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"The plain fact is that education is itself a form of propaganda - a deliberate scheme to outfit the pupil, not with the capacity to weigh ideas, but with a simple appetite for gulping ideas ready-made. The aim is to make 'good' citizens, which is to say, docile and uninquisitive citizens." ~ H. L. Mencken

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This has now been a problem for a century :'(

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Nov 24, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Pretty much! I have an old textbook from about 80 years ago; modern students can't hold a candle to the education offered then. It really is sad.

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Nov 25, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

My Father quit HS before graduation in 1940 at 16. He joined the Navy before Pearl Harbor, and was sent to Purdue to study as he had experience. After shipping out to fight the Japs for a few years, he ended up an Electrical Engineer. No remedial courses, they went with courses from Purdue and experience. He helped build the Nuclear Navy.

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Nov 25, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Have your children read the Original McGuffey Readers. Our kids read at a 5th grade level. One reason I like your posts so much, makes me think.

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Will look into these; thanks!

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"homeschool or die" - no longer rhetoric!

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I think I am biased because I am surrounded by people who are awake but that is probably because of selection. Ontario is one of the worst places in the world for coronaquackery. My wifes' workplace is bringing back masking, and it's a university. So much for "high education".

I am also mid 60's and take no medications. This makes me an enemy of the state, I suppose. Haven't been to a doctor for 10 years, no longer going for my "annual checkup" as it seemed to be a ritual rather than anything useful.

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At some point I am going to try and tackle the subject of education on here but that may be a while.

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Nov 24, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Please do. I spent 12 years of my early life in the public school system, much of it ( as you are only young once) wasted.

They gave me some fundamentals.

Fortunately, I learned to read.

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Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that. Like every other arena of life, people have come to prefer mere appearance over substance. As long as (education, food, medicine, politics, religion, science, etc.) has the veneer of quality, no one seems to care that nothing of actual edifying value underlies that flimsy appearance. School children can be made to produce popsicle stick “art” and reams of completed workbook pages, but they can’t perform any really useful basic life skills -- sewing/mending garments, managing a budget, growing/raising food, cooking, carpentry, home/auto repair, critically reading/assessing information for accuracy and wisdom. Compare the books assigned to the average 12-year-old 100+ years ago to the drivel assigned today. No one has to think anymore -- they just have to look like it. If that. Conformity, compliance, and consumerism are the order of the day. The masses won’t challenge the prevailing tyrannical framework because they can’t even be made to think anything other than the narrative they’ve been force fed. Are they really oppressed if they don’t realize that they are? Is it still genocide if the victims voluntarily roll up their sleeves? The Bible calls mankind “sheep” for a reason.

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Nov 25, 2022·edited Nov 25, 2022Author

One of the core themes here and in my own life is substance over appearance

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Great article - I would add the impact of the Telecommunication Act of 1996 (Clinton Administration). "The media has become controlled by a handful of corporations thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996." https://billmoyers.com/story/twenty-years-of-media-consolidation-has-not-been-good-for-our-democracy/

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Go John Taylor Gatto!! He’s my deconstructing the educational system hero!!❤️‍🩹

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IDK if you've written on education yet, but if not here's a page that will provide some starting points https://hkb.ehrlum.com/education.htm

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Nov 25, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Another quote from H.L. Mencken ~ "It is the classic fallacy of our time that a moron run through a university and decorated with a Ph.D. will thereby cease to be a moron." ~ H. L. Mencken

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I think it can be done but the school system is not designed to support that happening. One of my friends like the metaphor of monkey's in suits (with the PhD program giving you the suit).

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Nov 24, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Wow! This is one of the best pieces I've ever read about the concentration of ownership of media and propaganda applied to what we've been experiencing. Thank you. On this Thanksgiving I am grateful for Substack, and every writer who, like you, takes the time to dissect the bs flowing from power centers and lay it out for us all to see. Hallelujah!

Have a great one.

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Thank you very much for your kind support :)

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Nov 24, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

I agree 100%. Prior to substack, I looked to real life for community, but kindred spirits abound here. I'm in awe of AMD and several other writers. Thank you so much for helping us learn and see.

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Nov 24, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

It's amazing (and discouraging) how much these voluntary "guidelines" intimidate healthcare professionals. About a year ago, there was an article about a couple who had covid and had gotten a doctor to prescribe IVM, but they couldn't find a pharmacy that was willing to fill it (in my opinion, these pharmacists were guilty of practicing medicine without a license).They wound up using "horse paste" and rapidly recovered. Since this was in my home state, I went to all of the local pharmacies, and asked them how they would have handled this. All of them answered, "Well the FDA says..." or "Our corporate policy prevents....blah blah de blah blah." The one exception was a pharmacist at a small local privately owned drug store. When I asked her "If someone brings you a prescription for IVM to treat covid, will you fill it?" she answered quickly and firmly "Yes." It was clear that the other pharmacists at least believed that filling such a prescription would jeopardize their careers.

