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Amateur internet sleuths broke the Wuhan lab story. This is how they did it.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 9:52 am
Posted on 6/3/21 at 9:52 am
Very long but fascinating read on how a "small, motley group of amateur sleuths will have broken what may be the biggest story of the 21st century" and embarrassed the media.
Story continues...
Newsweek Exclusive
quote:
For most of last year, the idea that the coronavirus pandemic could have been triggered by a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China, was largely dismissed as a racist conspiracy theory of the alt-right. The Washington Post in early 2020 accused Senator Tom Cotton of "fanning the embers of a conspiracy theory that has been repeatedly debunked by experts." CNN jumped in with "How to debunk coronavirus conspiracy theories and misinformation from friends and family." But in the last week or so, the story has burst into the public discourse. And the mainstream media, in an astonishing about-face, is treating the possibility with deadly seriousness.
The reason for the sudden shift in attitudes is clear: over the weeks and months of the pandemic, the pileup of circumstantial evidence pointing to the Wuhan lab kept growing—until it became too substantial to ignore.
The people responsible for uncovering this evidence are not journalists or spies or scientists. They are a group of amateur sleuths, with few resources except curiosity and a willingness to spend days combing the internet for clues. Throughout the pandemic, about two dozen or so correspondents, many anonymous, working independently from many different countries, have uncovered obscure documents, pieced together the information, and explained it all in long threads on Twitter—in a kind of open-source, collective brainstorming session that was part forensic science, part citizen journalism, and entirely new. They call themselves DRASTIC, for Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19.
Thanks to DRASTIC, we now know that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had an extensive collection of coronaviruses gathered over many years of foraging in the bat caves, and that many of them—including the closest known relative to the pandemic virus, SARS-CoV-2—came from a mineshaft where three men died from a suspected SARS-like disease in 2012. We know that the WIV was actively working with these viruses, using inadequate safety protocols, in ways that could have triggered the pandemic, and that the lab and Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to conceal these activities. We know that the first cases appeared weeks before the outbreak at the Huanan wet market that was once thought to be ground zero.
This is how they did it.
The young Indian man who calls himself The Seeker is in his late-20s, lives somewhere in eastern India, and uses a piece of tribal art from his home region of West Bengal for his Twitter logo. A voracious autodidact, he'd become an expert at searching the back alleys of the web, far beyond the well-lit places patrolled by Google, for information on whatever topic interested him. He often posted on Reddit, where he had accumulated a massive 750,000 karma points.
In his online explorations, he'd recently discovered a massive Chinese database of academic journals and theses called CNKI. (Shortly after The Seeker posted the theses, China changed the access controls on CNKI so no one could do such a search again.)
Story continues...
Newsweek Exclusive
Posted on 6/3/21 at 9:53 am to paperwasp
Well it's definitely not our traditional media. They don't question anything the "right person" tells them.
And if you disagree with their position, you are the purveyor of racist conspiracy theories.
And if you disagree with their position, you are the purveyor of racist conspiracy theories.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 9:54 am to paperwasp
I'm shocked that's from newsweek.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 9:56 am to paperwasp
quote:
what may be the biggest story of the 21st century
Nope, it won't be. It likely should be, but it won't. It will be ignored by the sheepish masses and mainstream media will do their very best to report on it as little as possible. It sucks.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 9:56 am to paperwasp
So China, supported by certain foreign monies and operatives (some from the US) unleashed a plague (albeit a Wish quality one) on the world, crippling the economy and killing millions.
This is germ warfare.
They have literal concentration camps.
They are using biological weapons.
Egregious human rights violations.
And we are just supposed to cozy up to them?
Should have let the Japanese finish the job.
This is germ warfare.
They have literal concentration camps.
They are using biological weapons.
Egregious human rights violations.
And we are just supposed to cozy up to them?
Should have let the Japanese finish the job.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 9:56 am to goofball
quote:
Well it's definitely not our traditional media. They don't question anything the "right person" tells them.
I just don’t understand this.
There’s no young hungry journalist out there willing to break a unprecedented story to make a name? Are they all that willing to follow the narrative from the top? Or is there work suppressed if it doesn’t fit the narrative?
Posted on 6/3/21 at 9:58 am to fr33manator
quote:
And we are just supposed to cozy up to them?
