The truth doesn’t matter when there is a narrative to uphold

What happens when those on the 'right side of history' don't know history, and struggle to differentiate right from wrong?

The banner of the article upon which the writer’s social media post was based

Orwell opined that:

“...however much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing, as it were, behind your back.”

Regrettably, there are many who are working hard to keep it hidden or don’t recognize it even when it’s out in the open.

Though this piece begins with a reference to the continued battle of narrative over events in the Middle East, its thesis relates to a bigger problem - and one that should concern even those thoroughly disinterested in events in Gaza and Israel.

This morning, I responded to a social media post that claimed as fact that ‘24% of the population of Gaza was killed by Israel in the past two years.’

That’s over 500,000 deaths.

The writer’s ‘unassailable’ truth is based on figures presented by a colleague who themselves had based their research on figures produced by a predictive statistical model created by three doctors and published as a non-peer reviewed letter or correspondence to the editor of the Lancet Journal.

Like Donziger, Sami al Arian, a scholar deported from the United States after admitting conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, misrepresented the figures quoted in the letter as accurate (as opposed to the “not implausible” descriptive given by the authors) and misattributed the letter to the editor as authored by the journal itself.

Following the piece’s publication in the journal, one of the writers, Professor Martin McKee, conceded that “our piece has been greatly misquoted and misinterpreted”. and in a follow-up response in the Lancet, the writers acknowledged that “our estimated figure was illustrative”.

To read the rest of the article, visit Simply Complicated on Substack by clicking here