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Thank you for sharing your story. This gives an important dimension to the consequences of these guidelines.

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A nephew is one of those refusing to fill Ivm/HCQ prescriptions, though his father will. They claim a surplus of pharmacists. (Get rid of the Humphrey-Durham act and intellectual property other than trademarks, and we wouldn't need nearly so many anyhow. Just a few for compounding, and advising on incompatibilities, correct usage, side effects, etc.) Looks like an obvious solution how to solve it!

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This is how it was in Omaha Nebraska in 2020. Not sure about now. My PCP, not affiliated with any big medical corporation, prescribed hydroy. Sorry I can't spell. The major grocery store pharmacies they said they couldn't use. It was a small independent pharmacy that filled it.

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My God, this is long, but EXCELLENT!!!

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Thank you for your kind words. This one took a bit longer because I wanted to make sure it was on target.

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I have yet to read your footnoted articles but WOW, this was a great read and informative too.

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Sorry I'm a little off-topic, but I thought I should share this info. The WaPo just admitted that the latest CDC data show most Covid deaths are now among the vaccinated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NaLUYt1qc4

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https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/why-the-covid-19-vaccines-could-never

Go to the Tedros meme and note what they listed for November!!!

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Nov 25, 2022·edited Nov 25, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Wow, this is just brilliant. As an anti-authoritarian leftist, I would say you pick up off of where Chomsky betrayed us.

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It was sad to see him go all in on the vaccines :(

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yeah, I agree, it made me so sad, on top of the dogpiling on rhetoric about 'unvaccinated' folks. I actually emailed him about, being a student of linguistics and a student of many of his students. his whole tirade was about trust in 'scientific consensus'. one quickly realizes that he, at least in his older years, does not think independently. ah well, many a legacy soiled by the response to the scamdemic.

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yeah, to the point of calling the unvaccinated "subhuman" and calling for removing us to camps and letting us starve. Chomsky is Jewish for crying out loud!

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Has anyone checked whether a shill actor donned a Chomsky mask?

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This is great, and great to have a name for what I had seen happening, most recently the attack on Dr. John Campbell and Dr. Mahouta (forgive the wrong spelling) from a youtube account called Back to the Science, with Cindy the dog and an ostensible description of a so called "carrot" technique. Really sophisticated, appearing to be an analytic for the savvy. All of you doctors and medical professionals across all these platforms are just so incredibly enduring and brave. I was thinking this morning that it reminds me of a MASH unit during a war, they just keep injuring people and profiting off it, and the dissenting doctors keep getting floods of injured people. Someone close to me was a medic in Vietnam, very sensitive, a poet, and it about broke him forever. I deeply hope you are all finding ways to keep sane and care for yourselves. I'm more for a Ghost Supper than a Thanksgiving, but get some rest and tryptophan all you weary souls. Thank you forever for what you do.

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I knew a vietnam medic with a similar experience :(

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Wonderful article!

This same type of lies and propaganda also destroys good candidates for elected office and enables entities to steal elections. And people fall for it "hook, line, and sinker." Nothing to see here folks!

If a person learns how to read, think critically, and avoid peer and family pressure, he/she sees through the propaganda. But most people are too gullible, lazy, pressured, or destructively educated to read OR think critically. Many of the smartest, best educated people I know are still drinking the Covid Cool Aid through a fire hose. They absolutely refuse to exchange their Cool Aid for something healthier because they've been told by "experts" that Cool Aid is safe and effective.

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Thank you! I hope you are having a wonderful thanksgiving :)

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Nov 25, 2022·edited Nov 25, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

So kind of you to inquire! Yes, I’m spending Thanksgiving with my husband whom I love unconditionally. So grateful we’re on the same page. We both read your articles top to bottom-us, and our appreciation is huge, like a hippo-pot-am-us.

We hope you’re having a wonderful thanksgiving, too. You certainly have a thankful bunch of readers who wish you well.

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It's very heartwarming :)

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Viruganda scamdemic is threatened by died suddenly, which even my housemate found eye opening, although far too late....the Harmacide is accelerating nevertheless, I am afraid

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I am still hopeful over the direction we are going in.

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This is another very interesting read. Thank you. I am not sure how you can work your practice and find time to research and write but kudos to you! I think I am fortunate to come from a lineage of people who watched very little TV and made fun of the news and advertisers if we did watch occasionally. That was our entertainment, the absurdity, and silliness of it all. We raised our youngsters without TV as a babysitter and they are successful in their businesses and careers. I am grateful we didn't fall into the covid madness and saw the "programming" take place in real-time.

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I sleep less than I should which isn't the best for my health.

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I enjoy your writings tremendously, and thank you for your time . Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! Get some rest 🤗

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Right? Not enough sleep is a recipe for aging too fast.

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I hope I'm doing that now for my kids. Growing up, my sister and I would verbatim hum/sing the local news theme song. Now my kids hear me gripe and grumble and yell at the TV "news" in the fleeting instances I have it on (know thy enemy!).

