Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
The AIDS Conspiracy - Science Fights Back - cover

We are sorry! The publisher (or author) gave us the instruction to take down this book from our catalog. But please don't worry, you still have more than 500,000 other books you can enjoy!

The AIDS Conspiracy - Science Fights Back

Nicoli Nattrass

Publisher: Columbia University Press

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, many bizarre and dangerous hypotheses have been advanced to explain the origins of the disease. In this compelling book, Nicoli Nattrass explores the social and political factors prolonging the erroneous belief that the American government manufactured the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to be used as a biological weapon, as well as the myth's consequences for behavior, especially within African American and black South African communities.Contemporary AIDS denialism, the belief that HIV is harmless and that antiretroviral drugs are the true cause of AIDS, is a more insidious AIDS conspiracy theory. Advocates of this position make a "conspiratorial move" against HIV science by implying its methods cannot be trusted and that untested, alternative therapies are safer than antiretrovirals. These claims are genuinely life-threatening, as tragically demonstrated in South Africa when the delay of antiretroviral treatment resulted in nearly 333,000 AIDS deaths and 180,000 HIV infections—a tragedy of stunning proportions.Nattrass identifies four symbolically powerful figures ensuring the lifespan of AIDS denialism: the hero scientist (dissident scientists who lend credibility to the movement); the cultropreneur (alternative therapists who exploit the conspiratorial move as a marketing mechanism); the living icon (individuals who claim to be living proof of AIDS denialism's legitimacy); and the praise-singer (journalists who broadcast movement messages to the public). Nattrass also describes how pro-science activists have fought back by deploying empirical evidence and political credibility to resist AIDS conspiracy theories, which is part of the crucial project to defend evidence-based medicine.
Available since: 02/21/2012.

Other books that might interest you

  • A Nation Again - Why Independence will be Good for Scotland (and England too) - cover

    A Nation Again - Why...

    Paul Henderson Scott

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    As the Scottish people prepare for their biggest ever collective decision with a proposed referendum near at hand, The Independence Book forcefully sets out the Case for Independence. The Imperative of Independence is demonstrated by varied distinguished authors, including contributions from Neil Kay, Tom Nairn and Betty Davies. Each author tackles the subject in a different way - personal, political, historical or academic - but the key denominator is clear: Independence Must Come. BACK COVER: If you believe in the Case for Independence, this book will provide you with a stirring endorsement of your view. If you are sceptical, it might well persuade you to convert to the cause. If you are downright hostile, this book could be dangeroud - it could prompt you to rethink. Suddenly Scottish Independence is within grasp. Is this a frivolous pipedream, a romantic illusion? Or is it, as the writers of this dynamic and positive collection of essays insist, an authentic political option, feasible and beneficial? As the Scottish people prepare for their biggest ever collective decision, this book forcefully sets out the Case for Independence. The distinguished authors, from a variety of different perspectives, argue the acase for the Imperative of Independence. The case is made in various styles - personal, political, academic, historical, philosophical. But the key denominator is clear - Independence Must Come: it will be good for Scotland (and England too).REVIEWS: If anyone were to ask me if there's a handy wee book which effectively argues the case for Scottish independence and, just as importantly, counters the main Unionist objections, then this is the book I'd recommend. It does what it says on the tin.
    Show book
  • Love Your Enemies - How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt - cover

    Love Your Enemies - How Decent...

    Arthur C. Brooks

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    To get ahead today, you have to be a jerk, right? 
    Divisive politicians. Screaming heads on television. Angry campus activists. Twitter trolls. Today in America, there is an “outrage industrial complex” that prospers by setting American against American. 
    Meanwhile, one in six Americans have stopped talking to close friends and family members over politics. Millions are organizing their social lives and curating their news and information to avoid hearing viewpoints differing from their own. Ideological polarization is at higher levels than at any time since the Civil War. 
    America has developed a “culture of contempt”—a habit of seeing people who disagree with us not as merely incorrect or misguided, but as worthless. Maybe you dislike it—more than nine out of ten Americans say they are tired of how divided we have become as a country. But hey, either you play along, or you’ll be left behind, right? 
    Wrong.  
    In Love Your Enemies, New York Times bestselling author and social scientist Arthur C. Brooks shows that treating others with contempt and out-outraging the other side is not a formula for lasting success. Blending cutting-edge behavioral research, ancient wisdom, and a decade of experience leading one of America’s top policy think tanks, Love Your Enemies offers a new way to lead based not on attacking others, but on bridging national divides and mending personal relationships. 
    Brooks’ prescriptions are unconventional. To bring America together, he argues, we shouldn’t try to agree more. There is no need for mushy moderation, because disagreement is the secret to excellence. Civility and tolerance shouldn’t be our goals, because they are hopelessly low standards. And our feelings toward our foes are irrelevant; what matters is how we choose to act. 
    Love Your Enemies is not just a guide to being a better person. It offers a clear strategy for victory for a new generation of leaders. It is a rallying cry for people hoping for a new era of American progress. And most of all, it is a roadmap to arrive at the happiness that comes when we choose to love one another, despite our differences.
    Show book
  • Geopolitical Imagination - Ideology and Utopia in Post-Soviet Russia - cover

    Geopolitical Imagination -...

