Regarding the Source of the Virus, Pigs Are Flying; Plus, the Nature of Today’s Gullible

Suddenly, there has been this startling 180 degree turn among the powers-that-be regarding the source of the Wuhan virus. A year ago or so we heard them say that the idea that it came out of a lab was nothing but a conspiracy theory from the right and that, therefore, such talk needed to be suppressed. Now suddenly they are acknowledging it as a possibility, and social media entities are scrambling to reverse their loathsome censorship. But why now?

Here is one account that says it started with an article in Science magazine. Here is a different account from Ann Coulter saying that the science writer Nicholas Wade wrote something about it in Medium. Whatever the case, it seems that respected people in science started expressing doubts about the ruling-class’s theory. And then Fauci had to acknowledge them, and a cascade of changes began.

Naturally, all of this reinforces my belief that John Stuart Mill was right about wanting free speech rather than all of the censorship that dominates on social media. We need to be hearing about alternative possibilities, if only to strengthen our own views. Moreover, as Nicholas Wade points out (as quoted in Coulter’s column), once our ruling class makes a decision, it is very difficult for scientists to speak out against that decision because they will lose access to grants.

But what is even more surprising in all of this is the gullibility of so many highly educated people. People with Ph.D.s who know that dealing with evidence can be tricky, that there are often two or more well-supported opinions on many subjects, and that caution is needed in complex affairs nevertheless accept the ruling-class media’s pronouncements on many things and believe that the science is settled. And these people further accept that suppressing alternate opinions is fine. They aren’t any better than people from a century ago who had only an eighth-grade education and who had only the dimmest notion of how science worked.

It’s all very pathetic.

Comments

[Kevin Kim]

An interesting article on the stupidity of smart, educated people, here: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/frontal-cortex/why-smart-people-are-stupid

Michael Crichton famously gave a talk (here: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2021/01/18/gell-mann-amnesia/#:~:text=Michael%20Crichton%20coined%20the%20term,some%20subject%20you%20know%20well.) in which he used the analogy of reading a news article on a topic about which you're an expert (say, physics), seeing it's full of flaws, then turning the page and reading an article on a different topic (say, economics) while assuming the author knows what he's talking about. This instant amnesia is called the Murray Gell-Mann Effect. Smart people can be very dumb.

[John Pepple]

Thanks for the links.