Parents
Anticipate a political earthquake if Wuhan’s laboratory leak hypothesis is true
The potential consequences of the origin of the virus have been shattered-if they can be proven, “my own complacency on this issue was fueled by a Labrique essay published earlier this month in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Photo: There was a time when the Thomas Peter / Reutercovid pandemic seemed to confirm many of our assumptions. It has defeated those we considered villains. It raised people who we thought were heroes. It prospered people who could easily move to work at home, even though they were concerned about the lives of Trump voters living in the old economy. Like all plagues, Covid often feels like the hands of God on earth, cursing people for sins against higher education, and visibly selecting the righteous from the unmasked evil ones. did. “Respect science” warned the sign in our garden. And behold, Covid came and forced us to do so, promoting our scientists to the highest seats of social authority, from which they banned meetings, commerce, and everything else. At that time, we innocently blamed. I scolded him at will. We knew who was right, so we shook our heads to see people playing wrong in the pool or on the beach. Donald Trump, the politician we despised, couldn’t figure out the situation, suggested injecting bleach into people, and he was personally responsible for multiple Superspreading events. That makes perfect sense to us. The reality itself punished a leader like him who refused to give in to his expertise. The prestigious news media even figured out how to blame the worst death toll in an organized system of ignorance they called “populism.” In response to stupid Trump, liberalism created a cult from a hierarchy of generally trusted achievements, but recently, consensus is not as well understood as it used to be. The media is now full of disturbing stories suggesting that Covid may have come not from “populism” but from laboratory turmoil in Wuhan, China. When the question begins, you can feel the moral cramps begin. What if science itself is somehow the cause of all this? * I am not an epidemic expert. Like everyone else I know, I had a pandemic as I was told. A few months ago, I tried to talk to Fox News viewers without believing in the laboratory leak theory of Covid’s origin. The reason I did it was that the newspapers I read and the TV shows I watched were not true to Labreak theory, it was a racist conspiracy theory, and only deceived trumpists believed it. I had guaranteed me many times that I was there. Received endless ratings from fact checkers. Because (despite my irony) I’ve always trusted the mainstream news media. My own complacency on this issue was fueled by a Labreak essay published earlier this month in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. A few weeks later, from Dr. Fauci to President Biden, he admits that the hypothesis of an accident in the laboratory may have some merit. I don’t know the real answer yet, and probably never, but it’s the moment to predict what such a discovery will ultimately mean. What if this crazy story turns out to be true? The answer is that this is like erasing millions of faiths. The last global disaster, the 2008 financial crisis, shattered people’s confidence in the capitalist system, the myths of free trade and the new economy, and ultimately the elite who ran both American political parties. .. Since then (and for complex reasons), liberal leaders have transformed themselves into professional advocates of legitimacy, striving to establish legitimacy in almost every area. In response to stupid Trump, liberalism created a sort of cult from science, expertise, university systems, government “norms”, “intelligence communities”, the Department of State, NGOs, legacy news media, and hierarchies in general. Of the certified achievements. Now here we are in a period of dire global crisis # 2. Of course, Covid is orders of magnitude worse than the mortgage meltdown. This has killed millions, lost lives and disrupted the world economy much more extensively. If scientists, experts, NGOs, etc. are found to be villains rather than heroes in this story, we can see the value of modern liberal expert worship rise in the fireball of national anger. I can do it. Consider the details of the stories you’ve learned in the last few weeks. • A lab leak occurs. They are not the result of a conspiracy. As Nathan Robinson points out, “a laboratory accident is an accident.” They always happen in this country and other countries, and people die from them. • There is evidence that the laboratory in question studying the bat coronavirus may have been conducting so-called “feature acquisition” research. This is a dangerous innovation that deliberately makes the disease pathogenic. By the way, the right-wing people did not dream of “acquiring functions”. All cool virologists are doing it (in this country and elsewhere), even though the square has warned for years. • There is a strong hint that some of the bat virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Veterinary Medicine was partially funded by a national medical institution in the United States. In other words, the laboratory’s leak hypothesis does not mean only China. • There seemed to be a surprising conflict of interest among all the underlying people, and conflicts of interest (as we know from Enron and the housing bubble) are always eligible for liberalism. It’s a stumbling block for professionals We all insist that we must be careful, respect and obey. • Russiagate is more true than ever, as the press is enthusiastically cracking down on tolerance boundaries, but Labrique’s hypothesis is false and false and miserable to those who dare to oppose it. Insisted. The reporter said it was the most flattering to the quoting expert, arguing that it was 100% correct and absolutely indisputable. • Social media monopoly actually censored posts on the Labreak hypothesis. Of course they did! You know, because we are at war with false information, and people need to be returned to true right faith, as agreed by the experts. * “Let’s pray for science now,” said the New York Times columnist, returning to the beginning of Covid’s pandemic. The title of his article sets out the basic beliefs of liberalism in the Trump era. “The coronavirus comes from ignoring science.” Ten months later, at the end of a horrifying article about the history of “feature acquisition” research and its potential role in the ongoing Covid pandemic. , Nicholson Baker wrote: 21st Century. Can a world full of scientists perform all sorts of reckless recombinations with viral diseases over the years and successfully avoid serious outbreaks? The hypothesis was, yes, it was feasible. It was worth taking the risk. There is no pandemic. Except that there was. A moral earthquake if the Labreak hypothesis actually turns out to be the correct explanation for how it began-the general public of the world was forced into actual lab experiments at great expense. There is a way. Because if the hypothesis is correct, our mistakes are not due to insufficient respect for scientists, insufficient respect for expertise, or insufficient censorship on Facebook. It will soon become apparent to people. It was a failure to think critically about all of the above to understand that there is no such thing as absolute expertise. Think about all the disasters of recent years. Economic neoliberalism, destructive trade policy, Iraq war, housing bubble, “too big to fail” banks, mortgage-backed securities, 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign-all these disasters what they are doing It is brought about by the complete and confident union of the highly educated people who should know what they are and the complete self-satisfaction of the highly educated people who are supposed to oversee them. Then again, maybe I’m wrong to develop all this speculation. Perhaps the Labreak hypothesis is a compelling counter-evidence. I do think so. But even if it gets a little closer to confirmation, you can guess what the next turn of the story will be. Experts would say it was a “perfect storm.” Who knows? And (they will say), in addition, the origin of the pandemic is no longer important. Go back to sleep. Thomas Frank is a Guardian columnist in the United States. He is the author of The People these days.No: A brief history of anti-populism