Dude you’re about to get it. Hold on to your butt…
No, but you’re the one propagating it, and then attempting to disown any responsibility for it.
Which is the same thing. It makes you every bit as racist as the nonsense you’re trying to spread.
Actually no, I didn’t ask any questions.
You’re free to read into this what you like.
I pointed out something that isn’t at all controversial in the context of discussing China’s current PR push.
Someone decided that China didn’t start it.
I pointed out that yes they did, and linked an article that I found interesting to read, along with caveats.
If you somehow want to take that and smear me, be my guest.
Except I’m not not propagating it at all. It’s a discussion forum, we’re discussing it.
Some. Of you have posted credible and interesting replies, which are also making me think.
That’s how discussions are supposed to work.
But sure, go ahead and call me a racist.
China didn’t start it. It started in China. See if you can spot the difference.
Does that mean we can’t criticize the CCP for all the censoring and BS that happened in December when this was really getting going? No. Of course not. But that has nothing to do with China starting the virus.
Thank you.
Good point, and well raised, unlike some here.
And I do see the difference.
No, BBB. The virus doesn’t have an intent or a nationality. It’s wasn’t weaponized in a Wuhan bio lab. It originated in China and the CCP lied about it to their people and everyone else. Then Wuhan blew up and we all knew the truth. Italy knew the truth and fucked up. Spain knew the truth and fucked up. The US certainly knows the truth and even after all of that the President is still wanting to push us back into the factories in two weeks.
The reason I “honed in” on one thing you said wasn’t an angle for me to defend the CCP (which I have no desire to do, they’re awful), it’s because it was that one part I disagreed with you about. The phrasing seemed weird to me because it implied intent. You didn’t say “the virus originated in China and the CCP covered it up”, you said that China started it. And we had just gotten done talking about why Trump and his allies keep calling it the “China virus”. It rubbed me the wrong way and so I pushed back on that line (and in the process I used imprecise and too-mild language to describe the CCP’s initial response, as @Aceris called out).
Anyway, I apologize if I may be a little overly sensitive to conspiracy theories that feed into the rightwing rhetoric that this is a “China virus”, that they attacked us, and that has led to people like Tom Cotton threatening China with retaliation. Especially when this type of rhetoric is being used to stir up the worst elements of US society to rally to the flag and deflect blame from Trump’s daily clusterfuck of a response at the cost of throwing people of Asian decent under the bus.
But to be crystal clear, none of this should be read as a defense of the CCP. I’m not saying they handled this situation well or that they didn’t try to suppress information about the virus before it became too big for them to contain.
No, you posted debunked idiot nonsense about the virus being created in a lab, and your suspicions that this virus was meant to be a bioweapon, developed in China.
Well if it’s cool then I’d like to re-open the debate about 9/11. I heard the government did it and that jet fuel can’t melt steel beams.
I also read somewhere that vaccines cause autism. Shouldn’t we be discussing this?!
See how fun this is?!
When people say “it could not have come from the lab because it had zoonotic origins”, are they implying that research labs only contain viruses that do not have zoonotic origins? Because I’m pretty sure that’s really, very false.
Or am I missing something really obvious here? I mean if scientists say it’s not engineered, then I’m sure it’s not engineered. But are they saying that it’s impossible that an infected animal escaped, or that it was spread unknowingly to the staff of said lab though?
I have no problem believing it came from the wet market, and there absolutely needs to be a major initiative on an international scale to put an end to these things, but when I see people saying that it couldn’t possibly have spread from the lab in Wuhan, I guess I’m not seeing why that’s the case.
Big words give conspiracy theories credit.
Ahh you’re seeing this through the lense of people linking this to China as defending or condoning Trump 's rhetoric, if I understand you.
In which case you’re far too calm.
So if you’re associating me with him, then I totally understand the aggravation.
For the record I voted remain, don’t like Trump one bit and dislike Bojo rather intensively.
I think Trump is using some very very dirty tricks, honed by himself over years and by others over the last century.
There’s a documentary called “The century of self” which discusses mass persuasion, advertising, etc.
Trump as a manipulator is on another level, which sucks when you are against him.
Or affected by him, which is all of us.
His, and others, radicalisation of latent racism etc, and legitimising it, is one of the sadder developments of the last 2 decades.
But I’m sure I’m preaching to the converted here.
Totally cool by me, but of topic surely? Open a thread if you like. I’d be happy to hear what this is all about.
Let’s just take a layman’s look at how stupid the lab theory looks in the wild.
Behold, the tweet that caused Twitter to suspend actor James Woods:
directly from really dodgy alt right websites
these are 50 squaddies right?
Just one train of thought. It could just as easily be an escaped lab specimen.
Yes. One of them has a soft spot for Tommy what his name. The EDL guy.
Another is a copper, who keeps debunking him and giving quite the opposite take on any single event.
Actually quite the interesting conversation.
Which is why I said I suspect they never meant to release it, if it is a weapon.
Again, if you want to!
Fair warning though, I’m not much interested in autism or vaccines, so I can’t guarantee any decent replies.