Tall tales about Tuskegee

rob · #1 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 06:58 PM

Tall Tales About Tuskegee
By Jonah Goldberg
Friday, May 2, 2008

“Based on this Tuskegee experiment ... I believe our government is capable of doing anything.”
So said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright when asked if he stood by his claim that “the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.”
The infamous Tuskegee experiment is the Medusa’s head of black left-wing paranoia. Whenever someone laments the fact that anywhere from 10 percent to 33 percent of African-Americans believe the U.S. government invented AIDS to kill blacks, someone will say, “That’s not so crazy when you consider what happened at Tuskegee.”
But it is crazy. And it’s dishonest.
Wright says the U.S. government “purposely infected African-American men with syphilis.” This is a lie, and no knowledgeable historian says otherwise. And yet, this untruth pops up routinely. In March, CNN commentator Roland Martin defended Wright, saying, “That actually did, indeed, happen.” On Fox News, the allegation has gone unchallenged on “Hannity & Colmes” and “The O’Reilly Factor.” Obery Hendricks, a prominent author and visiting scholar at Princeton University, told O’Reilly “I do know that the government injected syphilis into black men at the Tuskegee Institute. Now we know that the government is capable of doing those things.”
To which O’Reilly responded: “All right. All governments have done bad things in every country.”
True enough. And what the U.S. did at Tuskegee was indeed bad, very bad. But it didn’t do what these people say it did.
So what did happen? In 1932, public health researchers set out to study syphilis, particularly among African-Americans, who had higher infection rates than whites. They recruited 399 black men who already had syphilis. The doctors infected no one. In fact, the patients were selected in the first place because they were tertiary-stage syphilitics who were no longer contagious.
The researchers studied the progress of the disease, without treating it, for 40 years.
Prior to the availability of penicillin in the 1940s and 1950s, the researchers couldn’t have treated the men even if they wanted to. Even after standardized penicillin treatments were available, it wasn’t clear that the patients could have been helped. Some of the doctors believed that treating the decades-long infections would kill the men.
Among scholars who’ve studied Tuskegee, there’s a lot of debate about how much — if any — racism was involved in the experiment. But no one disputes that Tuskegee had nothing whatsoever to do with genocide or even a desire to spread the disease among the black population.
What was bad about the Tuskegee experiment was a callous disregard for the humanity and integrity of the patients. They were told they were getting “treatments” when they were merely being studied. They were lied to, treated as objects rather than citizens. This is even more offensive today, now that we have modern legal and ethical rules about informed consent — rules that did not exist when the study was launched. But it was still wrong.
But the idea that the Tuskegee experiment somehow validates the deranged, paranoid view that the U.S. government created AIDS to murder African-Americans — in one of the most hideously painful, drawn-out and expensive manners imaginable — is a riot of ridiculousness and a maelstrom of mendacity. And yet, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard guilt-ridden white liberals say exactly that. “Considering what we did at Tuskegee,” they opine, “who can blame them for being distrustful of government?”
Well, as a conservative, I have no problem with distrusting government, nor can I fault the descendants of slaves or the victims of Jim Crow for distrusting government more than most.
But why blacks remain the most reliable voters for the party of ever-expanding government power is something of a mystery. Indeed, it’s worth noting that the Tuskegee study, launched under the New Deal, was symptomatic of arrogant liberal government. The study “emerged out of a liberal progressive public health movement concerned about the health and well-being of the African-American population,” writes University of Chicago professor Richard Schweder. He adds: “The study was done with the full knowledge, endorsement and participation of African-American medical professionals, hospitals and research institutes.”
Liberals like to invoke Tuskegee as if it’s solely an indictment of what other people did, proof that we need more progressive government. But Tuskegee was in fact the poisoned fruit of progressive government.
A sick irony is that Jeremiah Wright’s lies, and liberal apologies for them, make it more difficult for government to do the job these people want it to do, starting with helping people with AIDS. But that’s only one of many reasons they should be ashamed.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online.

A. Crowley · #2 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 07:01 PM

Jonah Goldberg: Fascist at large.

This dude was cloned to make Republicants stupid.

Yall will be profoundly embarrassed by that fool.

rob · #3 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A. Crowley

Jonah Goldberg: Fascist at large.

This dude was cloned to make Republicants stupid.

Yall will be profoundly embarrassed by that fool.

Why not attack the subject and not the writer.

A. Crowley · #4 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 07:33 PM

The "writer" is a fraud.

Designed to make you Stupid.

