It’s Really Not Just Us

TNC readers may remember that I sometimes write about Greece, specifically the island of Crete. Recently, I’ve signed up for a free daily newsfeed from something called ‘Greek Reporter’ (http://www.greekreporter.com) and enjoy scrolling through the half dozen or more Hellenic-focused articles – maybe reading one or two that catch my interest.

I was intrigued – once I’d stopped laughing – by this one with its sage (and not remotely dubious) insights into Greek ‘public health’. It was based on a massive online survey of over 400 adult respondents!

The Greeks* went full-on COVID-insane and banned unvaxxed foreigners like me from flying in – or even from infecting their beaches, where masks still had to be worn regardless of vax status anyway. Go figure. It’s still a common sight to see elderly Greeks wearing their white ‘monkey masks’ – far more pointed in front than our good old (and highly effective) blue British face rags.

*But not all; I know ‘anti-vaxxers’ there who were fined for not partaking of the wonderful COVID vaxxes – though this being Greece, the fines were never actually collected.

Greek Reporter reports four amazing facts from this survey (I paraphrase):

1. Those with poor dietary habits are (more) susceptible to fake news and make poor dietary choices (don’t ask why). 
2. Acceptance of misinformation is linked to increased psychological distress and higher levels of anxiety and hostility. 
3. There is a marked decline in trust towards official scientific and healthcare institutions (an erosion of trust, no less). 
4. Those who don’t (100%) go along with what the authorities tell them have skewed risk perception – and often overestimate non-scientific risks while ignoring evidence-based health threats.

Let’s consider these sterling research findings with an open mind (but as we’re ‘far-right’ rebels, we’re probably ourselves guilty of accepting misinformation as truth – just like some naughty Greeks):

1. The Greeks eat traditionally well-prepared meals made only of in-season, local (often organic) produce. ‘Fast food’ is the overpriced ‘Greek’ crap served up to gullible tourists in bogus tavernas with touts outside. Fashionable youngsters do swarm to McDonald’s in cities for very late-night meals, eschewing their own Yaya’s delicious moussaka and pastitsio – but only those with the latest fashions and plenty of money. No Greek, no matter how poor, makes ‘poor dietary choices’; they all eat like kings compared to their UK equivalents. Real tavernas do often have a delivery service: waiters on motor scooters deliver (never illegals on electric bikes), but the fare is exactly the same quality food served in the taverna – just in a foil container with a couple of napkins, plastic cutlery, lemon wedges and bread (bread of a quality, btw, that you’d only get in a deli in the UK). Finding 1 is therefore patently fake news.
2. Belief in misinformation (or lies, as it used to be called) – or even conspiracy theories – may well lead to the disadvantages cited. BUT surely acceptance of the official ‘science’ pronouncements on ‘climate emergency’, the extreme dangers of benign carbon dioxide, and the likelihood of suffering a nasty death during a ‘pandemic’ unless vaxxed and following all the rules are just as likely – if not more so – to have exactly the same disadvantages to mental well-being? Perhaps the key word here is hostility: being a follower and not an independent thinker could lead to such a response in the paranoid views of the authorities – but then again, self-righteous Extinction Rebellion types make a mockery of this. Finding 2 is therefore also fake news.
3. Is it surprising that there is an erosion of trust in official scientific and healthcare institutions? I don’t think I need say more. Finding 3 is true – but seems to come as a surprise, or more likely a threat, to those august pillars of society themselves.
4. What is a non-scientific risk? What is an evidence-based health threat? Could it be that both these things are essentially summed up in the findings of this survey as ‘believe what you’re told by your betters, it’s for your own good’ and ‘do as I say, not as I do’? I think we know the answer – and have already worked out for ourselves that it requires a skewed risk perception to leave all the thinking to others: some of whom claim to be ‘experts’, or are just ambitious politicians or, worse still, know-it-all celebrities. Finding 4 is, surprise surprise, also fake news.

Isn’t it interesting, though, that the findings of this Greek survey would undoubtedly be mirrored almost exactly in every country that also promotes ‘the latest thing’? Take heart that the current madness isn’t just a British vice – but at least the Greeks aren’t subjected to the inane ramblings of Monarchy, having a widespread mild contempt for their former (foreign) Royal Family. And yes, surprisingly, tourists do flock to Greece and her islands despite it being a Republic now for over half a century – and yet far too many Brits still unquestioningly buy into the fallacy that without our Monarchy, overseas visitors (not the unwelcome rubber-boat type, unfortunately) would simply not come here anymore.

Martin Rispin has had a career in many different sectors, most lately in the fields of English Tourism and Heritage based Urban Regeneration. He now lives, retired, in Kingston upon Hull.

If you enjoy The New Conservative and would like to support our work, please consider buying us a coffee or sharing this piece with your friends – it would really help to keep us going. Thank you!

Please follow and like us: