Hating and grating: The Nili Kaplan-Myrth effect

The intolerant double standards in mainstream medicine

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash

By Anonymed (an anonymous Canadian Doctor)

“Hate is a strong word, but I really really really don’t like you” - Plain White T’s

We talk a lot about “hate” in the Western world these days. According to our ruling bureaucrats, it’s rampant - something we ought to spend every waking hour of our lives fighting. Sure, outside of Twitter, you might never see it, but we’re assured it’s there, just around the next turn.

I honestly can’t remember when the verb “hate” (as in ‘to hate’) was replaced by the noun “Hate”, but the effects of this change haven’t been small. Hatred, as it used to be known, is a human emotion, as natural as breathing. Though never stated explicitly, “Hate” is supposed to mean something slightly different. It isn’t just an emotion or a feeling. It’s like an anti-soul. A thing buried down deep that animates us and drives us to do (and perhaps more importantly, think) evil. This dark force is also housed disproportionately, we are told, in the hearts of those with a white or western (or worse, white and western) bent.

Curious as it is, you may have noticed that some sizable portion of those demanding we accept this sleight of language isn’t so much against hate, but against sharing a society with those who may not view things as they do. For all the denunciation of this black sheep of emotions, medicine’s radical activists hate lots of stuff with a seemingly fiery passion. Maybe I’m wrong and they just express love differently, but would they really deny this? Do they not hate “white supremacy”? Do they not hate residential school “deniers”? What about colonialism? Transphobes? Plastic straws?

When I started writing this, I didn’t intend to bring up Nili Kaplan-Myrth and her recent antics, but given all the uproar, I suppose I’ll give my two cents - particularly since her behaviour matters to the medical world as well. Kaplan-Myrth is an activist physician turned activist local official who created a storm of controversy when, at a recent Ottawa Carlton District School Board (OCDSB) meeting, she used her position of authority to censor a parent concerned about the implications of gender “self-ID” for his teenage daughter. I briefly mentioned her in last week’s article as one of a cadre of activists who found their authoritarian stride during COVID and the post-George Floyd hysteria. Normally I’m not a fan of calling out physicians by name, but they have made themselves public figures and ought to be treated as such. This goes double for Kaplan-Myrth who, as we all know, is also a School Trustee.

To be clear, while her public role warrants scrutiny, I don’t think her behaviour therein, however noxious, ought to trigger complaints to her professional College. I see some online calling for this, and while I have serious doubts about her ability to treat patients impartially given her divisive politics, unless there is evidence of professional misconduct in her role as a physician, I’m not on board. The Colleges are already weaponized enough. Also, if it turns out the vile death threats she posted online are legitimate (I have my doubts given the number of hoaxes already in the rearview, but it’s the internet so god knows) then this kind of thing, even if rare, should be condemned unequivocally. I don’t care if she uses the boogieman of the far-right to deflect from her own intolerance, it’s still wrong.

Understandably the focus of recent ire has been her intolerance as a Trustee. But before her mic-muting insolence, there was her stance on COVID and masks and her desire for mandatory neonatal hazmats. There was also her derogation of colleagues and interviewers and genteel radio hosts. And there were those eyes. Christopher Hitchens once said of militant Islam that its danger lies in the trio of “self-hatred, self-righteousness and self-pity.” At a distance, this seems about right. As a recent Ottawa Life article put it, she “doesn’t see her own intolerance as she attacks others for being . . . intolerant.”

Kaplan-Myrth’s behavior is a matter of public interest for the medical profession. While she’s obviously on the intense side, she is nevertheless representative of the upper echelons of the medical mainstream. They may not share her, um, communication style, but her arrogance, ignorance, sense of victimization, self righteousness, intolerance for disagreement, certainty, and authoritarian vibes are unfortunately a reflection of the current state of the profession. As with Tan, she is part of the establishment. She is not an outside agitator. Her worldview is medicine’s worldview. Her Overton window is our Overton window. Trust me, if you brought up the sex-segregated bathroom issue in a medical school these days you would almost certainly get it worse than that poor father did at the school board meeting.

I don’t doubt the sincerity of people like Kaplan-Myrth. I believe she is a true hater of hate. She very likely hates it more than the haters she hates hate the things they hate. But the problem is always the same. Who decides? Who is the arbiter of what counts as hate and, in her case, what hate you’re allowed to hate? She and others like her reserve the right to slander, demean, threaten, and mock those they disagree with, while acting shocked and appalled when the slightest criticism comes their way. Granted, zealots are seldom reasonable, but the problem with our current lot is that the barbarians are not just inside the gates, but (literally) sitting on the city council.

The double standard is grotesque. It is obvious to anyone paying attention to the Canadian political landscape that any doctor not a radical leftist is expected to play by Marquess of Queensberry rules, while others, with their institutional affiliation proudly displayed, can call people hacks, tell them to “STFU”, “sit down” and other professional pleasantries till the cows come home. If the standards were the same for all-comers, Kaplan-Myrth and her ilk would have been written up ten times over for communication unbecoming of the “standards of the profession” (including their purveyance of COVID “misinformation”). But they aren’t. And while I’m sure she sees herself as a kind of maverick or dissident, the reason she can be as unprofessional and vitriolic as she is, is because her worldview is that of mainstream medicine. In woke terms, she is the oppressor. She is the one peddling “hate” - hate for all those not enlightened enough to see the world the way she does. She is living, breathing proof that core human emotions are a lot harder to cancel than the disobedient plebs.

Too much hatred in one’s heart is destructive, there is no doubt. It is a waste to spend any significant part of one’s life fixated on it. It eats people from the inside out. As such, we should all strive to hate less and forgive more - myself included. However, the next time you hear someone denouncing “Hate”, remember that this person is surely as in touch with it as any of us, and if the last three years have taught us anything, quite likely more so. Just like those happily parroting terms like BIPOC, “people of colour” and the rest of our modern Newspeak, such people must be treated as enemies until proven otherwise. This might sound harsh, but make no mistake - while they may not hate you, odds are that they really really really don’t like you. Act accordingly.

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Thanks for reading. Systemic symptoms: Privilege and advantage in “antiracist” medicine

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