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Soviets Once Denied a Deadly Anthrax Lab Leak. U.S. Scientists Backed the Story
- the-dude 5y agoYoutube and Facebook once denied the lab leak theory. U.S. politicians backed them in the name of the war on fake news.
- thatguy0900 5y agoIt's funny that we already have a big politicized example of experts and debunkers being wrong for political reasons and yet their March will continue on with large public support.
- PicassoCTs 5y agoIn this case the "experts" were the one with the biggest stake of all in it. "Gain of function" research had to be defended at all cost. Even a global pandemic was not to stop the grants from flowing.
- esyir 5y agoPretty much. The next controversial thing with really suspicious surroundings will still be rebuffed in exactly the same way. "trust the experts".
- thatguy0900 5y agoYep. And YouTube Facebook et all will continue with the censorship and banners with no shame.
- wycy 5y agoWhat’s the alternative? Trust crackpot amateurs?
- esyir 5y agoThe alternative has always been to not blindly trust, but to validate when the circumstances seem suspicious. "trust but verify" , after all. This goes 10x when there's a distinct partisan political slant /objective in the belief.
- ratsmack 5y agoAs did every main stream media and news outlet, such as the New York Times.
- makomk 5y agoThe New York Times coverage of Covid-19 has been really obvious propaganda in general unfortunately - and now it's Pulitzer prize winning propaganda too. Misleading comparisons with other countries, deceptive or occasionally just outright false descriptions of how well everywhere is doing, why, and what measures are in place there, misrepresentations of important figures like the fatality rate, a bizarre insistence that the previous administration was incompetent for not achieving things no other country had managed and that probably weren't technologically possible, blatant rewriting of history, and through it all a constant drumbeat making it clear just what was warping their coverage: Trump! Trump! Trump!
- 0xy 5y agoThe New York Times was complicit in the cover up. Its COVID reporter was caught recently still pushing the narrative that lab leak theory was "racist". [1] YouTube mass deleted videos about it. Facebook censored discussion. Now the entire orthodoxy is facing reckoning for their sloppy and censorious actions. [1] https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-covid-lab-leak-apoorva-mandavilli/ https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-covid-lab-leak-apoorv...
- forgingahead 5y agoNow the entire orthodoxy is facing reckoning for their sloppy and censorious actions. Hardly - I do wish you were correct in this, but the same culprits in covering it up have root access to the minds of millions of people. They can just do what they're doing right now, present the lab-leak theory as new "news" and congratulate themselves for being the ones to educate and inform us unwashed masses. There is no reckoning. The emperor has no clothes but many people just don't care.
- infamouscow 5y agoThe American public isn't stupid despite what politicians and media reporters believe.
- forgingahead 5y agoUnfortunately I don't think it's a case of "stupid" or "clever". Human beings are inherently susceptible to being influenced, and the levers are well-known in some circles already (see marketing, media orgs, and spy agencies). We're all programmable, "moist robots" as Scott Adams calls it, and even if we think we're too smart to fall for it, we can still be manipulated by motivated actors. The first defence is of course to be aware of it, but others include firewalling ourselves from information we consume. Being super judicious with consuming in the first place is the best defense.
- bryanwb 5y agosurprising you were downvoted for saying what virtually everyone is thinking.
- drran 5y agoI expected to see a mention of "Vector" BSL4 lab incident in September 2019. :-/
- mgamache 5y agoPaywall. Can someone summarize or have a non-paywall source?
- drran 5y agoA history of anthrax lab leak in Soviet Union, which was covered up by SU, then few mentions of Wuhan lab, with hope to create parallels between them. I expected to see mention of "Vector" lab incident in September 2019, but nope. Lab leak is no joke. Locals are constantly afraid of lab leak. Just look at the face of a journalist, when he tells about possible lab leak at "Vector": https://youtu.be/_w7SAeNcXA8?t=16 https://youtu.be/_w7SAeNcXA8?t=16
- poilcn 5y agoThe paywall could be bypassed with simple "debugger" in console :)
- ratsmack 5y agoARCHIVE: https://archive.ph/OUP25 https://archive.ph/OUP25
- AntiRush 5y agoThere’s a fairly lengthy account of this incident in the (very enjoyable) book The Dead Hand: The Untold History of the Cold War Arms Race and its Deadly Legacy. It’s long but a great read if you’re interested in this part of history. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Hand https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Hand
- underseacables 5y agoThis reminds me of the excellent play “An enemy of the people” by Henrik Ibsen. COVID’s origin and coverup has done tremendous damage to the faith that people had in the media, and their government. Perhaps it is the media that has become the enemy of the people.
- the-dude 5y agoThe media already did plenty of damage to their reputation long before COVID.
- bigpumpkin 5y agoAug. 5, 2019: "Deadly Germ Research Is Shut Down at Army Lab Over Safety Concerns" - NYTimes [1] [1]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/health/germs-fort-detrick-biohazard.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/health/germs-fort-detrick...
- bryanwb 5y agonot surprised this was flagged. Anything that questions the MSNBC/CNN political orthodoxy gets flagged on HN. That's not "inclusive." How did all the tech nerds of SV become woke sjw's?
- bryanwb 5y agoSo Hater news censored this post by flagging it -- just like Facebook and Youtube censored discussion of the lab leak! Hacker News is officially part of the MSM.