We are glad to present our readers with the first stage of the Multimedia Portal systems, made possible by the generous donations of readers. While development of some of the Multimedia program is open-ended, most of it will be introduced over the next several months in stages, as follows.
The first portals to be activated are those you see now – the News portal, the Columnists portal and the Archive portal. In News you can find the written commentaries that FORCES has brought you for years: our take on the distortions, contradictions, hysteria and the sometimes amusing absurdities of the healthist doctrine that is spreading throughout the world.
The Columnists portal is home to personal takes and indepth exploration of specific issues by our opinion columnists. Some of them have been contributors for years, others are newcomers that we take this opportunity to welcome; there are plans to bring more on board soon. All the older columnist pieces have been already entered in our databases for your perusal, thanks to the tireless help of a cohort of volunteers from all over the world.
In the Archive portal we have many thousands of articles (and the commentary on them) that we have accumulated for years. These pieces, entered into the new system by our volunteers, testify to the unconditional commitment of FORCES to the cause of truth and liberty during the last decade, and the growth of our organization and its scope. All articles and sections are made searchable thanks to powerful, “intelligent” search engines. The Archives are an excellent tool and library for research of all kinds.
Our new Forum section (The Tavern) has been completely restructured. Some new features — such as peer-to-peer live chat and private chat rooms – have been added. Although moderated, the Tavern allows freedom of speech and opinion. Our ambition for the Tavern is that it becomes a truly free forum and a furnace of new ideas – in short, a welcoming and comfortable antismoking-free place, where everyone on the side of liberty and self-determination is welcome regardless of his or her point of view on how to preserve and expand personal liberty and choice. Please participate in it, populate it – and feel free to make suggestions on how to improve it. This is YOUR forum, and we will be there to welcome you to it.
Much, much more is to come in the next few months.
The actual Multimedia portal, for example, is next in line. It is scheduled to start between the 15th and the 30th of September. In it, you will hear and see news from our correspondents from all over the world, who will bring you their takes on different issues in different countries, in a truly multicultural aggregation and interaction of views: antitobacco and healthism are global problems, and have to be fought and approached with a global approach. Yet although smoking bans and prohibitions are not local issues, they do affect people locally. FORCES will focus on both global and local perspectives.
The Scientific Evidence portal should become operational around the middle of October. In it, you will find links to all the studies on Environmental Tobacco Smoke, as well as a huge number of studies on active smoking, the economic impact of smoking bans, ethics, ventilation, the undemonstrable mortality figures about smoking, long-suppressed “paradox” studies (showing, for example, that the smoking lifestyle causes less use of public health facilities), the remarkable benefits of smoking that no one dares talk about and much, much more. All will be indexed with powerful search engines to make information easy to find. Consistently with our convictions, we will not tell you what to think – we show you the actual evidence so that you can judge and decide. While working at the new scientific portal database, we will maintain the link with the scientific section of the old FORCES website. An announcement will be issued when the new portal is ready.
In the meantime, a Library and an Art Gallery will also be opened. In the library, books and other works pertinent to the smoking, dietary and environmental frauds will be made available – either as on-line electronic books or as buy-in-the-store works, complete with ISBN numbers and links to stores. You can participate in this section by sending us information on new books. The Art Gallery will showcase interesting works featuring smoking by artists from all over the world. In times when the only depictions of smoking around us are negative and aimed to condition behaviour, the depiction of smoking for pleasure and relaxation will offer a welcome and uplifting break, and make you feel good about smoking again. You can participate in this too by letting us know of new artwork.
The unique Educational Interactive portal will allow you to enter the world of interactive knowledge, draw from it and participate in it. The scientific information will be interconnected in such a way that you will be able to easily follow YOUR train of thought, interacting with the server-based software to get answers to questions.
The portal will feature written, video, and spoken material. Electronic and human voices will provide you with an entertaining way to understand essential information about the scientific and statistical issues, and the detailed reasons why we have stated for the last ten years that the claims about (active or passive) smoking are too often a fraud or a misrepresentation. You will be given the elements to understand the machinery of both real science and junk science – and to build your own opinion on verifiable and quantifiable facts – not on authoritarian beliefs and superstitions. You will be able to better understand other “public health” frauds, as well, as they are all based on the same basic junk science methods. Furthermore, you will be able to ask questions directly to our scientists and get documented, verifiable answers, not abstruse and authoritarian opinions about evidence that you are never allowed to see or that is never thoroughly explained. The more questions you ask, the richer the portal’s knowledge base will become.
The new FORCES Portal system will be a powerful tool to undermine prejudice and commonplaces that are at the basis of current, repressive policies: it is dedicated to chipping away at superstitions, fears and hatred that come from them; to counter and hopefully disintegrate the grand plan of international “public health” for universal social control, cultural homogenization and prohibition. It is there to destroy the goal of a “smoke-free”, “fat-free”, “drink-free”, “salt-free” society – to fight a brainwashed world and demonstrate that moderation inevitably comes from knowledge about the scientific reality. Moderation – not abstention – is the key to good health.
It is an ambitious endeavour, one that we plan to build on, and it is all for you – young or old, irrespective of your level of education. It exists to empower you with the tools against mass-media disinformation; to help mass-media workers to understand the disinformation of “public health”; to help public health workers learn to more closely examine the accuracy of the information they spread; for politicians to realize the absurdity of certain politics; and to help judges render justice.
We have worked unpaid on this project for a long time — and we will work on it for years to come. But to continue our work, we must continue to rely on your tangible support and donations to finance the on-going project, which will expand in direct proportion to your contributions.
Your contributions will all go to the project, and not into our pockets. As you can see, we have already put your money to work, and we can deliver.
Thank you once again for your generosity and your faith in us.
Yours in FORCES,
The FORCES International Board of Directors.
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