https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/dont-be-a-useful-idiot
"Don't be a useful idiot
No, the United States wasn't funding bioweapons research in Ukraine; this was part of a long-running effort to pay off ex-Soviet scientists so they wouldn't take their talents to South Tehran"
Good read.
His argument amounts to: I didn’t lie to you about Sars-Cov-2 so when I say the people who *did* lie about it are *now* telling the truth you should believe me.
That’s a huge level of trust he’s demanding.
There’s no evidence the labs kept their good mission all the way from the nineties to now.
Given Wuhan, it’s perfectly reasonable to speculate the US has been doing the same elsewhere.
I haven’t seen evidence that’s a fact — but it isn’t an outlandish claim.
@lucash_dev Read that article again, more carefully. It'd do you some good.
@pete I reread it carefully and didn’t change my understanding.
There are bio labs there. It’s public knowledge. They were created and funded for a good reason. Some of what happens there is classified.
The above is true of both Ukraine and Wuhan.
His only argument against the labs in Ukraine being used the same way as the ones in Wuhan is that is a justification for Russian aggression and “I’m telling you so”.
I didn’t think it was true. Now I’m wondering.
@lucash_dev Huh? We don't have evidence that the biolabs in Wuhan were making bioweapons.
We have solid evidence that Russia is not making arguments in good faith. They are not the ones who should get the benefit of the doubt here. Berenson's explanation makes sense: they hired a bunch of offensive bioweapons researchers to do peaceful research, including bioweapons defense and detection. That's totally ok.
I definitely *don’t* give the benefit of the doubt to people who were doing gain of function research in Wuhan.
If they *could* be doing it covertly in Ukraine it is likely they would.
That of course, doesn’t make Putin the good guy, or even “less bad”.
@lucash_dev ...and gain of function research is not offensive bioweapons research. Don't mix up the two.
@pete
Gain of function is developing bio-weapons.
I’m not giving the benefit of the doubt to the Russians.
I’m keeping an open mind on a possibility that now seems plausible. Whether the Russians can use it as an excuse for war is irrelevant to it being true or false.
I thought it was a remote possibility— seeing all the people who kept dismissing gain of function research in Wuhan as conspicuous theory do the same with Ukraine makes me suspicious