3 ms·

>"Why must people be in on a secret coverup?" I hadn't considered this before, but you're right that most of the people dismissing the 'lab leak' theory seem t

by nickff 5y ago

>"Why must people be in on a secret coverup?" I hadn't considered this before, but you're right that most of the people dismissing the 'lab leak' theory seem to believe that their intellectual opponents are proposing that a 'premeditated conspiracy' took place. In any case, if I were a PRoC official, I would try to reduce the chance of any (direct or circumstantial) evidence of a lab leak came to light. That said, even suppression of circumstantial evidence is not necessarily evidence of either a lab leak or pre-meditated conspiracy.

newacct583 5y ago
To be fair, a lot of you nuts are absolutely alleging "premeditated conspiracy", or even loopier notions like bioweapon engineering. It's extremely hard to figure out who we're talking to. If you want to argue for some weak form of the conspiracy, then maybe give it another name or something. But note that the weak form you seem to be thinking about (that it was benign research on natural viruses and just a routine mistake that caused the leak) seems to be even more susceptible to my suspicion. If you're a researcher who was doing this benign work, why keep silent? You could literally write a book fingering all your superiors as the villains and sell it for tens of millions of dollars and retire in Taipei or San Francisco.
- nickff 5y ago
  >"To be fair, a lot of you nuts are absolutely alleging "premeditated conspiracy", or even loopier notions like bioweapon engineering. " Why are you insulting me? I honestly don't know where this virus came from, and am more interested in what the polarized discourse says about our current state of affairs.
- fouric 5y ago
  > To be fair, a lot of you nuts Please don't resort to personal insults on HN. It's a violation of the guidelines[1] and makes for poor and uninteresting discussion. Instead... > It's extremely hard to figure out who we're talking to. ...don't resort to personal attacks, and assess the argument that the individual is making, without setting up a straw-man argument. If you're unclear what their assumptions are, then ask. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
echelon 5y ago
"research accident" is a better term than "lab leak".

by nickff 5y ago

newacct583 5y ago

To be fair, a lot of you nuts are absolutely alleging "premeditated conspiracy", or even loopier notions like bioweapon engineering. It's extremely hard to figure out who we're talking to. If you want to argue for some weak form of the conspiracy, then maybe give it another name or something. But note that the weak form you seem to be thinking about (that it was benign research on natural viruses and just a routine mistake that caused the leak) seems to be even more susceptible to my suspicion. If you're a researcher who was doing this benign work, why keep silent? You could literally write a book fingering all your superiors as the villains and sell it for tens of millions of dollars and retire in Taipei or San Francisco.

nickff 5y ago
>"To be fair, a lot of you nuts are absolutely alleging "premeditated conspiracy", or even loopier notions like bioweapon engineering. " Why are you insulting me? I honestly don't know where this virus came from, and am more interested in what the polarized discourse says about our current state of affairs.
fouric 5y ago
> To be fair, a lot of you nuts Please don't resort to personal insults on HN. It's a violation of the guidelines[1] and makes for poor and uninteresting discussion. Instead... > It's extremely hard to figure out who we're talking to. ...don't resort to personal attacks, and assess the argument that the individual is making, without setting up a straw-man argument. If you're unclear what their assumptions are, then ask. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

echelon 5y ago

"research accident" is a better term than "lab leak".