COVID and the Wuhan lab: and just like that, the debunkers debunked themselves
There are fashions in words, and “debunked” has been the word of the day for the MSM during the Trump administration. It came to mean something like this: “A viewpoint we don’t like and that reflects poorly on the left and well on the right and/or Trump, about which we can find some experts who say the viewpoint is wrong, and so we pretend it’s been utterly disproved – and what’s more, it’s evil to even attempt to discuss what might be the arguments in favor of it.”
Now that Trump’s gone, and for other reasons that remain unclear, the once-“debunked” theory that COVID originated in a Wuhan lab is now rather bunked again (as I described in this post). So now even Facebook, those monarchs of debunking, have acknowledged as much:
“In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made from our apps,” Facebook said in a statement. “We’re continuing to work with health experts to keep pace with the evolving nature of the pandemic and regularly update our policies as new facts and trends emerge.”
For those waiting for apologies – not just from Facebook, but from the entire MSM and Democratic Party that excoriated them for claiming a Wuhan lab origin was a possibility and wanting to discuss it – it’ll be a long wait. The left doesn’t apologize, it just moves on to the next attack/suppression cycle without missing a beat.
“…regularly update our policies as new facts and trends emerge.”
Do facts = trends? Do trends = facts?
Whose trends? What trends?
Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things
Facts don’t stain the furniture
Facts go out and slam the door
Facts are written all over your face
Facts continue to change their shape
I am kind of surprised that over the past few weeks this “lab leak theory” has quickly become widely accepted. After over a year of denial, mocking, and silencing anyone who pushed the idea, suddenly it seemed to all happen pretty quickly after that ex-NYT science reporter guy’s article came out. It was like dominos falling.
I almost don’t know what to make of it. It’s sort of weird how sometimes the truth ultimately wins out. It still doesn’t happen as much as it should though. There are still a lot of complete fictions that are widely believed and pushed by the media, and truths that are carefully suppressed by our tech overlords. I wish I understood why this particular story ultimately broke through all the cultural gatekeeping while others still haven’t.
Steph:
Like it! Last verse change?
“Facts continue to change apace”
and Facts are nothing on the face of things
with “Facts are nothing but a whim”
Nanopod:
My assumption for the flip to the ‘lab leak theory’ is that somewhere there is evidence that it wasn’t a ‘leak’. Since that would mean China committed an act of war, and the ‘it came from the bats’ theory clearly wasn’t holding up any more, a middle narrative has to be fixed in the minds of the masses so that when the evidence of malice on China’s part starts to dribble out, it can be brushed off by the ‘accident’ narrative. Cynical of me I know.
Has it occurred to the Facebookers that they were wrong then, they could be wrong now, there might be a few other major issues they are being lied to about, so maybe censorship is the wrong policy?
I know, stupid question.
The Founders were on to something. Smart guys and all.
Why are they capitulating on Covid origin but still stand steadfast on Russia hoax?
To John Fisher, I don’t think it was an intentional leak, note that the lab’s safety precautions were not up to the level they should have been considering they were working on gain of function with deadly bat viruses. So methinks the leak was simply due to incompetence.
Furthermore, methinks the reason the truth is coming out now, finally, is that Trump and Pompeo were two of those who originally posited the lab leak theory, anything Trump and Pompeo said was wrong, and they are now far enough in the background that the truth can come out.
om
My hearing isn’t what it used to be!
One thing is that there remains some residual professionalism among natural scientists of the older generation. David Baltimore, who is as big a deal as you can be in the life sciences in this country, has been willing to say that the the COVID-19 virus has properties you’d expect of an engineered microbe, not a naturally evolving one. He doesn’t declare that it is, just that the evidence is there on inspection and that’s what it looks like on its face.
Why are they capitulating on Covid origin but still stand steadfast on Russia hoax?
If my own perusal of fora like this is any guide, partisan Democrats stopped talking about the Russia hoax when it got too embarrassing. I can think of a couple of exceptions. One is a woman in one forum I frequent who comes off as a crazy person on disability and another is a grotesquely conceited man whose son works in the US Attorney’s office in Frisco. They kept repeating the idiot mantra ‘collusion has been proved’.
“The left doesn’t apologize, it just moves on to the next attack/suppression cycle without missing a beat.” neo
Yes because when your most basic tenet is that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”… only the weak apologize.
The benefit for the Left in finally acknowledging that the virus ‘might’ have accidentally escaped control is that it allows them to move on. No way will the left’s propagandists in the media give any notice to the fact that the CCP banned domestic travel out of and to the Wuhan area, while freely allowing international travel from the Wuhan area. That was a blatant act of war but the CCP rightly judged that it would be consequence free. Since they know that the West will not risk mutual massive economic damage. Much less nuclear war.
The left is admitting it might have been a lab leak because the evidence that it was a lab leak is becoming too important to ignore. So what they are doing is blaming the Right for the Left opposition, claiming that the Right was “too certain’ about it. Again it is never their fault.
Zuckerberg, et al, will continue to do this as long as there is no accountability with negative consequences.
This will, ultimately, require some sort of legislation. Of course, so long as the deep state controls the reins, this won’t happen.
But, never say never…
This, along with the “fine people” hoax, the Russian collusion hoax, and several others, is like the situation when Harry Reid claimed Mitt Romney never paid income taxes. Challenged about that obvious falsehood later, he replied, “He didn’t win, did he?” There will be no apologies. The lies served their political purposes. Truth is immaterial.
I can say with 95% certainty that if Fauci goes down over this—a very big “if”—he will henceforth be referred to as “Trump’s hand-picked health advisor.” This will be a “Trump Administration scandal.”