Our politicians, academia, and media are being paid a handsome sum of money to make sure we do.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:00 am to Klark Kent
quote:
There’s no young hungry journalist out there willing to break a unprecedented story to make a name?
Not at the expense of the Party.
quote:
Are they all that willing to follow the narrative from the top?
Yes. It's what happens when an entire industry shares the exact same political ideology.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:00 am to Klark Kent
quote:
There’s no young hungry journalist out there willing to break a unprecedented story to make a name? Are they all that willing to follow the narrative from the top? Or is there work suppressed if it doesn’t fit the narrative?
Suppression has to be the culprit. There’s no way to make tens of thousands of participants toe the line in exactly the same manner with no exceptions.
So these are editorial decisions by a smaller group.
It doesn’t matter that you have the story of the century if no platform is willing to broadcast it.
BTW what we’re seeing with this COVID story is the flaw in the suppression strategy. In the internet age there’s really no way to plug all the potential leaks, and if a story is explosive enough the propaganda outlets must try to get in front of it with spin.
This post was edited on 6/3/21 at 10:19 am
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:01 am to paperwasp
quote:
Amateur internet sleuths
More trustworthy than our media or our government.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:01 am to CocomoLSU
quote:
mainstream media will do their very best to report on it as little as possible
How bout them UFOs?
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:03 am to Klark Kent
They would be blackballed and labeled a loon immediately. It has happened so many time already. You would think though, with the availability of alternate ways of getting your story out, SOMEONE would give it a go.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:03 am to Klark Kent
quote:
no young hungry journalist
Probably difficult to find a young journalist to challenge the narrative. 1) academia, especially in liberal arts concentrations, is beyond infiltrated with leftists: and 2) they reside in the echo chamber that is Twitter. It’s all some young people know. See: the allegory of the cave.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:04 am to Klark Kent
quote:
I just don’t understand this.
There’s no young hungry journalist out there willing to break a unprecedented story to make a name?
Apparently they finally did, but only after this amateur group started releasing details.
From about halfway through the article:
quote:
Within days, DRASTIC managed to locate the coordinates of the mysterious Mojiang mine, but it would not catch the attention of the media until late 2020, when a race to get there began. The first attempt was by the BBC's John Sudworth, who found his path blocked by trucks and guards. (Sudworth would soon be forced to leave China because of his reporting.) The AP tried around the same time, with no better luck. Later, teams from NBC, CBS, Today, and other outlets also found their way blocked by trucks, trees, and angry men. Some were told that it was dangerous to proceed because of wild elephants. Eventually, a Wall Street Journal reporter reached the entrance to the mine by mountain bike—only to be detained for five hours of questioning.
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:07 am to CocomoLSU
quote:
It will be ignored by the sheepish masses and mainstream media will do their very best to report on it as little as possible
Because then they would have to ask the next MOST LOGICAL question about the timing during an election year involving many individuals and groups with a vested interest in getting Trump out of office. The only way the Dims were going to get mass mail-in voting that would allow them to engage in the most MASSIVE F*CKING VOTER FRAUD OPERATION this country has ever seen is to have some sort of global pandemic where they could scare the f*ck out of people to the point where they were convinced they couldn't even leave their own homes.
Was it all just a coincidence and the timing just turned out to aid the TDS infected Dims who used it to their fraudulent advantage?
Those are questions they'll never even consider.
This post was edited on 6/3/21 at 10:31 am
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:11 am to paperwasp
That guy is not part of a bureaucratic institution therefore he cannot be part of The Science™
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:12 am to paperwasp
you could just say /pol/ was right again
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:18 am to paperwasp
Embarrassed the media.
—
I know what you’re saying.
But they know no shame!
—
I know what you’re saying.
But they know no shame!
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:18 am to skidry
quote:
They would be blackballed and labeled a loon immediately.
Remember that one CBS reporter who dared to ask Dementia Joe about Hunter's laptop during the campaign?
He's now either in the witness protection program or is hanging out with Capt. Stillman at a weather station above the Arctic Circle....
This post was edited on 6/3/21 at 10:20 am
Posted on 6/3/21 at 10:23 am to paperwasp
Bull.
It was Nicholas Wade and Baker who moved it forward.
It was Nicholas Wade and Baker who moved it forward.
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