Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing censorship. I have had a lot of people ask me this, a lot of correspondence on this topic. Folks are basically asking, there have been these various Decrees regarding "fake news"; there has been a redefining of what is being restricted here in Thailand with respect to that topic. It seems that even information that may or may not be true, that may be irrelevant, the issue seems to surround whether or not it promotes fear and panic. That seems to be the policy reason behind this initiative if you will. There are going to be those who are going to find this video rather strange but hear me out and this is my position on it. 

I never liked censorship. I don't think censorship in any way is a good way to do things. That said, I think for outsiders this is going to sound very strange at first glance but again I am going to go through my logic on this. I actually think the reasoning behind this Decree against "fake news", I think the reasoning behind it actually comes from a good place, for lack of a better term. What I mean to say is folks are trying to tamp down panic and hysteria and people just becoming consumed with fear. I have talked about this in other videos that panic warps people's reasoning capabilities and they are not able to reason things out in a way that they would otherwise like to. You see this in group dynamics a lot and now that we have social media, group dynamics happen in a digital scenario. The point of this video is while I understand the policy thinking behind trying to tamp down panic, my thinking on it is censorship isn't really the way to do it. Instead if you want to decrease panic, maybe truth is the better alternative. What do I mean by this? Well if the concern is about folks running around out there saying "COVID is out of control" for example which I have made a lot of videos on this channel about. I have got serious issues with the way the media has portrayed COVID in the sense that how it has been sensationalized. Look, to one degree or another, especially in the 21st century, the media is in the business of sensationalism. They need to get eyeballs, they need to get clicks and you have to create sometimes click bait like content in order to get those eyeballs and get those clicks. Again this is what I think is trying to be "regulated" for lack of a better term in this decree regarding this issue. Now there are many who would go off and get into political implications and ramifications and that perspective on this. I am not getting into any of that at all. I am just looking at this purely from the standpoint of just the basic situation, the background of COVID-19 that we are trying to deal with here. As I said, again with respect to that specific issue and tamping down fear on that, I think a better perspective of the truth would do a lot better, would go a lot further, especially if the media would broadcast it a little more in providing some context in this stuff, that truth would do a lot better than any censorship in my opinion could ever do. 

This is from Johns Hopkins so coronavirus.jhu.edu, and this is the current data on Thailand. Confirmed cases - 578,375; deaths - 4,679. So the case fatality rate and as we have discussed in other videos on this channel, this is different from the infection fatality rate. Case fatality rate pertains to confirmed cases and the IFR (the infection fatality rate) you may actually see the percentage of deaths actually drop drastically if we knew how many especially amongst asymptomatic folks, how many folks actually "had the disease" but we can't do that, we don't have perfect information. But even the case fatality rate which is arguably a higher number than the reality, that is still 0.8% of those who contracted COVID actually passed away from it. So in that context, again if you really look at that and if people sat down and thought about it for a moment, took a breath and said "wow 99.2% of people that get this survive this". To me, that truth has a lot more powerful effect against any hysteria regarding this than any censorship ever could. On top of that, I think this is noteworthy. Deaths per 100,000 which is the best methodology of comparing jurisdictions; deaths per 100,000 in Thailand is 6.72. Let's compare that to the United States which is at 186.76 deaths per 100,000. Now okay you could say "Well the US is a lot bigger, you can't really take that whole jurisdiction and compare it to Thailand," fair enough. But one jurisdiction in the West especially in the Commonwealth countries that is in my opinion pretty analogous to Thailand both population wise and landmass wise and everything, is the United Kingdom. Deaths per 100,000 in the United Kingdom is 194.33 again compared to Thailand, 6.72. So when you pull back a minute, in the grander scheme of things in my opinion is a cause for concern. Is the situation course for concern? Certainly, I never disputed that but the levels of frankly fear that this has engendered I think in many cases because there has been a lot of sensationalism that has been associated with this, I think it is out of proportion to the actual underlying threat and I think it is having in many ways a substantially detrimental impact on policy making and just on people's overall reaction, how society is operating here in Thailand presently and I think, for lack of a better term and I am not saying this to be sarcastic or snarky, but I think people need to get a grip, just take a deep breath and take a look at the numbers and understand yes it is a cause of concern but is it a reason to be crippled in fear? No I don't think so.

So I mean again, I know it sounds strange to say that these censorship notions may come from a good place but I do believe that. I think it is policymakers on a certain level trying to say "Hey, people are getting really overwrought about this and a lot of it is from the fact that there is a lot of hysteria being whipped up out there. We need to try and do something about it." Do I think that is the best methodology to deal with it? My opinion, No and in point of fact, especially with respect to this overall issue, I think the truth, again showing these actual numbers for what they are, to my mind it puts my mind more at ease every time I see the actual numbers and realize that yes it is a concern but it is not something that is way out of proportion with the risk that any of us face on any given day of our lives before or after quarter two of 2020.