Dr. Fauci warns about ‘the normalization of untruths’ in Princeton address

Dr. Anthony Fauci is on a mission of warning graduating students about misinformation and he continued the theme this week as he urged the graduating class at Princeton University to reject the “normalization of untruths.”

The chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden who has spent more than three decades as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases claimed the nation has fallen victim to the “egregious distortions of reality” as he delivered another commencement speech lacking any self-awareness.

“What troubles me is that differences of opinion or ideology have in certain situations been reflected by egregious distortions of reality,” Fauci said Monday during Princeton University’s 2022 commencement address.

“Sadly, elements of our society have grown increasingly inured to a cacophony of falsehoods and lies that often stand largely unchallenged, ominously leading to an insidious acceptance of what I call the ‘normalization of untruths,” he said.

“We see this happen daily with falsehoods propagated through a range of information platforms by a spectrum of people, including, sad to say, certain elected officials in positions of power,” Fauci continued.


(Video: Princeton University/YouTube)

The 81-year-old immunologist who became the face of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic appealed to the graduates to not “tacitly” accept lies but push back against the threat to society posed by unchallenged “untruths.”

“If you take away nothing else from what I say today, I appeal to you, please remember this: It is our collective responsibility not to shrug our shoulders and sink to a tacit acceptance of the normalization of untruths,” he said.

“Because if we do, lies become dominant and reality is distorted, and then truth means nothing, integrity means nothing, and facts mean nothing. This is how a society deteriorates into a way of life where veracity becomes subservient to propaganda, rather than being upheld as our guiding principle,” Fauci continued.

He went on to tell the students that “COVID left an indelible mark on you and your entire generation.” He urged them to forge ahead and live their lives in a fulfilling way.

Fauci echoed the same sentiments last week during a commencement speech he gave remotely to Roger Williams University on Friday, warning about “divisiveness” and cautioning graduates to “reject the politicization of science.”

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, I have experienced firsthand something that has troubled and saddened me — a deepened divisiveness in our nation,” he said, according to Yahoo News.

“Unfortunately, differences of opinion or ideology are sometimes propped up by deliberate distortions of reality to the point of fabrications, conspiracy theories, and outright lies,” Fauci added.“Segments of our society have grown increasingly inured to such falsehoods yet the outrage and descent against that alarming trend has been relatively muted and mild.”

He urged students to “reject the politicization of science that denigrates evidence and facts.”

“Our country will not prosper if we let indifference to these transgressions enable moral ambiguity,” he said.

One day before the speech on Friday, Fauci also gave a commencement speech at the University of Maryland, Baltimore where he told graduates to be aware of “inequities” in society.

He contended that the pandemic affected certain communities more than others and said that was the result of “standing inequities that have undermined the physical, social, economic and emotional health of racial and ethnic minorities.”

“Let us promise ourselves that our corporate memory of the tragic reality of the inequities experienced with Covid-19 does not fade as we return to our normal, new life. It will take decades-long commitment for society to address these disparities. I strongly urge you to be part of that commitment.”

Social media reactions to Fauci’s latest speech at Princeton agreed that the president’s chief medical advisor suffers from an “absolute lack of self-awareness.”

Frieda Powers

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