Mass media

"The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." Zbigniew Brzezinski

"In just two sentences, Orwell reveals the institutional structure of the media. He asks: Why is there such censorship? It is partly because the press is owned by wealthy people who want only certain topics to reach the public. And secondly, Orwell says, everyone who goes through the elite education system, attending the "right" schools, learns that there are certain things you must not say and certain thoughts you must not think. This is the role elite institutions play in socialization. Those who do not conform are usually expelled. These two sentences basically say it all." George Orwell

"All of these vaccines have conditional approval. During this conditional approval, we are gathering experience for the first time regarding the question: What happens when this vaccine is applied to millions of people?" Angela Merkel

"Most patients probably assume that when a doctor proposes to use an established treatment to conquer a disease he will be using a treatment which has been tested, examined and proven. But this is not the case. The savage truth is that most medical research is organised, paid for, commissioned or subsidised by the drug industry (and the food, tobacco and alcohol industries). This type of research is designed, quite simply, to find evidence showing a new product is of commercial value. The companies which commission such research are not terribly bothered about evidence; what they are looking for are conclusions which will enable them to sell their product. Drug company sponsored research is done more to get good reviews than to find out the truth." Dr. Vernon Coleman

"Today's political class in Germany is characterized by an excess of careerism and self-importance, and by an excessive desire to appear on talk shows." Helmut Schmidt

"Politicians and journalists. These are both categories of people to be approached with the utmost caution: for both range from near-statesmen to near-criminals. And the average remains average." Helmut Schmidt

"I have also developed acting skills over the course of my life, and sometimes with little knowledge, I still put on quite a show." Helmut Schmidt

"Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking…" Leo Tolstoi

"Dismissing ideas that you dislike isn’t critical thinking. It’s confirmation bias. Critical thinking is approaching new information with a mix of curiosity and doubt. It starts with gauging the credibility of the source, the rigor of the logic, and the validity of the evidence." Adam Grant

"Too many people today allow themselves such freedom to ask things and condemn a person. Whatever you answer: ‘Yes, I didn't, maybe, I don't know, I'm thinking,’ they will abuse it. The media has become, I have no word how to describe it. It spreads fear and panic among people, and I don’t want to participate in that rift. I feel that everyone is hostile. I don’t want to give them a reason to write some things about me. Now what I told you, one of your editors can take and make a scandal out of it. I don't want to take part in any storm that is happening right now." Novak Djokovic

"When all think alike, then no one is thinking." Walter Lippmann

"Though it is disguised by the illusion that a bureaucracy accountable to a majority of voters, and susceptible to the pressure of organized minorities, is not exercising compulsion, it is evident that the more varied and comprehensive the regulation becomes, the more the state becomes a despotic power as against the individual. For the fragment of control over the government which he exercises through his vote is in no effective sense proportionate to the authority exercised over him by the government." Walter Lippmann

"We are dealing with a problem in which deception has become organized and powerful; where truth is poisoned at its source; where the skills of the cleverest minds are used to mislead a bewildered people." Walter Lippmann

"Despite the tendency of doctors to call modern medicine an ‚inexact science‘, it is more accurate to say there is practically no science in modern medicine at all. Almost everything doctors do is based on a conjecture, a guess, a clinical impression, a whim, a hope, a wish, an opinion or a belief. In short, everything they do is based on anything but solid scientific evidence. Thus, medicine is not a science at all, but a belief system. Beliefs are held by every religion, including the Religion of Modern Medicine." Dr. Robert Mendelsohn