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[return to "The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins"]
1. PaulDa+ob[view] [source] 2021-06-04 01:00:32
>>codech+(OP)
You know the story of the boy who cried wolf?

Trump was the boy.

Everybody knows how that story ended, but as a reminder:

"This tale concerns a shepherd boy who repeatedly tricks nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock. When a wolf actually does appear, the villagers do not believe the boy's cries for help, and the flock is destroyed. The moral of the story is that liars will not be rewarded; even if they tell the truth, no one believes them. "

There's a cost to lying. Sometimes it's your own flock. Sometime's its everybody's flock. Maybe Trump was right, maybe he wasn't. The boy was right about the wolf, eventually, too. The moral remains the same.

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2. briefc+qf[view] [source] 2021-06-04 01:40:33
>>PaulDa+ob
Craziest excuse I've ever heard: "I couldn't be bothered to act rationally and morally because someone else was being too annoying".
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3. PaulDa+og[view] [source] 2021-06-04 01:48:01
>>briefc+qf
What do you think the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is? Is it a lesson for the villagers, or a lesson for a (potential) liar?
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4. briefc+Sh[view] [source] 2021-06-04 02:01:30
>>PaulDa+og
It's a story. Mature people can act smartly and morally even when they are annoyed

If I had to pick a "moral" of that fable, it's to never let your guard down, no matter what.

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5. PaulDa+mi[view] [source] 2021-06-04 02:06:21
>>briefc+Sh
I think you've missed the moral. It's not about being annoyed. It's about making a choice on whether to dismiss someone's claims because of their past lies.

Sure, you can make the case for always ignoring past lies, and always evaluating every claim based on current evidence. The reason the story exists is to try to illustrate how most humans actually behave, despite there being a preferable response.

In addition, the evidence for the lab leak theory wasn't strong back when Trump became the mouthpiece for it. There wasn't much of a reason, even if you evaluated the current evidence for what could be another one of his thousands of documented lies, to take it particularly seriously.

That situation might be changing now, and we are seeing that in the media and culture right now, as we respond to new evidence, or more specifically, lack of other expected evidence.

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