I’m reading the Bible now (on 1 Samuel,) and yeah, unless you’re already a believer, there’s nothing in there that will make you believe. I found Leviticus fascinating as a look into an ancient religious society, but when it describes in detail how the fat around the intestines and kidneys should be burned in the various types of animal sacrifices, of which Deuteronomy demands thousands per year, it’s clear that this is very foreign and very old.

Problem is that believers are taught to ignore the uncomfortable bits: “Jesus fulfilled the Old Law so we don’t have to do that.” Ok. But why before Jesus did God care about the order in which a sheep’s organs were burned? Why did he find the aroma of burning fat pleasing? Believers won’t answer that, they’ll handwave it as something necessary in old Jewish society but that no longer applies.

Even if you ignore all that, though, the whole thing reads like a giant Skywalker saga. Every tribe and group of people traces their lineage back to someone in Genesis. Every town and site has an origin story: “And then Bob farted on the hill, so they named that hill Smeltit, with means scented wind.” Enemies cower in fear because they hear how awesome the Israelite’s god is and how much better he is than their gods. People freely give out blessings and curses (both of which work), and roll dice as a form of divination, and believers still insist the blessings work today while sweeping the rest under the rug.

It’s obviously all myth meant to explain the world in which the ancient Israelites lived, but you’re only going to see that if you’re not already blindly believing that God orchestrated all of it.

He’s right in that lower information voters are voters too and need a party that represents them.

He’s wrong in the implied solution that lying to low information voters and screwing them over is the best way to serve them.

Yes, I’m an actual practicing family physician. The vaccines are known to be both safe and effective. They reduce the chances of you getting COVID, they reduce the chance that you’ll spread it, and they reduce the chances of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. I get them and I recommend them to my patients.

So I’m actually a doctor and this is just wrong. The vaccine was developed properly built on decades of research and produced quickly with appropriate funding. Though I detest Trump, signing off on Operation Warp Speed was an actual sensible thing he did during his first term.

Your comparison to the polio vaccine is interesting because you’re clearly not aware of the Cutter incident or that OPV causes polio in a small percentage of recipients. By comparison, the COVID-19 vaccines had a much smoother rollout and cannot actually cause COVID-19.

So you’re saying the Chinese government released a virus so that vaccines could be released by:

• A German company
• A British-Swedish company
• A Chinese government owned company
• Three different US companies
• A Dutch biotech subsidiary of a Belgian subsidiary of a US company
• An Indian company
• A private Chinese company
• A French company
• The Russian government
• The Cuban government
• An Iranian company

So their goal was to release a virus so they could be one of many countries to develop a cure, with most of the cures being made by private companies in countries that are their enemies? And what was the goal of this? So they could say, “Look, we are one of several countries to make the same cure?”

It is clear you are unable to answer the question that is central to your conspiracy theory.

Also, despite your claims elsewhere in your thread, you have accidentally revealed here that you are indeed JAQing off.

No, your comment is stupid. 16,000 is a big number. 0.00000001 is a small number.

Now that we’ve established that some numbers are smaller than others: namely, that 22.1 million is smaller than 8 billion, 16,000 is smaller than 22.1 million, and 0.00000001 is smaller than 22.1 million, will you quit stalling and answer the question?

The more you dodge it, the more you prove that you have no answer. And without an answer, your entire conspiracy theory falls apart.

So I’ll ask one more time: Why would a government release this specific virus?

Was it because they had gone diamond hands in Zoom stock calls and needed to cash out? We’re all waiting.

Yes, I think 0.28% of the world’s population is small. You still haven’t answered the question. Why, Ted? Why?

To do what, exactly?

“Boss, I came up with a brilliant plan! We’re going to release a virus that mildly inconveniences a lot of people! It’ll clog hospitals in random parts of the world for a couple weeks at a time, kill a small percentage of people, and maybe even strand a single cruise ship! We’ll of course have no control over where it goes or how it mutates, and there will probably be an effective vaccine within a year.”

“Ok, Ted, that certainly sounds like a thing we could do, but FUCKING WHY?”

If you’re going to come up with a big scary government story, you need to include the part where the big scary government had an actual plan.

I already know the response: “I’m not saying this is actually the case. I’m just thinking it, out loud, in your general direction. And yeah, l totally believe it and I literally did just say it, but I also just said I didn’t say it so if anyone points out the obvious I can try to save face, mmk?”

No. It’s pretty much concluded to have crossed to humans in a wet market.

A betting app where you gamble video game points instead of money. So missing the entire reason betting apps exist.

Well this article is about 15 years late.