You're retconning the idea that "many people outside the cynical-and-conspiratorial crowd" talked about the lab leak theory, which isn't the case. Anyone who ra

You're retconning the idea that "many people outside the cynical-and-conspiratorial crowd" talked about the lab leak theory, which isn't the case. Anyone who raised it was marked as being in that crowd regardless of what they said or who they were. I remember all this very clearly, the idea that this one was somehow different is just wrong. Everyone who talked about that was dumped into the "dangerous people who must be censored and suppressed" bucket, right up until one day overnight the US government's position suddenly flipped, at which point there had supposedly always been lots of open discussion. Just total coincidence that the DRASTIC guys who blew it open all had to be anonymous. Other things that were dismissed as cynical expert-bashing that they were later proven right about: 1. They will develop a vaccine and force us to take it using some sort of unforgeable marker (predicted in 2020, debunked as conspiracy theory, proven true <2 years later) 2. Masks work (debunked by experts Jan/Feb/March 2020) 3. Masks don't work (debunked by experts after that) 4. "Crush the curve" won't last two weeks, it will go on for much longer (predicted April 2020, proven true months later). 5. The virus can spread on long range air currents via aerosols so masks/lockdowns/mass testing won't impact case numbers (debunked Feb/Mar 2020, proven true shortly after by the Diamond Princess, denied for years after). 6. The vaccines will turn out to need more than 2 doses (predicted early 2021, debunked, proven true <6 months later). 7. The vaccines won't work even with more than two doses (predicted early 2021), which is of course correct because they were introduced with the claim they were 95% effective against infection which is obviously nowhere even close to true even if you believe the later claims about savings lives. 8. Bill Gates will get rich off the vaccines (tin foil hat garbage until it was true) 9. The vaccines won't really be as safe as they claim (predicted 2020, many severe side effects like heart damage and diabetes are now recognized as being real by the medical community after previously being denied). And we could go on. COVID was an absolute shit-show of credentialed "experts" being proven wrong, over and over, by random people on the internet. The pattern was that the most maximally cynical people were always right. For example, in 2020 I didn't believe that governments would force vaccines on people. I thought all the jabbering about qr codes or quantum dots was tinfoil stuff. More fool me: the conspiracy theorists were right and just a year later I was being forced to constantly show qr codes to be allowed to go anywhere or do anything. And I got lucky, I wasn't forced to take it via my job.