A conversation with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, author of “The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State.”
In a recent
episode of American Thought Leaders, host Jan Jekielek and Dr. Aaron Kheriaty discuss the origins of totalitarianism, censorship, and antidotes to tyranny. Dr. Kheriaty is a former professor at the University of California, Irvine, and former director of the medical ethics program at UCI Health. The author of “The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State,” he is now director of the Program in Bioethics and American Democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is also a plaintiff in the Missouri v. Biden free speech case.
Jan Jekielek: You’ve said that totalitarianism begins by monopolizing what passes for rationality and knowledge.
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty: When people hear totalitarian, they think of secret police, concentration camps, or mass surveillance, but a totalitarian system starts with an ideology that monopolizes what counts as rationality and knowledge.
If you ask an inconvenient question, the Marxist or Nazi ideologues say, “You’re not part of the enlightened elites that understand the direction of history. I’m not going to debate you; I’m going to exclude you from public conversation.”
Trends in Western countries today mirror that starting point of totalitarian systems, and once people realize they’re not allowed to ask questions, they internalize those prohibitions. In the end, you don’t need concentration camps anymore. Citizens become the Gestapo or the KGB. They start silencing those who raise inconvenient questions. You’re in a prison with invisible bars without even realizing it.
Mr. Jekielek: In a recent interview, Jordan Peterson says the totalitarian system is ruled by the lie, which is a fascinating and apt formulation.
Dr. Kheriaty: Yes, the totalitarian regime is ruled by the lie. And if totalitarian society is ruled and sustained by the lie, then the only thing that can bring it down is the truth.
When Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II in 1978, the Soviet regime was terrified. They knew he was going to return to Poland, which he did shortly after his election. And the first thing he said to the Polish people was, “Be not afraid.” Using religious truths taken from the gospels, he spoke about what it means to be a human person, rational, free, oriented toward love, and fulfilled by communion with other. He never directly criticized the regime, but everyone knew what he was doing, and there was panic in Moscow.
Mr. Jekielek: You had no intention of becoming a lightning rod. You were at the University of California, Irvine in charge of the medical ethics department. You lost your job because you took a stand. Today you’re one of the private plaintiffs in the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit. Where are things at with this lawsuit?
Dr. Kheriaty: Government-sponsored censorship and censorship by powerful private entities like social media companies are happening right now. You get to the point where you build a system capable of sustaining lies and ideology that’s can obstruct anyone questioning that ideology. It then becomes impossible for people to find sources of information and dissenting opinions.
In this major ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court, which was reviewing the injunction that the district court had placed against the government, the court told the government, “You have to stop coercing or significantly encouraging social media companies to censor content protected by the First Amendment.”
The government appealed that decision to the Fifth Circuit Appellate Court, and the three judge panel in the Fifth Circuit upheld the injunction against the government. They ruled that the White House, the Surgeon General, the CDC, and the FBI were clearly in violation of First Amendment rights when they pressured social media companies. So even before the case goes to trial, plaintiffs have presented enough evidence that those four agencies were violating the First Amendment and that they needed to stop.
Mr. Jekielek: You’re a private plaintiff in this Missouri v. Biden case. What does that mean to you personally?
Dr. Kheriaty: It means a lot, because I was censored for information that turned out to be true, and I’ve now been vindicated. The information is widely accepted and endorsed by the CDC and other public health agencies.
Mr. Jekielek: Which information is that?
Dr. Kheriaty: I was censored for concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, now proven to be legitimate and supported by plenty of research. I was censored for my ethical opinions on vaccine mandates. I had the expertise to speak on the ethics of mandates, but they were censoring arguments about ethics and public policy along with scientific information.
We recently petitioned the court to convert this to a class action lawsuit, which means the five of us private plaintiffs are now not just representing ourselves. We’re representing all Americans censored under this regime.
In the Missouri v. Biden case, the private plaintiffs were initially focused on COVID censorship because that’s what we were censored on. But what we’ve uncovered on discovery is that more federal agencies are involved in this censorship machinery than we thought. The range of issues goes far beyond dissidents challenging COVID policies, from foreign policy to the Ukraine War to monetary policy.
Mr. Jekielek: We are currently seeing a campaign similar to the beginning of COVID about the need for a mask mandate. A number of institutions actually put in the mask mandate, and a few days later dropped it. What are you seeing right now?
Dr. Kheriaty: It’s not enough to say you’re not going to comply. You actually have to not comply. When you’re told to wear a mask, just simply and flatly refuse.
Mr. Jekielek: It’s all about the small gesture.
Dr. Kheriaty: The small gesture matters. If it’s just one dissident here and there, they can fire them or silence them. But if it becomes five to 10 percent of the population, then it’s game over, and these kinds of authoritarian measures will disappear almost immediately.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
