The idiotic Rowan Dean has now excelled himself in demonstrating his complete lack of understanding of much of anything, by delivering another of his diatribes against the modern world on the oxymoronic Sky News1.
As usual, he starts off by referring to the “so-called global warming crisis”, something you’d expect from the stable of Murdoch climate change deniers. This really is quite funny when it is clear that anything to do with science is completely beyond his understanding. Previously he has ‘dealt with’ global warming by demonstrating that he cannot even understand the terminology2. He has also had a crack at working out where rain comes from, and seems to believe that it is caused by the star Vega, which is 25 light years away3 (yes, really).
Now, it seems, Dean thinks he has a grasp (snigger) of epidemiology. In his diatribe, Dean stated “Australia’s health experts, all on the public purse so in no danger of losing their own jobs told us the corona virus (sic) would kill hundreds of thousands of us unless we gave up our jobs. We trusted them. But already it looks like they were wrong1”
Maybe Dean should actually talk to an epidemiologist and ask them why Taiwan has 440 cases (and 7 deaths) of COVID-19, in a population of 23 million, and why Australia has over 7,000 cases (and 100 deaths) for a population of 25 million. Could it be because Australia shut down at least a month later than Taiwan?4
Dean continued: “In just two short months, from early March to early May, the experts have crippled the prosperity of this nation and ruined countless lives because they followed the hopelessly flawed computer models and doomsday predictions and overblown schemes of the ‘expert’ elites”1. This is the plaintive cry of the desperate ‘ruperter’ attempting to save a portion of Murdoch’s diminishing media empire in Australia. He seems to think that everything will be just peachy if we allow the virus to rip through the population and let thousands die, much as has happened in Sweden (population 10 million) which has over 30,000 cases and nearly 4,000 dead, or perhaps Belgium (population 11.6 million) which has over 55,000 cases and over 9,000 dead5. Dean should also talk to economists, who understand that while the cost of the shutdown has been significant, the economic cost of reopening the economy prematurely would be enormous. Indeed, economic analysis has shown that the least costly strategy is to eliminate COVID-19 from Australia entirely, and that entails a lockdown. Growing epidemiological evidence suggests it may be possible for us to eliminate coronavirus within the next month or two6,7.
After this, Dean gets down to the nitty-gritty, what really concerns him, when he says: “Just imagine the utter devastation they will cause if we ever, ever allow them to pursue their even more ludicrous and dangerous climate modelling and the mad net-zero emissions agenda”1. This is what Dean is really after; climate change. For him, climate change is a reds-under-the-bed type nightmare. He seems to think that if you ‘believe’ real science rather than pseudoscience, you must be a communist. His zealotry in denying science, especially climate science, is peerless among the Sky After Dark menagerie. Dean is one of those who resents expertise and his hatred is directed at people who have deep knowledge of any field. He is a lightweight, and he knows it, and that rankles deeply within him. That is why he grasps any fruitcake conspiracy theory, or simple horseshit, with alacrity, and pours scorn on those who actually understand reality.
Sources
- https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6157176900001
- http://www.blotreport.com/2018/10/30/is-rowan-dean-a-liar-or-just-stupid/
- http://www.blotreport.com/2019/05/13/rowan-dean-is-not-a-liar/
- http://www.blotreport.com/2020/04/21/want-to-buy-a-harbour-bridge/
- https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
- https://grattan.edu.au/news/australias-endgame-must-be-total-elimination-of-covid-19/
- https://theconversation.com/eradicating-the-covid-19-coronavirus-is-also-the-best-economic-strategy-136488
Excellent, maybe Adam Creighton should read this after his recent Twitter Tirade promoting Turkey as the most sensible response to Covid 19
Terence,
Thanks. Some people, particularly those from the Murdoch media care far more for money than lives.
Predictable garbage, and once again aimed not at the actual decision makers (the PM and Premiers) but at the medical experts. Once a conservative fwit always a conservative fwit apparently. Health experts didn’t shut down anything as even the dullest high school student could probably tell him. Where does he think they get the power to make economic and other decisions exactly? Hasn’t got the backbone (or the intelligence) to take on his beloved Morrison or Berejiklian it seems. Just another Sky invertebrate . Apologies to the immensely smarter jellyfish, cockroaches, slugs etc also in that category.
I think I said elsewhere on Blot that there would inevitably be a raft of jumped-up, self-righteous, self-professed “experts” with hindsight who come out of the woodwork after the crisis eases. It’s already happening among D-K cons like Dean it seems.
Ironically I have no doubt the pathetic Mr Dean said not a word about the clear advice experts gave conservative govts regarding the immediate climate change threat to our environment. Smirk-Mo and the head of the NSW RFS wouldn’t even deign to listen to the highly experienced group of ex-fire and emergency heads who were predicting unprecedented bushfire risks and asking for significant increases in fire-fighting resources. The ignorance and hypocrisy of ultra-cons like Dean is sad but that’s not the real problem here as we know. That lies in the perversion of reality and truth and it’s corrosive effect on democracy.
Jon,
Yep, and a large proportion of that corrosion of our democracy comes from the Murdoch media: The Australian; the Daily Telegraph; the Herald Sun, The Adelaide Advertiser, the Courier Mail and sundry other lining for the bottom of budgerigar cages.
SKY here and FOX in the land of guns and religious hypocrisy is a much bigger threat I reckon.
The Terminator trilogy has been getting re-runs during the lockdown. The bogey is as we know a thing called (ironically?) SKYNET which subverts democracy and law and attempts to impose it’s will on humanity. That series was excellent fantasy. SKY politics on the other hand is a very real subversion and threat to democracy.
I’ve noticed something when watching a bit of Sky channel to obtain laughs which can’t be had from most cable/satellite news outlets. Our Phd laden Professor of Geology-Oceanography-Atmospheric Physics-Philosophy-Political Science, dresses better lately. Dean looks rather tidier and more natty (and nutty) than he used to. In fact, compared to the messy, tousled ranter that he was for a long time, he now looks a jolly suave, professional fact avoider, truth distorter and general off-the-scale right wing ranter. Anyway, his tie is done properly, so he’s learned sumpthink in his time on Earth! Ah, a fine moniker for our Dean: Mr Sump-Think!
Russell,
Chortle!