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Looking back over this year, and really the last eight years, perhaps the oddest observation is the degree to which the media was apparently motivated by one thing: if Trump said it, it must be wrong!
IstartedthinkingaboutthatthismorningwhenJonathanTurleyobservedthedegreetowhichthemediaandtheconventionalwisdomcombinedtosuppressandevenexplicitlycensorthetheorythatSARS-CoV-2,the“COVIDvirus,”originatedinalableak.
ThewholehistoryoftheoriesoftheoriginofCOVID-19wasfullofpeopleannouncingabsolutecertaintythatitoriginatedinoneparticularway,generallywithlimiteddata.
Someofthetheorieswerebasicallyurbanmythsfromthestart:“batsoup”wasbasedonthefalseassertionthatthevirusoriginatedintheso-called“wetmarket”thatdidn’tactuallyselllivebats,alongwithavideoofaChinesesocialmediainfluenceractuallyeatingbatsoupyearsbeforetheoutbreakinamarketinMalaysia.(Bytheway,“wetmarket”isabadtranslation—it’scloserto“freshmarket.”Itsoldfreshmeatandproduce.)
Evenbeforethelableaktheorygotrolling,therewasapaperfromIndiatha
