You Need Experts To Find The Truth

You Need Experts To Find The Truth

By

Leonard Zwelling

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/opinion/einstein-disinformation.html

Benyamin Cohen, who doubles as Albert Einstein on social media, wrote this opinion piece in The New York Times on June 12, 2023.

He notes that Ivanka Trump posted something on the Internet over ten years ago that she attributed to the real Einstein:

“If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.”—Albert Einstein

The only problem with her post is that Einstein never said that.

Ivanka’s post is surely indicative of an inherited defect she got from her father—the ability to alter reality.

Nonetheless, there’s a lot of this going around. As Kelly Ann Conway indicated a long time ago, there are “alternative facts.”

But actually, there aren’t.

However, in the age of social media, alternative facts spread like wildfire in Canada and cloud the thinking of many Americans—and not just those along the East Coast.

Look at the Republican Presidential field. They cannot even agree on what Donald Trump did wrong with regard to the sequestered Mara-A-Lago classified documents. Many in the GOP insist Trump did nothing wrong. Many are trying hard not to express an opinion. A few admit he looks like he did something wrong. I like Bill Barr’s assessment. As a former Attorney General he’s an expert in bad behavior. He said that if even half of what is in the indictments is true, Trump “is toast.”

Now in matters of legality and illegality, I’ll go with the former attorneys general (Barr and Chris Christie) as experts. Trump should not have had those documents outside of the White House or after his presidency was over. Period. By the way, the same is true for Biden and Pence, but at least they owned up to their mistakes.

A similar denial of truth is permeating the faculty of MD Anderson thanks to the less than stellar leadership of the current administration and its Division Heads. If those people are Pisters’ idea of experts, he too has lost contact with reality.

I have spoken to quite a few faculty members in jeopardy of losing their jobs (or are already gone) simply because someone in the administrative hierarchy at Anderson decided to alter the truth. Interestingly, my advice to every one of these people has been the same. Run, don’t walk out of there. You can’t win. There’s no fighting the State of Texas and that’s who you are taking on when you try to fight the top of Pickens.

One of the things Cohen does correctly attribute to Einstein is this:

“The search for truth and knowledge is one of the finest attributes of man. Though often it is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it least.”

I have been very impressed that the current MD Anderson administration has a penchant for ignoring the truth and are not really experts at anything for which they are currently responsible. And that includes the institutional attorneys, a group I worked closely with for years. The current crop just doesn’t measure up.

This denial of the truth and lack of expertise puts into question every decision coming from atop Pickens from its chosen leadership appointments to the policies emanating from the lawyers in cahoots with the president.

In the end, despite what the QAnon folks and conspiracists think, there is one truth. Those who participated in the January 6 riot are learning this the hard way. Many are going to jail for denying the reality of the Biden victory in 2020.

It is my sincere hope that Mr. Trump gets a fair trial in front of twelve honest Floridians and a judge he himself appointed. If, as Attorney General Barr is correct and even half of the indictment is true, then Trump will be toast.

And don’t think for a minute those who say this indictment is a witch hunt and who are pursuing the GOP nomination hope for anything less than a conviction. Until Trump is off the board, he’s the presumptive nominee. The fact is only he can lose to the Biden-Harris ticket. The others have a chance.

At Anderson I see little hope for a triumph of the truth as long as the president continues to focus on outside polling to justify his leadership rather than actual progress against cancer and a productive, uncowed faculty.

This is up to the faculty to correct via a vote of no confidence by the Faculty Senate. Until then, the faculty will have to deal with altered and alternative facts. And suffer the consequences.

Dr. Zwelling’s new novel, Conflict of Interest: Money Drives Medicine and People Die is available at:

barnesandnoble.com,

on amazon if you search using the title and subtitle, 

and

directly from the publisher Dorrance at: https://bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com/conflict-of-interest-money-drives-medicine-and-people-die-pb/m