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Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
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26 Jun, 4 tweets, 2 min read
I would like to note that whenever I brought up the lab leak idea, I got reamed for supporting "racism". So because I didn't think my opinion on lab leak was important, I just chose to shut up about it.
Note that I don't think that the "lab leak is racist" thing was an example of wokeness or other deep principle. I think it was a fear-based reaction in the middle of a pandemic -- a reflexive attempt to ward away something that felt scary.
Anyway, I'm STILL getting admonished by people along these lines.

Here are some replies to my tweets above.
Anyway, if I thought that my voice was an important voice on this topic, I would have spoken up despite the backlash. It wasn't, so I didn't. But the trope that "lab leak theory = racism" was enough to at least chill my speculation.

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More from @Noahpinion

Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
23 Jun
Today on Twitter I saw someone claim that WW2 started because BOTH SIDES insisted on escalating.

I've seen some bananas takes on this website, but somehow it never stops being able to surprise me.
If only the Allies hadn't insisted on escalating after Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, right? If only Neville Chamberlain hadn't been such a warmonger...

🤯🤯🤯
You see, the Allies escalated at VERSAILLES, and Germany was just trying to restore balance...

🤯🤯🤯

Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
22 Jun
I think this is correct. Conservative ideas actually have a strong future in America. But if the GOP falls to the temptation to do election-theft or coups, they will give up that advantage.
Coup attempts, especially, will result in utter domination of U.S. institutions by liberals and leftists. The Right will be utterly discredited; institutions like the military will have no choice but to completely embrace the things the Right fears most.
In fact you can already see this happening, with the "woke" military ads and the attempts to root out white supremacists following the 1/6 coup attempt -- which the military knows was a coup attempt no matter how many times rightists screech that it wasn't.
Read 6 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
22 Jun
1/Some thoughts on my interview with Marc Andreessen!

noahpinion.substack.com/p/interview-ma…
2/Most interviews I do are back-and-forth, but this one was just me sending him a list of 10 questions, so I didn't respond in the interview itself! So here are some responses.
3/I think his libertarian perspective on the pandemic is more right than we'd care to admit (and similar to a point I made here: noahpinion.substack.com/p/climate-chan…).

But it does ignore the incredibly successful Operation Warp Speed, and the extremely fast vaccine rollout under Biden.
Read 19 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
22 Jun
🇮🇳: We're going to skip industry and go directly to services!

🇧🇩: We make shirts

🇮🇳: We're going to ban physical money!

🇧🇩: Buy our shirts

🇮🇳: Here's an incredibly complicated tax plan!

🇧🇩: Would you like a shirt?

🇮🇳: Education? Who needs it!!

🇧🇩: Shirts
🇵🇰: We will smash India and retake Kashmir

🇧🇩: We also make pants

🇵🇰: Down with Islamophobia (unless it's in China)!

🇧🇩: Buy our pants

🇵🇰: Let's prop up our exchange rate and get bailed out by the IMF!

🇧🇩: Pants

🇵🇰: We have nuclear bombs!!!

🇧🇩: These pants are the bomb
🇻🇳: Psst, guys, you should make electronics too

🇧🇩: ?? We make shirts. And pants.

🇻🇳: Electronics are higher value-added, and help you move up the value chain

🇧🇩: Can people wear them?

🇻🇳: And electronics facilitate idea spillovers...

🇧🇩: But...shirts...pants...

🇻🇳: ...
Read 14 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
21 Jun
When people ask me what would be the best country for young Americans to live abroad in for 2 years, my answer is, unironically, China.
Some reasons for this:

1. It would help Americans understand China better, and vice versa, thus promoting understanding between the two countries

2. It would teach Americans the difference between $20,000 per capita GDP and $60,000 per capita GDP
Also, it would inspire young Americans to think about growth, and about manufacturing.

The biggest downside would be the air pollution. But China has made substantial progress on cleaning it up, and will probably continue to make progress.
Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
20 Jun
Have you ever heard of the Moro Crater Massacre?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Bat…
You can read Mark Twain's comments on the massacre here. (Scroll down to "Monday, March 12, 1906")

gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/02005…
People ask me: "Noah, where did you learn about all these historical atrocities?"

High, school, folks. AP U.S. History.
Read 4 tweets

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