Authority lost

As I've grown older, I've come to understand we are being lied to by authority....a lot. I wish it was exclusive to progressive libs, then it would be easier to root out, but unfortunately, it's not.

 

I’ve heard these two discuss the issue before. They really offer no specific evidence that it was a lab leak, only coincidences and unanswered questions. There is some pretty plausible evidence to support a natural origin, and there is zero evidence that supports it’s a lab leak. Also, the much ballyhooed Fauci phone call is a big nothing burger according one the actual virologists on the phone call.

Again, it all comes back to conspiracy. The virologists are the most knowledgeable on the subject, but we can’t listen to them because we must assume that they ALL will conspire to cover it up. So when we decide we can’t trust experts, at that point anything becomes fair game and conspiracy theories run rampant.

 

isn't that because they're concern about the DOJ looks completely partisan?

 

You only have concerns when it fits your narrative. If they announced they will be completing a thorough investigation into Obama, Hillary and Hunter you'd be praising their name

 

Right wingers are so intent on the origin of covid being a conspiracy so they can revel in their small world of paranoia. What a bunch of weirdos.

 

The Covid origin was just as important to the left. Anyone who suggested that it was even possible to have been created in a lab was attacked.

 

It could have been from anywhere... I wouldnt rule out anything but most sane people believe it was likely a natural occurrence from a market but, sure, it could have been a lab leak. Only right wingers however think that somehow China purposely leaked a virus on its own people to create a world wide pandemic all funded by evil Dr Fauci.

 

There is no virus. But I do agree with you that conservatives are shooting themselves in the feet with their lab theories. It only redirects ire outside of our own public health, our own media and our own governments. THEY are the entities which need to be held accountable.

 

How so?

I think some of the people spreading the “lab leak” theory got caught up in misinformation. Like… they were twitter banned for posting viral bullshit as evidence, not merely because they believed in the lab leak. Unfortunately in the conspiracy world, deleting or making corrections (even when based on viral misinformation or bs sources) tends to be self-reinforcing of the conspiracy “i.e. they are hiding this from you, so obviously they don’t want you to see the truth!!!”.

In reality, I’m not sure how either is favorable. Lab leak or wet market. Both are a bad look for China, so other than getting at a scientific truth, who cares? Why be invested either way? It seems to me many of those invested in the lab leak theory were pushing the “bioweapon” angle, trying to frame it as an attack. It has to be part of something nefarious to be framed as an “attack”.

 

The problem was they weren't merely "suggesting." The usual cast or rightie nutjobs was full on lab created, cover up and conspiracy with no proof.

 

Lab origin: disinformation

Arising in nature: disinformation

 

My recollection (could be incorrect) was that the left was pushing back most hard against the notion that the leak was intentional-harder than against the notion that it might have been accidental. Although, admittedly, the left also leaned in hard to the wet market theory, which was the theory initially being told by our intelligence community.

 

This whole thing has been uncannily politic.

When Trump barred flights from China, Democrats cried “Xenophobia!”

Scant weeks later they blamed him for an explosion of “cases” as if he had a virus in the box and he let it out.

Even when forced to admit that 800k of the 1.2 million Covid deaths occurred on Biden’s watch, it still somehow goes back to Trump’s ham-handed ness.

Then they protested that his vaccine was being rushed.

Then, after having parlayed virus terror into a mail-in campaign to oust Trump, it wasn’t his vaccine anymore and everybody had to take it on pain of cancellation or worse.

By and large, vaccine and mask status - and manifestation of Covid fear - has heavily leaned Democrat, something like 2:1 or even greater.

Throwing Democrats a bone …

It is Trump who elevated the insidious duo of Fauci and Birx and granted them carte blanche.

And to this day Trump claims credit for the vaccine Republicans have become wary of … and they excuse him of all responsibility.

 

Sorry, but anyone who considered the possibility of a lab leak was attacked. It wasn’t just the crazy conspiracy theorists that were being attacked. I agree with your last paragraph which is why I never understood the people who considered it racist to think it came from a lab.

 

Here's the truth. It was created by China as a "bio-weapon", but only a bio-weapon in the soften up the enemy sense. They released it in a city with a lab which to those living in darkness, may seem to be a bad strategy. They wanted it to raise suspicion b/c the next one is going to look like the US has joined the bio-weapons arms race. That is, the next virus' origin will appear to be from a US lab. China will deploy it there. Covid has created an atmosphere where we'll be like screw this, we won't be fooled again, bidness as usual.

this guy gets it.
Opinion | World War III Will Be Fought With Viruses

Vladimir Putin’s losses in Ukraine and the rebellion of the Wagner Group have increased the chances that the Russian president will lash out and expand the 17-month-old conflict. But World War III may not be what you expect. The current paradigm of escalating nuclear conflict was articulated 60 years ago by physicist Herman Kahn, founder of the Hudson institute, but other technologies have come a long way since then. Conventional guns, bombs, missiles or troops may not figure in World War III at all. Biological and computer viruses are likely to be the weapon of choice.

The novel coronavirus was sufficiently optimized so that no serious mutations occurred for nine months. The Delta variant appeared in India in October 2020. A weaponized virus would also need to incorporate an immune suppression gene—Covid had ORF8—that reduces early symptoms, facilitating spread by asymptomatic carriers. For a covert attack to be successful, the virus would need to be released not in the country of origin but in the target country, perhaps near a biological facility so the world would falsely conclude it came as a leak from a surreptitious domestic program.

Recall that early Covid panic came from Italy’s inability to care for all of its infected patients. Thus, for maximum disruption, the second thrust of any aggression might be a cyber attack on hospitals, perhaps disguised as ransomware. Again, the trick would be to make it seem as if the attack were originating outside the aggressor’s country. In other contexts this is called a “false flag” operation. The target country might not even recognize it as part of a two-front, synergistic attack of biological and computer viruses.

Ransomware could simultaneously target energy grids, power plants, factories, refineries, trains, airlines, shipping, banking, water supplies, sewage-treatment plants and more. But hospitals would be the most salient targets. Avoiding obvious military targets would enhance the illusion that World War III hadn’t begun. The attacker or attackers might falsely claim their own systems are also under siege. Misdirection can be more effective than a smoke screen.

 

People were tarred as conspiracy theorists for raising the possibility of lab leak.

Then the media jumped track and, without giving the people credit it had previously smeared, claimed the new angle as their own.

And everybody is still wrong about it.

 

Yes, there were nut jobs with crazy theories. There were also those who merely suggested that it could be from the lab. They were all grouped together.