As the Great Rush would say: Do not doubt me on this.
My current theory is that the Political Class is beginning to push the Lab Leak story now because they increasingly fear the ire of a large chunk of their own populace (as well they should!).
What do you do when your domestic politics gets exceedingly fraught? Find a foreign aggressor, of course.
The CCP itself is a past master at this game of banging the nationalist drum to distract the people from troubles at home.
Just as an aside… state controlled and private but heavily controlled anyway media might tell many lies, but at least it doesn’t work to actively corrode and destroy the national moral fabric. A few days there was a snap cold weather event (bit late in the year) which killed 20+ ultra marathon runners in a mountain race. Big news. Within 2 or 3 days of it breaking there was the standard-issue heart-warming story of an old poor shepherd who saved single-handedly 4 or 5 lost hypothermic runners on the mountain at risk to his own life. Who knows if it’s true or not? But what we do know is that Joe Chinaman ended the week at least not hating himself and his fellow countrymen more. Weird, that. Almost un-American, you might say. Not that American media ownership is known for being extremely Mom and Apple Pie.
Well that misadventure in the mountains was just another CCP Can Do moment.
@Boatbuilder:
Aside on Rush. A few weeks ago I finished re-reading Jonathan Raban’s Old Glory about his trip down the Mississippi in a small boat in 1979.
Along the way he stopped of in Cape Girardeau, MO and did what he always did in each town, mixed with various locals high and low and wrote about their lives. The High in Cape Girardeau was one Rush Limbaugh, the most prominent local lawyer and political power broker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh_Sr.
At this time, the Rush we all know was a pretty much unknown ex radio guy doing sales / business development for the Kansas City Royals.
I can tell you it was kind of weird to be reading this time capsule and seeing that familiar name jump out of the page.
(1) Take a large very broad flat area, paint it with millions of tiny inscriptions all saying ‘The Point’.
(2) Construct a large gantry above this.
(3) Hoist Om beneath (2).
(4) Drop Aforementioned Object.
Which will invariably miss any and all of The Points.
(5) Collect Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering anti-gravity or some kind of perpetual motion apparatus if one got more creative with the geometry.
It’s all just a giant gas light.
“It’s all just a giant gas light.”
They’re pushing the UFO Revelations thing recently, too. Keep the Proles riled up, distracted, and paying no attention to US/Western Elite Malfeasance and Incompetence.
Zaphod:
Such an expansive mental picture for such a small insult, much less a “joke.” It was another example of a “Zaphod point.” Can Do, Zaphod, Can Do. Shill for the CCP.
Curtis Yarvin has just posted his thoughts on this subject:
https://graymirror.substack.com/p/the-self-licking-napalm-ice-cream
“Chernobyl goes straight to the top. If I wink and nod and tell little Johnny to carry on with his arson experiments, maybe even bringing him a plate of mac-and-cheese while he works out the worst place someone could just leave a magnifying glass lying around, isn’t it I too who am the arsonist?
When we let virology be managed by the virologists, it’s obvious why these three types of dysfunctional science prosper in the virology marketplace of ideas. Stamp collecting creates work for scientists. A self-licking ice-cream cone rationalizes its own funding. And playing with fire gets everyone’s attention.
But who else would manage the virologists—or could?
If you’re a thoughtful person, as I’m sure you are, your favorite kind of question is the question for which you have no answer. Thinking about such questions is thinking. Thinking about any other kind of question is not thinking, just shouting at yourself.”
Accidental lab leak smells of limited-modified-hangout.
I’ll differ from our chorus of agreement.
The WHI report flagrant window dressing added nothing. This teen up Nicholas Wade to pounce.
Wade has a wide NYTimes Ruling Class base of readers from his long tenure there, despite having been fired for his politically incorrect book on race, “A Troublesome Inheritance.”
Then the Leftist Bulletin of Atomic Scientists ran with it. And finally, the Leftist news dude at the WSJ last Monday added facts to the story by documenting the Wuhan Virology Lab’s three scientists hospitalized in November, 2919 with flu like symptoms.
Then the narrative route began, and as mentioned here, the news could ignore Xiden’s crises and failures.
It all makes sense. It’s fortuitous narrative management, as usual with the Left.
Facts and real leadership be damned.
But I followed it’s genesis, and saw it unfold conveniently as Zaphod does.
There are two stories in Neo’s post, one of which is the behavior of Facebook and their ilk.
Boatbuilder on May 27, 2021 at 4:20 pm said:
Has it occurred to the Facebookers that they were wrong then, they could be wrong now, there might be a few other major issues they are being lied to about, so maybe censorship is the wrong policy?
I know, stupid question.
It’s an obvious question Boatbuilder, not stupid, and it crystallizes the issue for me. It’s the arrogance of their ignorance.
“Oceania is at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. ”
Our Ministry of Truth has spoken. That is all. Chilling how apropos Orwell was in “1984”.
“A large part of the political literature of five years was now completely obsolete. Reports and records of all kinds, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound tracks, photographs—all had to be rectified at lightning speed. Although no directive was ever issued, it was known that the chiefs of the Department intended that within one week no reference to the war with Eurasia, or the alliance with Eastasia, should remain in existence anywhere. The work was overwhelming, all the more so because the processes that it involved could not be called by their true names. “
Was FB”wrong”? Or did they know better but lied for political reasons? There were too many pieces of evidence piling up that should have meant the subject should be, at least, open. No. They knew they were covering up the truth.
Grandpagrumble,
Reasonable people can disagree.