Disarming the Struggle AgaiAIDS: Anti-Science Obscurantism, Conpsiracy Theories

[Leo Casey]

> i think AIDS is bogus science. i had been
> suspicious about the AIDS paradigm 
> since the late 80's, when as a student at
> Berkeley, i saw the bodies of 
> several very healthy aquaintences, only one gay,
> crumble at an alarming 
> rate after they tested "positive", freaked out,
> then went on AZT. my mother 
> bequeathed me a very healthy skeptecism about all
> drugs and a basic 
> distrust of the medical establishment so i checked
> up on AZT. i should not 
> have been but, in fact, was astonished to find out
> how extraordinarily 
> toxic AZT is. later on, i was shocked to find out
> the very large number of 
> very reputable doctors and scientist who dissented
> significantly...

I have no difficulty sitting by quietly during
discussions of the metaphysics of whiteness, precisely
because it is so clear that such discourse has no 
impact on the real world politics of the anti-racist
struggle. But this shit just makes me crazy, I have to
admit, because there are people who listen to this
anti-science obscurantism and conspiracy theory
explanations of HIV and AIDS, and do real harm to
themselves, eschewing medical regimens which could, at
the very least, prolong their life and dramatically
improve the quality of their life. And if that wasn't
bad enough, we now have Mbeki bringing the entire ANC
government in South Africa into serious disrepute with
this pseudo-progressive mindlessness. It's time to
bring Bebel's apt phrase back, and talk about "the
socialism of fools."

It is entirely right for people with HIV/AIDS and
HIV/AIDS activists to refuse to be passive,
non-decision making bystanders in their individual
medical care and in the general medical fight against
the disease, to demand that they be active partners in
this process. There is a world of difference between
that posture, one of empowerment, and rejecting
medical science and knowledge, head and body, one of
choosing ignorance, in the struggle against this
disease. There is an overwhelming consensus within the
professional medical community that HIV is the
causative agent of AIDS, and that it must be
controlled -- and hopefully, one day, eliminated --
for the disease to be stopped. To deny this is to
promote a deadly ignorance.

Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate
agitation are men who want crops without plowing the
ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its
waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --

 

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