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That's good!! They will notice what you observe and it's a way to teach without

lectures.

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Was this before or after HDTV? Just psychological tricks before; brainwave-induced hypnosis after. (This is an implied call for electrical engineers to produce corrective, specifically low-pass, filters to the color feeds.) If you must watch TV, choose nature shows.

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This was before HDTV. I know that watching TV is an addiction for some. Yes, one must be careful what they

choose to watch.

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Nov 24, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Im a doc in private practice ... a surgical specialist ... ophthalmology. I have a bkrd in biochem. Over the years i have witnessed the dynamic described here many times

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Nov 24, 2022·edited Nov 24, 2022Author

Do you have any particularly memorable examples to share?

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Nov 25, 2022·edited Nov 25, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

There is a multifocal lens implant that is used in cataract surgery. This lens has a reading feature built in. Traditionally the lenses we use have one focal distance . We would usually put the focus of the persons eye out at full distance and the pt would wear reading glasses. But over the last 20+ years implants have come along that can correct astigmatism and or also have this reading feature . The problems w the lenses with the reading feature is that they can sometimes cause glare , halos and problems w night vision and problems w the clarity and quality of the distance vision. There are a few companies that make these . The initial versions of these lenses were rolled out to great fanfare and hype. When we as surgeons use these implants we typically get “reimbursed “ for a cataract procedure at a certain rate that is set by medicare and commercial insurance. Most of the cataract procedures are covered by medicare ( MCR) bc of the demographic. I put reimbursed in quotes bc i resent the term. We are PAID for our services. Anyway , the lens implant industry using their connections and lobbying power were able to create a carve out rule whereby we would be reimbursed the same amt for the procedure and we could charge the patient directly an extra amount for the extra counseling and planning that went into the use of a multifocal (reading feature ) lens. This was a new situation for the oph community. Don’t get me wrong I’m not against charging patients directly for my services. In fact I would prefer that almost everything I do is done outside of Insurance. I want a free market for medical care. It’s likely really certain that in the context of a free market prices for medical services and insurance would be much lower, quality would be better and services would be much more accessible.

But anyway I doctors got to charge what they thought a fair market price would be for these preimum lenses And it touched of a feeding frenzy of sorts. Turns out that the research that was done Supporting the efficacy of these lenses was skewed to make them look a lot more acceptable and effective than they really were. And a lot of patients had serious issues with glare and night vision which negatively Impacted their quality of life and let them to have to have the lenses removed and replaced. Which meant they had to undergo another surgical procedure. I’m not against the technology per say. I’m not at all against the idea of doctors charging patients for upgrades and premium services as long as the doctors are directly accountable. I take my oath very seriously. But there were a lot of people who were harmed most of them fortunately not permanently by this episode. That was over 10 years ago now and the industry has sort itself out. Most people now are much more circumspect about using these devices. And of course the technology has improved tremendously

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I'm familiar with quite a few of the issues in the medical device injury (e.g. cobalt hip replacements, essure, hernia meshes) and the regulatory problems in this field, but I had no idea that was a problem cataract lens too. Thank you for sharing!

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Titanium gold would be ideal (see the 2008 film Iron Man and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_gold ), but would be rather costly, as well as perhaps an incentive for violent crime.

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I lost the thread of your explanation. What do you recommend as the best choice for one who has the beginning of a cataract? One cannot have vision corrected for both distance and close-up, correct? We have to choose one or the other? thanks for your reply.

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Nov 25, 2022·edited Nov 25, 2022

No; unless in the opposing eyes. You'll have to wear corrective lenses (with such a weird prescription your optician will wonder if a truck or bowstring hit you in the head, or you lost your marbles) when you want depth perception. (Caveat: I'm not an ophthalmic surgeon.) I got a 4 diopter astigmatism corrective lens, with far point at 0.8 meter. (An accommodative lens was available at an extra charge, but is problematic (can lose attachment to the muscles), and doesn't correct astigmatism.) I keep reading (sometimes fly-tying) glasses at hand.

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Nov 25, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Great article - I would add the impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Clinton Administration). IMHO - Devastating for freedom loving people. " The media has become controlled by a handful of corporations thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996." https://billmoyers.com/story/twenty-years-of-media-consolidation-has-not-been-good-for-our-democracy/

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That is good to know. I assumed monopolization of everything was the natural course things would take unless an outside force opposed it, and it seems that bill was one of the enablers in the media.

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Nov 25, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Assange is in prison because he spoke the truth. Countries need ongoing wars to launder money for one thing. Like what just happened with FTX and the Ukraine.

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AMWD - please just trust the safe and effective vaccine. Shame on you for promoting vaccine hesitancy!*

*Comment brought to you by Pfizer. To schedule your 7th booster, click here.

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Nov 24, 2022Liked by A Midwestern Doctor

Incredible article, really. Thank you for putting this together for us in such a cohesive fashion.

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Thank you for your support :)

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