Check It Out: We learn by asking questions

By Joan Janzen

There’s an old saying: “If you ask a question, it makes you look stupid for five minutes, but if you don’t ask - you stay stupid for 50 years”. Children can’t help but ask thousands of questions. It can be annoying, but it’s how they gain knowledge. But in today’s culture, questions are not welcome.

Why should we question what we’re being told? A good example from history occurred in 1937 when a cigarette company’s ad stated doctors claimed: “When smokers changed to Philip Morris, every case of irritation cleared completely and definitely improved.” However, they neglected to mention the company had financially sponsored the doctors.

Dr. Suneel Dhand is a physician in the States specializing in metabolic health and natural medicine who speaks on a social media platform. He noted, “We’ve completely fallen for this notion that there’s a pill for everything. New drugs are treating symptoms rather than curing the root cause.”

He compared treating symptoms to catching the water in a bucket from a leaking roof. Meanwhile, more and more water collects, putting pressure on the ceiling, causing it to eventually collapse. He said pharmaceutical companies deliberately design a product that can be taken as many times as possible, then they play on the risk reductions and wildly exaggerate the benefits. This is recorded in medical journals, which pharmaceutical companies are frequently sponsoring. Plus, the media is fully on board.

“That’s how the system works. That’s how these companies make billions and billions of dollars,” he concluded.

He observed that those who are brave enough to ask questions are often censored and accused of presenting misinformation. “Turn on the TV, and every other ad is a pharmaceutical product,” he said. “Lots of people on the top have sat on the board of major pharmaceutical companies ... there’s a conflict of interest. When you have an entity with that much power, they’re going to leverage that power for any dissent to be suppressed.”

Dr. Dhand asked, how all the mainstream media outlets all say exactly the same thing at exactly the same time? It’s a good question, and he suggested the answer may be that the western media is completely loyal to the people who are funding them.

Pharmaceutical companies have an enormous influence on government, spending hundreds of millions lobbying for regulations. Meanwhile, our government is headed on a pathway of censorship with the passing of Bill C-11. They also have Bill C-18, which would restrict access to news online, followed by online harms legislation whereby government would regulate “lawful but offensive content.” What they consider offensive is anything that disagrees with the information they are delivering.

Dr. Dhand said the first question doctors should ask patients who present their symptoms is ‘what are you eating’ because you are what you eat. “Inflammatory diseases, heart diseases, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases, are all soaring, all because of the terrible foods we’re consuming,” he explained. These cheap foods are produced by trillion dollar companies.

“We need to go back to what our great-grandparents used to eat,” he advised. “If you go back to eating real food, the transformation in both your physical and mental health is often unbelievable.”

He not only warns about the dangers of consuming ultra-processed foods, but asks how people can simply swallow what is told to them by the media on a daily basis. “And you better not ask any questions because that is not allowed,” he said.

But it’s healthy for society to ask questions. Why is there such a push to censor information? Why are people who ask questions threatened and censored? Unfortunately, we’ve reached a point where the establishment doesn’t want to be asked any challenging questions. And those who are brave enough to do so are labelled as spreaders of misinformation.

Dr. Dhand gave this admonition: “Stay wise, always stay awake and stay educated.” Because, just like children, we gain knowledge by asking questions.

Joan can be reached at joanjanzen@yahoo.com.