:23.700
because it's a really great way of spending money
00:26:47.180
So that's why we're making My Son Hunter the movie
00:26:54.360
oh, Hunter's decided not to know who buys his paintings.
00:26:57.840
Well, okay, he won't know who buys his paintings.
00:27:13.220
I asked you who you were considering for the lead role.
00:27:43.420
don't denounce it because there's a lot of slips.
00:28:03.320
it's going to be a lot of fun making this movie.
00:28:12.300
That's why people have been going to our website
00:28:17.560
And many of them your listeners and your viewers.
00:28:20.040
I think I gave 100 bucks last time you were on.
00:28:48.380
And I looked forward to how you tell this story.
00:29:00.940
How will people be able to see the final product?
00:29:12.820
How can someone watch this thing when it's done?
00:29:50.560
This is about real deals done in real countries
00:30:57.200
and I can say this having built a company on it,