I think your early analysis is accurate, but connecting this to ‘reliable information sources about COVID’ is completely off the mark. I don’t know how to explain properly why I think this is so completely wrong—or at least, not without delving into a few-month sequence based on the material of https://samzdat.com. The 1-minute version goes something like:
There are many possible steps that all need to go right before appropriate collective action is taken to combat a national or global threat. This is especially true if we have shared responsibility, and even more so if the most promising countermeasures involve social changes (i.e. changes in the daily lives of a significant portion of the population). One of these steps is ‘having access to proper information about the virus’. A few others are ‘having access to rallying points for collective social action’, ‘willingness to make these social changes, instead of accepting the loss in life and health, in the first place’, and I’m sure there are many others. I am not at all convinced that knowledge about the virus is the bottleneck in this process (in fact, I think it is the easiest step of them all). In my opinion the gap between not having accurate information and having accurate information is much much smaller than the gap between having accurate information and collectively acting on it.
Lastly, I think blaming lack of social action on lack of knowledge is a common mistake (maybe even politically motivated tool), and I thank Lou Keep linked above for their wonderful explanation of this point.
I think your early analysis is accurate, but connecting this to ‘reliable information sources about COVID’ is completely off the mark. I don’t know how to explain properly why I think this is so completely wrong—or at least, not without delving into a few-month sequence based on the material of https://samzdat.com. The 1-minute version goes something like:
There are many possible steps that all need to go right before appropriate collective action is taken to combat a national or global threat. This is especially true if we have shared responsibility, and even more so if the most promising countermeasures involve social changes (i.e. changes in the daily lives of a significant portion of the population). One of these steps is ‘having access to proper information about the virus’. A few others are ‘having access to rallying points for collective social action’, ‘willingness to make these social changes, instead of accepting the loss in life and health, in the first place’, and I’m sure there are many others. I am not at all convinced that knowledge about the virus is the bottleneck in this process (in fact, I think it is the easiest step of them all). In my opinion the gap between not having accurate information and having accurate information is much much smaller than the gap between having accurate information and collectively acting on it.
Lastly, I think blaming lack of social action on lack of knowledge is a common mistake (maybe even politically motivated tool), and I thank Lou Keep linked above for their wonderful explanation of this point.