pjwky · #5 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob

Tall Tales About Tuskegee
By Jonah Goldberg
Friday, May 2, 2008

“Based on this Tuskegee experiment ... I believe our government is capable of doing anything.”
So said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright when asked if he stood by his claim that “the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.”
The infamous Tuskegee experiment is the Medusa’s head of black left-wing paranoia. Whenever someone laments the fact that anywhere from 10 percent to 33 percent of African-Americans believe the U.S. government invented AIDS to kill blacks, someone will say, “That’s not so crazy when you consider what happened at Tuskegee.”
But it is crazy. And it’s dishonest.
Wright says the U.S. government “purposely infected African-American men with syphilis.” This is a lie, and no knowledgeable historian says otherwise. And yet, this untruth pops up routinely. In March, CNN commentator Roland Martin defended Wright, saying, “That actually did, indeed, happen.” On Fox News, the allegation has gone unchallenged on “Hannity & Colmes” and “The O’Reilly Factor.” Obery Hendricks, a prominent author and visiting scholar at Princeton University, told O’Reilly “I do know that the government injected syphilis into black men at the Tuskegee Institute. Now we know that the government is capable of doing those things.”
To which O’Reilly responded: “All right. All governments have done bad things in every country.”
True enough. And what the U.S. did at Tuskegee was indeed bad, very bad. But it didn’t do what these people say it did.
So what did happen? In 1932, public health researchers set out to study syphilis, particularly among African-Americans, who had higher infection rates than whites. They recruited 399 black men who already had syphilis. The doctors infected no one. In fact, the patients were selected in the first place because they were tertiary-stage syphilitics who were no longer contagious.
The researchers studied the progress of the disease, without treating it, for 40 years.
Prior to the availability of penicillin in the 1940s and 1950s, the researchers couldn’t have treated the men even if they wanted to. Even after standardized penicillin treatments were available, it wasn’t clear that the patients could have been helped. Some of the doctors believed that treating the decades-long infections would kill the men.
Among scholars who’ve studied Tuskegee, there’s a lot of debate about how much — if any — racism was involved in the experiment. But no one disputes that Tuskegee had nothing whatsoever to do with genocide or even a desire to spread the disease among the black population.
What was bad about the Tuskegee experiment was a callous disregard for the humanity and integrity of the patients. They were told they were getting “treatments” when they were merely being studied. They were lied to, treated as objects rather than citizens. This is even more offensive today, now that we have modern legal and ethical rules about informed consent — rules that did not exist when the study was launched. But it was still wrong.
But the idea that the Tuskegee experiment somehow validates the deranged, paranoid view that the U.S. government created AIDS to murder African-Americans — in one of the most hideously painful, drawn-out and expensive manners imaginable — is a riot of ridiculousness and a maelstrom of mendacity. And yet, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard guilt-ridden white liberals say exactly that. “Considering what we did at Tuskegee,” they opine, “who can blame them for being distrustful of government?”
Well, as a conservative, I have no problem with distrusting government, nor can I fault the descendants of slaves or the victims of Jim Crow for distrusting government more than most.
But why blacks remain the most reliable voters for the party of ever-expanding government power is something of a mystery. Indeed, it’s worth noting that the Tuskegee study, launched under the New Deal, was symptomatic of arrogant liberal government. The study “emerged out of a liberal progressive public health movement concerned about the health and well-being of the African-American population,” writes University of Chicago professor Richard Schweder. He adds: “The study was done with the full knowledge, endorsement and participation of African-American medical professionals, hospitals and research institutes.”
Liberals like to invoke Tuskegee as if it’s solely an indictment of what other people did, proof that we need more progressive government. But Tuskegee was in fact the poisoned fruit of progressive government.
A sick irony is that Jeremiah Wright’s lies, and liberal apologies for them, make it more difficult for government to do the job these people want it to do, starting with helping people with AIDS. But that’s only one of many reasons they should be ashamed.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online.

************************************************** *
"rob", thanks for this post: it is accurate & truthfull and that speaks volums: and while with today's knowledge the Tuskegee event was illconceived & wrong, and no reasonable person could say other wise; it is still important to understand this within its context and remember that in that day syphilis nor penicillin was at all clearly understood.

However, on occasion the Federal Government has committed some "medical atrocities": on one occasion in the early 50s an influenza virus was deliberately sprayed from a destroyer in San Francisco Bay, in order to test the rate of infectious spread: it was thought to cause moderate illness only, however as it turned out, it was lethal to some of the elderly & infants that became infected.

On another occasion, the complete event still unclear do to security reasons, toxic gas was leaked causing death to livestock & some humans.

As the Founders maintained, the Executive branch of the government can too easily go astray, and it would be prudent for "we the people" to demand a courageous & watchfull Congress: unfortunately we have a long way to go on that score. .....pjwky

GoDuke · #6 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 08:06 PM

AHOLECrowley is an indiot. He never discusses the post. He is incable of providing an opinion on a subject. He has no thoughts of his own and only cuts and pastes or attaches links.

Everyone beleives you are a joke AHOLE. Has anyone ever seen him post an opinion regarding a thread that required thought. ANy one of his over 6500 posts??

HE is a WANKER!!

Come on ahole, give it a try!!

A. Crowley · #7 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 08:10 PM

Jonah Goldberg is a fraud.

This is my opinion.

I could not care less about the Tusky airmen...

Jonah Goldberg is a fraud.

GoDuke · #8 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 08:15 PM

Ahole again nice try. But now try using some though and provide an answer to why you feel this way. If you could care less about the Tusky airmen then why even post a reply. Just to add posts tpo your 6602 since Feb 2008. What a waste of time you are.

I ask again. Has anyone ever seen a post from Ahole that showed he put some thought to it? Anyone??? After that many posts you would think that someone would have read one.

Ahole perhaps you can creat another handle and try to support yourself becasue it seems no one else does. Maybe ask your mommy to log on to say what a good boy you are.

Wanker

A. Crowley · #9 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 08:18 PM

Tell us all about the Tusky Airmen, fool.

GoDuke · #10 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 08:21 PM

ANswer the question if you could care less about them why post a reply AHOLE!! Comeone you can do it!! I beleive in ya (I meen I beleive you are a wanker!!)

Answer the question!!

I am also waiting to see if anyone beleives you have ever posted a meaningful post.