zlacker

It's of course just more anecdotal evidence, but in my experience if you dare to mention the possibility of the virus being man-made on Reddit, regardless of the nuance and sources you add, you will get torn to shreds.

This is not just me being salty about reactions to my own comments, I've personally never made a comment on the origin of the covid on Reddit, as I don't feel like I have anything of value to add yet. It's just something I've witnessed over and over again.

Like the GP of this thread I've never understood why such a relatively harmless claim would be so contentious. I've always assumed it was something political that as a non-American I simply don't know the context of. It reminds me of the drama around hydroxychloroquine, where mentioning it on Reddit would get you tarred-and-feathered as a loony Trumpist, even though it seemed like a non-issue to me. Obviously HCQ doesn't really work, but believing it does never seemed to deserve such harsh treatment, which I'm again assuming has roots in a political context I don't fully understand.

>>kmm+(OP)
the political context is that one Trump / far right angle is to play up Chinas fault and use it as a weapon to discount the USs otherwise poor handling of the outbreak. I have several friends and family who think this way, and are nearly offended at the suggestion that eg Trump making fun of Biden wearing a mask is innapropriate. My general view is i am less concerned with the origins and more concerned with our preparedness for the next outbreak. So while i am not one of those down voters you speak of, i do legitimately fear that if it does turn out to be lab made, the far right will win back ground and we won’t see any meaningful progress towards bolstering out defense against the inevitable next outbreak.