Personally, I use it as another reason to never trust the prevailing narrative on social media just because it’s popular. I also don’t take moderators or moderation seriously because of how many of them use it as a tool to promote their own agendas.
Science should always be open to criticism. As soon as we start pushing the idea that science and scientists cannot and should not be questioned, it becomes exactly like religion.
Science is fallible. It always has been and always will be. Look at history and you will find no shortage of prevailing scientific narratives being proven wrong after time passes and people have more information. Also look at history and you never see the people pushing or believing false information apologize or take any accountability.
I’m ashamed to have fallen for the manipulative tactics from both mainstream media organizations and the useful idiots on social media. It really has opened my eyes to how inept and incompetent the average individual is, and it makes no sense to go along with the group simply because what they’re doing is popular.
It’s also disgusting how such a catastrophic event is now completely gone from the news cycle after information comes out that we were lied to. Before, the media couldn’t resist on reporting any sliver of COVID misinformation and lies. Now that we have the truth, it’s exceedingly difficult to find any outlets that discuss it.
“It’s easier to fool a man than to convince him he’d been fooled.” - Mark Twain
You tout science, but you’ve cited an NPR interview where the conclusion you call “most likely” is described by issuing agencies as “low confidence.” That doesn’t make it seem “most likely” at all. What is most likely is that we don’t have enough information to draw a definitive conclusion, so being judgemental about it might be hasty and hypocritical. The NPR interview also states that we don’t know where the intelligence is coming from, so criticizing China for not being transparent but ignoring the secrecy of the intelligence agencies is a double standard.
The other source is a video from Ken LaCorte, who is a former Fox News executive who killed a legitimate Trump and Stormy Daniels story that turned out to be true, so his credibility is questionable on top of the fact he ran competing US political partisan websites and hired Macedonian teenagers to write the content to stir up contention.
You claim to never trust the media, but you’re trusting a known manipulative media executive.
A better question is why the origin story matters so much to you. Does it change the need for masking or quarantines or vaccines in your opinion? If China came out and said it was a lab leak, how would it affect your life in a fundamental way?
People get banned on social media for legitimate and illegitimate reasons every day. This is a weird hill to die on.
Even IF that turns out to be the truth, that just means that the people yelling about China in 2020 happened to be right out of sheer coincidence, like a broken clock. They didn’t come to that conclusion through science / critical thinking but xenophobia.
Science should always be open to criticism.
Science is not “moderators on social media”.
Yeah, sure, xenophobia. When a virus that looks very much like something that’s created to maximise spreading appears and it happens to originate in a city which has a virus studying lab, somehow putting 2 and 2 together equals xenophobia.
I’ve been saying that back in 2020 and not because of some xenophobia you try project on everyone.
In one corner, tens of thousands of experts whose job is to understand and protect.
In the other corner, a known media manipulating political figure.
People are calling bullshit. Naturally. Places with a shred of responsibility will of course remove harmful lies.
Is that actually happening though? Last I checked people were seemingly free to spread all kinds of Covid misinformation on social media.
I’m not sure where you ‘checked,’ but major social media websites would routinely ban people for spreading what they deemed to be ‘misinformation’ surrounding covid. This included the idea that it originated from a lab in China. They would also classify it as racist bigotry.
It’s not a point of contention.
Sites like Facebook and Youtube went absolutely wild with “Covid hoax” bullshit during the pandemic. Spawned an entire popular movement in my country, who went to the street protesting against the protective measures.
Let me just get this straight.
Do you think major social media websites did not ban people for saying Covid originated from a lab in China? A simple yes or no will suffice.
Dunno. Bans and their reasons are not public record. But they definitely don’t ban all of them. Funnily enough, you’ve just proven that yourself further down, by linking to a youtube video arguing for the lab theory.
A well-researched video for a user that asked for sources. If you’re going to assume it’s immediately incorrect because it’s a youtube video, then that says more about you than it does about me.
Also, good job avoiding giving a definitive answer to a question that should be common knowledge. It shows that you’re ashamed to admit the truth because it doesn’t support what you want to believe.
I’m not going to discuss with you any further since you are not discussing in good faith. Goodbye.
A well-researched video for a user that asked for sources. If you’re going to assume it’s immediately incorrect because it’s a youtube video, then that says more about you than it does about me.
I haven’t said anything about it being incorrect or correct. What I’m saying is that guy clearly wasn’t banned for posting it. I have no strong feelings either way about the lab theory.
Also, good job avoiding giving a definitive answer to a question that should be common knowledge.
Where would you get that “common knowledge” from? Like I said, ban records aren’t public.
Is it the most likely scenario or just the latest wave of anti China propaganda?
Both. It originated in a city with a lab doing gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. I’m not claiming that’s definitely where it came from - but it’s quite the coincidence, to say the least.
And there’s nothing wrong with anti-China propaganda as long as it’s aimed at the authoritarian government, not the people living under it. That regime deserves every bit of it.
“But what about the US this and the UK that?!” Yeah - they deserve it too.
How do you explain China not cooperating with international investigators?
Why should we trust them if they weren’t being transparent?
Why are you quick to trust and defend the nation that isn’t cooperating or being transparent?
China dont cooperate with anybody about anything.
Wasn’t the wet market the most likely scenario
No.
As a person who’s completely uninformed on the aspects of the subject you are discussing, would you share some links to information that you think is credible so I may inform myself?
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/27/1159630271/energy-department-assessment-low-confidence-china-lab-leak
Here’s a well-researched video that you can watch to get background and verify any information you might be unsure of by checking his sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rZmcTdQw98
When a scientific says low confidence it means no.
At university when doing science we are taught the hard way that a result without units nor uncertainties is wrong, I had professor suppressing half of the point simply for that, even all the rest was correct. It sounds hard when being a student but actually untertainties/confidence index are what scientists care about
Also worth checking out who Ken Lacorte is. A former Fox News executive who is accused of having covered up negative stories about Donald Trump before the 2016 elections.
