If you think it is more important to have a commission to study the Capitol riot on Jan 6th than one to study how a virus that killed 3.5M people worldwide and 500k Americans originated and whether a hostile foreign power covered it up, I think your priorities need attention.
To those suggesting we do both, I would like to introduce you to Washington and how we do things around here, because we cannot, in any meaningful sense, do both.
I had a mini thread about this the other day but I think one of the biggest topics where I differ from the establishment/old guard view on current events is on Jan 6th.
I think what happened is awful. I think it’s absurd to treat it like it was 9/11, as so many seem wont to do.
DC needs to do a lot of things better. But one that stands out to me is that it needs to invest less in the way of taxpayer dollars into the sorts of things that only really matter to gingham-clad 20-something dudes like me (and the female equivalent whatever that is)
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
That the Covid pandemic could’ve leaked from a lab in Wuhan went from terrible, racist conspiracy theory to plausible overnight for the mainstream media, without a shred of accountability.
If you don’t believe me, look at these stories side-by-side, then vs. now⤵️
You may remember that much of the really bad coverage was focused on @SenTomCotton’s suggestion that we better understand the potential for a lab leak from Wuhan.
The difference in framing here from @nytimes between May 2020 and May 2021 is...stark.
But it wasn’t just NYT. There’s a lot of ammo from @CNN, too.
Not even two months ago, they ran a piece writing off the lab leak theory as “like something out of a comic book.”
Yesterday, the tone had changed, without any reference to their own role in the previous debate.
The idea that Covid-19 may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China has gained mainstream traction of late.
It can be easy to forget that, a little over a year ago, the idea was derided as a vile, senseless conspiracy theory.
Let’s revisit. ⤵️
@SenTomCotton took much of the initial heat for suggesting this as a possibility back in January.
Here’s what the @nytimes had to say about his “fringe theory” that “lacks evidence” and which “scientists have dismissed.”
Apparently those concerns have been un-dismissed since.
In another piece in 2020, @nytimes concluded that “most agencies remain skeptical” and “scientists are dismissive” of the lab leak theory. Unfortunately, appears that was certainly true, but not to their credit.
Yet another story continues to describe the idea as a conspiracy.
Reminder that when Trump sat in a truck as President, Alex Petri - who gets paid to write things for WaPo - wrote a fan fic story about him just driving away in it.
@charlescwcooke’s brilliant piece on Rebekah Jones, supposedly a COVID whistleblower in Florida, exposed her as a fraud & a charlatan.
You may be wondering how the grift went on for so long. My hunch: unscrupulous media attention.
I thought it was time to revisit.⤵️
First, quick background.
@GeoRebekah earned media fame after she was fired for, purportedly, refusing to “fudge” the #’s on COVID deaths/cases in FL. But as Cooke explains none of her story was (or even could be) true. She never had access to data at all: google.com/amp/s/www.nati…
But that of course didn’t stop mainstream outlets from rushing to report how big, bad Governor DeSantis had punished this poor whistleblower supposedly trying to do her job.
That’s, at least, how anyone would read the coverage from @CNN.
Part of why the Rep Cheney fiasco is such news is that political courage doesn’t really exist anymore, so something like a member of Congress picking intraparty fights & thereby losing a temporary position 99% of Americans couldn’t describe is the closest approximation we have.
Being a member of Congress is basically a golden ticket to the good life so long as you don’t get caught breaking lots of laws that people care about - and even then, that’s no guarantee of punishment. Even disgraced members tend to be just fine.
The fallback option is always making a zillion dollars as a lobbyist. How much courage does it take to upset the apple cart when that’s your safety net?
Anyone earnestly interested in helping our republic would be trying to improve one or the other of the two political parties that will exist and matter in our lifetime, not launch quixotic vanity campaigns for a third party.
That’s what really gets me about all of this. These people - from Bill Kristol and Evan McMullin to the anonymous oped guy - saw another faction wrest control of the GOP and rather than try to make it better they picked up their ball and went home *that same campaign cycle*
It’s short sighted and petulant and self-important. And it reveals that those jumping ship are infinitely more interested in holding onto temporal power than they are anyone’s long term best interest or the principles that (continue to!) shape political parties.