Covfefe-19 The 12th Part: The Only Thing Worse Than This New Board Is TrumpVirus2020

[Kepler]

China unleashed the coronavirus on the US to kill Republican voters and help the Democrats win.

While Fox and Republican leaders lied and downplayed it to drive up the conservative body count to... um... own the libs?

[Swansong]

Kepler correctly summarized the point Nate, and this Nation article, are trying to make. Just because you don't like or trust someone who is making an argument about a scientific point, that doesn't mean you should simply reject that argument or label it a conspiracy theory or something.

I'm not rejecting anything, and researchers aren't either. Saying there is no trace of active human intervention (or even passive human intervention) but that we're not confident about much else isn't "simply rejecting that argument".

Personally, I really don't care about the source. I think it would be great if someone with the scientific expertise to do so would figure it out. I think that would be really useful.

If I were asked which way I'd prefer it come out, I guess personally I'd prefer to learn it was an intentional lead by some evil person somewhere. That outcome doesn't scare me at all. We can fix that problem.

If it turns out it was an accidental leak from a lab somewhere, that worries me a little more, but is not the worst case scenario. That just means it was human error, and we need to do better to prevent it from happening again.

Kinda seams like you do care about the origins. You're using a lot of words to tell us how little you care.

The one that worries me is the "arising out of nature" result. That just tells me the planet is trying to kill me, and is getting much better at it. That I don't think we can necessarily fix. But it would be really useful, scientifically, if we knew that to be the case.

Well, my friend, get a helmet because the world is passively trying to kill you via fundamental acts of nature and sheer, brutal indifference.

[ScoobyDoo]

Mother Nature has been in charge the whole time. The more we **** with her, the more she ****s with us.

[Swansong]

"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures as we are."

- Carl Sagan

[rufus]

While Fox and Republican leaders lied and downplayed it to drive up the conservative body count to... um... own the libs?

Yes.

[Kepler]

Mother Nature has been in charge the whole time. The more we **** with her, the more she ****s with us.

"God's a kid with an ant farm, lady. He isn't planning anything."

[Handyman]

Disease has been killing us for hundreds of thousands of years...that people pretend it still isn't is why our species is doomed.

And Nate Silver is a moronic egomaniac.

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Lookup Kitum cave in Kenya if you want to be terrified. Most scientists believe Marburg and Ebola came from that specific cave

[Kepler]

Lookup Kitum cave in Kenya if you want to be terrified. Most scientists believe Marburg and Ebola came from that specific cave

Guh. Just nuke it.

[dxmnkd316]

Which "he"?

Oh, Nate. Show me where I ever called him a "genius." The reason I like Nate is he is essentially me if I followed a different career path in the late 80s, one which would have been far more interesting than the one I settled for out of cowardice. He is top 1%, not top .1%. He's not a genius, he's just usually the most educated and circumspect person in the room.

Reading this over, I don't agree with his tone about "a certain cadre" but his overall opinion is correct: just because Nazis are citing something for their own purposes does not relieve scientists of the responsibility for testing a hypothesis. Obviously, the Right then attempts to use this to muddy the waters. They have endowed entire "think" (ahem) tanks to forge false results in order to feed their narratives and line their pockets, because they are a business operation. Nate should not exclude that from the calculation of how much time and energy real scientists should expend countering the frauds and criminals of the Right. But if Climate Change taught us something it's that just because a truth is inconvenient doesn't make it any less true.

I have no data. My intuition, which is worth nothing, is that COVID wasn't created in a lab any more than SARS or any other pandemic was. The media and politicians who repeat declarative statements about science they don't understand should be boiled in oil on the Nightly News. But we also have to insulate science from political pressure as much as we can, Fascist, Liberal, or even Left (although the last will never happen in America). Nate is saying "In science, you can't reject a hypothesis strictly because a Nazi is using it to foment hatred and disorder." There is nothing controversial about that statement.

We now return you to hysterical generalizations.

I'm not convinced he's even 1%. He's me but with monetary backing. He knows his way around a spreadsheet and got it right a few times. Cool spreadsheet bro. That's not 1%.

