The media’s culpability in suppressing the lab leak hypothesis is obvious. But a larger share of the blame falls upon science journal reviewers & publishers - the “scientific establishment.
They shut down discussion & discredited viable alternatives.
These prestigious, influential journals should be providing a forum for pulsating debate as experts explore and test theories, especially on something as contentious and fascinating as the possible origins of a global pandemic.
The opposite, in this case, happened.
It appears that @Nature had made it very clear what the boundary of what Dr. @EricRWeinstein calls the Gated Institutional Narrative is:
Be warned, for Thou shalt not speak of the lab leak hypothesis.
The grant makers, the NIH, the science journals, the scientist experts - all of their incentives to tell the truth are misaligned.
It’s a giant racket, and they, like all bureaucrats have only one goal - to maximize the potency of the bureaucracy.
This I find particularly egregious on @Nature’s part - not disclosing that the genome offered as the closest known one to SARS-CoV2 had a name change.
Why? One could guess. The change obscured an important connection.
Only two possible choices: Negligence or maliciousness?
So there were personal & institutional interests to protect.
But there might be something else. Just like in Hollywood, the need to appease Chinese commercial interests might be at play here.
China is the biggest national sponsor of publishers that produce these journals (!!)
Corporate links to China compromise output and distort agendas, especially when investigating something as sensitive as the origins of covid19.
The epistemic role of science journals and the publishing process today should absolutely be questioned in light of this.
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I take some of the most flak for standing by Andy Ngo.
He is, first and foremost, a friend. He also happens to be a conservative-leaning journalist who chose a beat - to show to the world what Antifa really is, and what they stand for.
Woke-washing ultimately hits at a very simple truth: the most progressive place on this planet are the very ones progressives say are the most bigoted and racist
Dying to see a company, any company, support gay rights in parts of Asia and the Middle East.
This math teacher is speaking out against a dangerous ideology masquerading as "anti-racism" in his elite NYC high school.
Paul Rossi is a beacon of courage, speaking out not only for the kids entrusted under his care & tutelage, but for *all* our kids. bariweiss.substack.com/p/i-refuse-to-…
Paul has, in all likelihood, guaranteed career suicide with this move. But what he did today is significant.
He embodied the words of the late Christopher Hitchens to “.... never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence.”
Notice the co-opting of certain terminology and concepts from psychotherapy and our new secular religion of wellness:
It takes a corrupted mind to attribute every single assault on Asians to white supremacy. This is the conspiracy theory that faces zero pushback from the mainstream media. In fact, peddling it gets you TV shows and Pulitzer Prizes.
There were a lot of "ACKSHUALLY no one banned or canceled Dr. Seuss books" in my replies.
Here's the thing: if the last few months have shown you anything, it is that the slippery slope is indeed slippery AND that "cultural changes" can be just as
if not more powerful than government censorship itself.
One thing I know a fair bit about is book publishing in the Middle East. There are countries with long lists of officially banned books (e.g. Kuwait), but for many others, books are de facto banned via social opprobrium.
This has an effect on the entire book publishing industry there. Publishers don't sell because the market isn't there; readers can't purchase because it's not economically sound for publishers to sell.
This does not make for a vibrant reading culture if books people want to
But riddle me this. Why, if Trump’s rhetoric or hawkish China foreign policy is the reason for the hate crimes, is this happening in progressive cities? And under Biden’s admin?