    Mikhail Suslov

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    This timely book surveys key themes and tendencies in the development of conservative ideology in Russia. Mikhail Suslov argues that Russia’s historical experience of Westernization and the geopolitical struggle for recognition led her conservatism towards critical reflection about Russia’s cultural authenticity and its place in the world. As a result, unlike canonical ‘Western’ versions of conservatism, the Russian one was not only a response to liberal and revolutionary ideas and practice, but also an opposition to the worldview of the ‘Westernizers’. 
    
    In today’s Russia, Putinism is making cautious attempts to lean upon some forms of ideological legitimation associated with ‘traditional values’ discourses. In this context, the ruling party ‘United Russia’ proclaimed conservatism its ideology in 2009. The Russian version of conservatism substantiates the anti-Westernism of Russia’s official line, but as an ideology, its nature is too paradoxical to become a long-term ally of the regime. Suslov analyzes these paradoxes and dilemmas by the examples of late-imperial neo-Slavophilism, émigré conservatism, underground right-wing dissident movement, and post-Soviet conservative streaks of thought.
    Show book
  • Harry's Last Stand - How the world my generation built is falling down and what we can do to save it - cover

    Harry's Last Stand - How the...

    Harry Leslie Smith

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    'A kind of epic poem, one that moves in circular fashion from passionate denunciation to intense autobiographical reflection ... should be required reading for every MP, peer, councillor, civil servant and commentator. The fury and sense of powerlessness that so many people feel at government policy beam out of every page.' The Guardian
    'It is not enough to read Harry's record of the struggles and hopes of a generation – we have to re-assert his principles of common ownership and the welfare state. If Harry can do it, we should too!' Ken Loach, Director of I, Daniel Blake
    
    'As one of the last remaining survivors of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I will not go gently into that good night. I want to tell you what the world looks like through my eyes, so that you can help change it…'
    
     
    
    In November 2013, 91-year-old Yorkshireman, RAF veteran and ex-carpet salesman Harry Leslie Smith's Guardian article – 'This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time' – was shared over 80,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate about the state of society.
    
    Now he brings his unique perspective to bear on NHS cutbacks, benefits policy, political corruption, food poverty, the cost of education – and much more. 
    
    From the deprivation of 1930s Barnsley and the terror of war to the creation of our welfare state, Harry has experienced how a great civilisation can rise from the rubble. But at the end of his life, he fears how easily it is being eroded.
    
     
    Harry's Last Stand is a lyrical, searing modern invective that shows what the past can teach us, and how the future is ours for the taking.
    'Smith's unwavering will to turn things around makes for inspirational reading.' Big Issue North
    '[With] sheer emotional power ... Harry Leslie Smith reminds us what society without good public services actually looks and feels like.' New Statesman
    Show book
  • The Prince - cover

    The Prince

    Niccolò Machiavelli

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513. He was the Italian diplomat and political theorist. This treatise is Machiavelli’s advice to the current ruler of Florence on how to stay in power; the book is dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici. The treatise makes a clear break from the Western tradition of political philosophy that preceded him. Before Machiavelli, politics was strictly bonded with ethics and politics being defined as the morality of individuals in social groups or organized communities. He tries to divorce politics from ethics and make a framework for the study of politics.He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy or political science. Most philosophers before him had defined a good leader as humble, moral and honest. But Machiavelli denied that notion. He believed cruelty can be better than kindness. He said: “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot have both.”This version of the book is translated by Mahmood Mahmood to Persian (Farsi) and narrated by Saeid Eslam Zadeh. The Persian version of The Prince’s audiobook is published by Maktub worldwide.
    Show book
  • The Triumph of Injustice - How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay - cover

    The Triumph of Injustice - How...

    Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    America's runaway inequality has an engine: our unjust tax system.Even as they became fabulously wealthy, the ultra-rich have seen their taxes collapse to levels last seen in the 1920s. Meanwhile, working-class Americans have been asked to pay more. The Triumph of Injustice presents a forensic investigation into this dramatic transformation, written by two economists who revolutionized the study of inequality. Eschewing anecdotes and case studies, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer a comprehensive view of America's tax system, based on new statistics covering all taxes paid at all levels of government. Their conclusion? For the first time in more than a century, billionaires now pay lower tax rates than their secretaries.Blending history and cutting-edge economic analysis, and writing in lively and jargon-free prose, Saez and Zucman dissect the deliberate choices (and sins of indecision) that have brought us to today: the gradual exemption of capital owners; the surge of a new tax avoidance industry; and the spiral of tax competition among nations. With clarity and concision, they explain how America turned away from the most progressive tax system in history to embrace policies that only serve to compound the wealth of a few.
    Show book