Conspiracies are OK if the "right" people / entities validate them (B Weinstein on Maher)

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Heather Heying & Bret Weinstein: The Lab Hypothesis | Real Time (HBO)
619,347 views•Jan 29, 2021


Real Time with Bill Maher
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Evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein join Bill Maher to discuss the nature and possible origins of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

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Bill Maher Pushes Steve Bannon Wuhan Lab COVID Conspiracy
FACT-FREE

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The “Real Time” host welcomed a pair of podcast hosts to push the evidence-free conspiracy theory—originated by Steve Bannon—that COVID-19 is man-made and escaped from a lab.
Marlow Stern
Senior Entertainment Editor

Updated Jan. 30, 2021 12:30AM ET / Published Jan. 30, 2021 12:02AM ET

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Well, on tonight’s edition of his HBO show, Maher welcomed a pair of podcast hosts, the husband-and-wife duo of Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, to discuss the origins of COVID-19. Weinstein and Heying, for the uninitiated, are members of the so-called “intellectual dark web” who in 2017 both resigned from their posts as biology professors at Evergreen State College in protest of a minority-appreciation day, and have since whined about campus speech on a number of libertarian-leaning podcasts.

Maher proceeded to forward the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was man-made and somehow escaped from a lab in Wuhan.

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“Oh, it’s far more likely than that,” replied Weinstein, adding that “it looked to be about 90 percent” probability that it originated in a lab. “We are so politicized and polarized and partisan now as a country that if the wrong guy proposed this to begin with—and for the half the country, it was the wrong guy—then the rest of the country says ‘no way, no how, we’re gonna call that a conspiracy theory,” added Heying.

Let’s unpack this a bit. The “wrong guy” Heying is referring to is likely alt-right gadfly Steve Bannon, whose anti-China group the Rule of Law Society produced a report alleging that the virus was not produced in nature and had escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This dubious “report,” which was again spread by Steve Bannon (and retweeted by Trump, and parroted by Tucker Carlson), was immediately shot down by prominent members of the scientific community.

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Where did COVID-19 come from?
Posted on April 17, 2020
There is genetic evidence suggestive of human tinkering in the genome, and there are news stories suggesting the virus might have been developed either at the Wuhan Institute of Virology or at the American virology lab at Fort Detrick. There are even some suggestions that the American and Chinese bioweapons labs may be working together, sharing samples and exchanging funding.

Part 1: The Genetic Evidence

Preface

We rely on the scientific community as a context for almost every public policy decision. People who want to influence policy know this, and they don’t just lobby Congress, they also buy scientists, scientific reporting, and placement in prominent journals. Most scientists are honest, but they have to survive in a world where funding is tighter than it should be. It’s not surprising that some of them succumb and publish what powerful and corrupt institutions want them to.

The question of a laboratory origin for COVID is politically explosive, so we expect a heavy hand restraining the science establishment. Those of us seeking an honest answer, who have a little expertise, a little horse sense, and a lot of patience, are left to sift through information, misinformation, and disinformation in a politicized environment.

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