re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

You can count on the CCP to ALWAYS put themselves first in every situation.

Might be the biggest collection of amoral scumbags on Earth, but they're not braindead.

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The Venn diagram of people pushing the Neo-Nazi controlled Ukraine canard and who were earlier pushing the Blood Libel with a modern spin (adrenochrome) are two overlapping circles.

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I do think our media are generally suspect but it is interesting that different people are being bombarded with different types of misinformation (propaganda).

The nazi trope really looks like either an offshoot of Russian media or Russian sponsored propaganda. Which is not to say there are no people with nazi flags or beliefs there. But they shouldn't be viewed as the larger population any more than a group of alt right guys on message boards represented the larger group of Trump voters.

It is also a long standing trope for Russian nationalists to view any opposition to their thoughts as Nazi in identity or motivation. That's not a modern social media problem. It's more of a long term Russian problem that has been used as a cudgel to take out legitimate debate with nationalistic agitprop.

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I do think our media are generally suspect but it is interesting that different people are being bombarded with different types of misinformation (propaganda).

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The “throwing everything and seeing what sticks” approach. But I also don’t deny the believers their own agency in willingly being duped. Most actually want something...anything...that’s contrarian and heterodox to believe in because there’s something weirdly soothing about thinking everything is a conspiracy against you. Makes you the center of the universe, the hero of your own journey.

All it takes is for the disinformation specialists to dream something up that the believers can latch onto and then it’s off.

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THE. LABS. WERE. PUBLICLY. ACKNOWLEDGED. AND. THE. PUBLIC-HEALTH. RESEARCH. WAS. PUBLISHED. IN. PEER-REVIEWED. JOURNALS!

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Ok.

The point I was making is that using the statement of “European nation” is a bit disingenuous.

Would you have reservations if the 25 labs were located in Belarus or Slovakia? I mean, they are technically “European nations”.

Are these labs a problem? No, but it isn’t the same as having 25 US bio labs in England, France, Germany, etc.

It is appropriate to be skeptical when it comes to these former Eastern Bloc countries.

It also didn’t help when the US government came out and said that there weren’t any bio labs, only to reverse course and state that there are.



Why feed the conspiracy theorists?

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The point I was making is that using the statement of “European nation” is a bit disingenuous. Would you have reservations if the 25 labs were located in Belarus or Slovakia? Are these labs a problem? No, but it isn’t the same as having 25 US bio labs in England, France, Germany, etc.

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It’s kinda hard to refute innuendo, so let me posit some clear and factually-based points that, if they can be accepted, renders the fever dream-level conspiratorial thinking moot by virtue of parsimony.

A) the labs have been publicly acknowledged for over 20 years

B) if the labs were meant to develop “bio weapons”, why haven’t they been used yet?

C) The US funds scientific research in many countries, some less savory than others, but the research has always been open to Congressional oversight

D) the stated goal of these Ukrainian “bio labs” has been public health research, which is verifiable by virtue of looking up the papers published from this research and seeing that yes...indeed this research is for public health...not weapons.


If you can accept that 1) there’s nothing secretive about these labs, 2) that the research outcomes check out - public health data, not weapons optimization, and 3) there has yet to be any use of bio weapons in the the Russo-Ukrainian theater (even with an invading force 150,000 threatening to capture the entire nation)

By deduction via parsimony, you’re left with the obvious conclusion that these labs are innocuous research labs that the Russians are passing off innuendo on as a pretense for invading a sovereign state without provocation.


This is the Russian equivalent of Bush/Powell’s “aluminum tubes” and “yellow cake.”

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Why feed the conspiracy theorists?

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Well I dont have to have an anvil fall on my head to know the presence of these bio labs confirms the election was stolen.

Both sides now talking more optimistically about negotiations:

@ReevellP (ABC Moscow correspondent)

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Notable optimistic comments from both Russia and Ukraine’s negotiators today saying that the talks are making progress and that they are moving closer to a compromise.
One of Russia’s negotiators says he’s hopeful the progress might grow into agreements to sign in the coming days

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parsimony

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That's a 7 point word.

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A) the labs have been publicly acknowledged for over 20 years

B) if the labs were meant to develop “bio weapons”, why haven’t they been used yet?

C) The US funds scientific research in many countries, some less savory than others, but the research has always been open to Congressional oversight

D) the stated goal of these Ukrainian “bio labs” has been public health research, which is verifiable by virtue of looking up the papers published from this research and seeing that yes...indeed this research is for public health...not weapons.

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I’m not saying the Russians aren’t propagating, but this sounds an awful lot like Wuhan

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I’m not saying the Russians aren’t propagating, but this sounds an awful lot like Wuhan

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Given the reality of what these labs do and the current backdrop of the world, any single one of those labs anywhere in the world can be made to sound an awful lot like Wuhan.