[Handyman]

I'm not convinced he's even 1%. He's me but with monetary backing. He knows his way around a spreadsheet and got it right a few times. Cool spreadsheet bro. That's not 1%.

This about sums it up.

[Spartanforlife4]

It’s not that he thinks it was a lab leak that’s the problem, it’s that Mr. 70% Does Not Equal 100% is now pushing a low confidence report as fact because he didn’t like how people were mean to him for telling him to leave public health to public health experts. There are more department reports that point away from a lab leak than point to it, unless you give bonus points to the moderate confidence to the FBI.

And as others have said, the main reason there was pushback against the lab leak theory was because the foundation of it was rooted in a right wing conspiracy that China was purposefully exposing the globe to COVID. There have been cases of lab workers getting exposed to rabies because of faulty equipment, so of course it was possible for a lab worker to accidentally contract COVID and bring it into the public, but that’s entirely different than the CCP directing them to unleash a virus that would kill their own population before it reached anywhere else.

[SJHovey]

It’s not that he thinks it was a lab leak that’s the problem, it’s that Mr. 70% Does Not Equal 100% is now pushing a low confidence report as fact because he didn’t like how people were mean to him for telling him to leave public health to public health experts. There are more department reports that point away from a lab leak than point to it, unless you give bonus points to the moderate confidence to the FBI.

And as others have said, the main reason there was pushback against the lab leak theory was because the foundation of it was rooted in a right wing conspiracy that China was purposefully exposing the globe to COVID. There have been cases of lab workers getting exposed to rabies because of faulty equipment, so of course it was possible for a lab worker to accidentally contract COVID and bring it into the public, but that’s entirely different than the CCP directing them to unleash a virus that would kill their own population before it reached anywhere else.

The "foundation" of the lab leak theory wasn't a right wing conspiracy. These talented scientists, including people like Fauci, were seeing things in the virus that caused them to question how it could possibly spring from nature.

At that point, when some of these scientists were questioning the "from nature" theory, or said that they might be leaning towards a leak from a lab (not even commenting on whether it was intentional or otherwise), the conspiracy theorists and China-haters took off with it and make it a big anti-China deal.

Then, at least partially to tamp down that anti-China propaganda and conspiracy theories, the scientists publicly stated that they had gained more confidence in the "sprung from nature" theory, without really identifying what it was that now made them so much more confident. That's what Nate and others are biatching about.

[Handyman]

After the revelations about the FBI and Trump the last few days I wouldnt trust them to be hall monitors.

[Handyman]

The "foundation" of the lab leak theory wasn't a right wing conspiracy. These talented scientists, including people like Fauci, were seeing things in the virus that caused them to question how it could possibly spring from nature.

At that point, when some of these scientists were questioning the "from nature" theory, or said that they might be leaning towards a leak from a lab (not even commenting on whether it was intentional or otherwise), the conspiracy theorists and China-haters took off with it and make it a big anti-China deal.

Then, at least partially to tamp down that anti-China propaganda and conspiracy theories, the scientists publicly stated that they had gained more confidence in the "sprung from nature" theory, without really identifying what it was that now made them so much more confident. That's what Nate and others are biatching about.

Nate is batching because he hurt his reputation with his takes and people have started to tune him out across the board. That is why he is latching on to a somewhat credible report to pretend to be vindicated. He is becoming Dr. Drew.. at this rate in a year he will be Joe Rogan.

And no offense but i think you are gaslighting yourself when it comes to the public discourse of the lab leak theory. This isn't about what scientists were saying it is about what the public and factions in the media were saying. Or do you think it is just a coincidence that violence against Asians skyrocketed after COVID hit the US?

It doesn't matter how it started it matters what it became. It's why Swatzikas are not seen as symbols of peace by most and the Confederate flag is seen as a symbol of outright racism. Nate is supposedly smart enough to see that so he is willfully ignoring it so he can pat himself on the back. Maybe he thinks being an even geekier version of Elon is a smart play but no one else does.