Jon Stewart knows the source of Covid-19

[deckeda]

I ain’t disputing it.

https://youtu.be/sSfejgwbDQ8

https://youtu.be/jtTvXZ5lby8

[Acer]

I'm a little disappointed in Jon here. That's Twitter post levels of over-simplification.

Wuhan Corona virus lab is in Wuhan because that's where the Corona virus is.

Fire stations are built in places where there are a lot of buildings that might burn.

I think there's a named logical fallacy in here somewhere.

And I take issue that "Scientists" will do a thing just because they can, regardless of the implications. There may be the odd Mengele freelancing, but the nastiest stuff like nuclear weapons or bioweapons were developed under specific pressure from governments, not "scientists" being unilaterally reckless. Again, smacks of MAGA trope.

[RgrF]

My take from seeing that earlier was that Stewart was trolling, Colbert's comeback "How long have you been working for Ron Johnson?" was a tell.

[Ca Bob]

I saw it. There wasn't anything correct that he said, right down to the name of the virology lab in Wuhan. I think it was an attempt to be funny and serious, and it did get a few laughs. But it kind of fell flat pretty quickly. His line about the end of the world -- some scientist in a laboratory will say, "It worked!" -- is a standard science fictional trope that has become cliched and banal. I think he will be better the next time; doing comedy at this level is now very different since that other guy is no longer the president.

[deckeda]

I agree it certainly works as a troll, and just as predictable was a conspiracy-themed channel that immediately popped into my feed as a result that never would have otherwise: a Ben Shapiro video that used a screen grab image of Jon with a title card saying “he’s right.”

Any chance of nuance or joke about the lab or the virus isn’t gonna be picked up by that crowd.

[mrbigstuff]

RgrF wrote:
My take from seeing that earlier was that Stewart was trolling, Colbert's comeback "How long have you been working for Ron Johnson?" was a tell.

Yes, and rehearsed. He was enjoying it, also.

Not that I think he's incorrect in this assumption, mind you. Just that we don't have many facts from China at this point.

[cbelt3]

That theory has gone around every since late 2019. There IS a disease lab in Wuhan. It's been there a long time. It's got strong connections to the WHO and the US. There are disease labs all over the world. And because the lab was in Wuhan, they were able to identify COVID-19 SUPER FAST.

We don't call all new diseases in the US the "Atlanta Bug" just because the CDC labs are in Atlanta...

People happily forget that there is a worldwide surveillance network set up to identify new diseases as fast as possible, and identify the severity and begin immunicazation development as fast as possible.

[Acer]

If he's trolling, then he's too clever for his own good. Because it's yet another point that must explained ad nauseum when this segment will be used to score points on rightwing media. MAGA are simple folk. Subtlety is lost on them.

[SteveG]

Many people say that windmill noise causes cancer.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Any good trolling has some truth. The lab in Wuhan was founded in 1956. In 2014 a new section opened as the first biosafety level 4 lab in China. One of the closest identified virus in bats was found in 2013 in a cave near Yunnan, 1,800 km away from Wuhan.

China hasn't let any outside experts do their own investigation/research on the animals in the Wuhan meat market or take blood samples from WIV lab workers that possibly had respiratory infections a couple of weeks before the virus was diagnosed at hospitals in Wuhan. China's record with SARS isn't great. What's the easiest explanation, the virus came from the lab in the same city, or someone carrying bats 1,100 miles to sell...