[Hodar]

There can be no debate allowed

This is why we have the Ministry of Truth - someone, not sure who, appointed them to silence anything that differs from the facts that they claim are accurate

I nominate them to be on the highest tier of wind chimes put on public display; so the birds can feast without being disturbed

[Captain Walker]

One of the accusations against the Bush Administration after the 2003 Iraq war was that its failures were due to groupthink; the only welcome voices in the discussions about the planned invasion were those who shared the opinions of the administration with regard to WMDs, the welcome the American troops would receive, and the ease in introducing democracy in a former Middle East dictatorship. (Because contrary opinions were simply not welcome, the administration was caught off guard when the post-invasion situation on the ground turned for the worst, simply because nobody had prepared it for a different story than it came to believe.)

But what we are seeing here is far beyond groupthink, although I suspect that the same people pointing the finger at Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et alia for their efforts in shutting down dissent some twenty years ago don't see the similarities in the behavior of today's shot proponents. And if or when the effects of this shot turn out for the worst, the powers to be that promoted it are going to be damned in the court of public opinion for the efforts they engaged in to promote it and to shut down any opinion that raised even the smallest question about its actual effects.