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Comment by pyronik19 | Hacker News Reader

It's curious as to why we don't treat western govt / media sources as "propaganda" but everything Russian is. I fully agree with the label, but its not being applied to the west. How long were western media just regurgitating that "biolabs" was "Russian disinformation" and writing "fact checks" which just parrot the official government narrative until they realized the Russians were going to capture them then they just admit it in an open hearing? I don't believe a word of what either side says. The moral superiority gap has shrunk to next to nothing.

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Which open hearing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvRpntmUIxs

The implication that Ukrainian biolabs were developing bioweapons is Russian disinformation.

There are biolabs in almost every country. Almost every university will have one for example.

https://www.state.gov/the-kremlins-allegations-of-chemical-a... is the full US government statement. Which part do you think is inaccurate?

Here you are perpetuating more western propaganda and potential misinformation. First of all the difference between a "biolab" and a "bioweapons lab" is a semantic difference without actual substance. If covid was released out of the wuhan lab, the now predominate theory, this wasn't a "bioweapons lab" but just a "biolab". What is the practical difference? Fact is, anyone performing research that could be used as a bioweapon doesn't actually call it a bioweapon. They just in practice do all the same things a bioweapons lab would and pretend its just "for defense". You say potato, I say potato.

Do you have any evidence that the biolabs in Ukraine were performing research that was oriented towards being usable as a weapon?

Like what exactly is the claim here about that those labs were doing?

Or do you just think any biolab should automatically be assumed to be working on bioweapons? (And that we should ban all biolabs worldwide I guess?)

I think there was a release of docs about using humanized migratory birds to carry disease to specific places. Possibly as a blurred line between studying such mechanisms for defense as opposed to offense. I can’t speak to accuracy of such claims but it does appear that info is being released.

The repetition of unsourced claims without any links really isn't the most useful for online discussion. Especially for claims as wild as this.

I got it from Russian sources on Telegram, but you did ask what their claim was. You’ll have to go looking for the claims as they’re unlikely to get much airtime in the west. I think it’s to early to tell and if the Russians want me to believe their claims he’ll need to drop a whole lot more docs. AFAIK that hasn’t happened yet, I just was a PowerPoint and some docs that someone had translated, but I have no idea if the translation presented was correct.

Depending on which way the Chinese go with this we could end up with covid was created by the USA in a Ukrainian lab and then sent to China via migratory birds.... which would tie things up in a neat little bow. (Edit: should mention I'm not saying that's what happened - but I'm interested to see if it'll be claimed to have happened)

The line coming out of the US gov't no longer even makes sense, IMO.

They've claimed, like you, that the labs were just general biolabs you'd find at any university, and anything related to WMD is just Russian "disinformation."

But they've also claimed that these labs were old Soviet-era weapons research labs the DOD was helping to close down.

So which is it?

If they're closing down old weapons labs, why'd it take 17 years? If they're not weapons labs, why are they so afraid (as Nuland from State Dep't claimed) of the Russians seizing or destroying them?

If they're just research labs for the good of humanity, the gov't needs to explain to us taxpayers why they continue building up infrastructure and subsidizing research and jobs in foreign countries with money borrowed from China and / or printed up, which is now exacerbating inflation. How many underemployed PHDs in the US could be doing some research here at home with the hundreds of millions of dollars we've just handed out to Ukraine?

' explain to us taxpayers why they continue building up infrastructure and subsidizing research and jobs in foreign countries with money borrowed from China and / or printed up '

This is a good example of why government spending should be constrained. Fiat currency allows crazy spending and financing endless war. In the medium and long term this harms everyone. In the short term, bio-researchers get grants and toys to play with, and war profiteers get to make more munitions.

It takes 17 years to shut down Frankenstein labs because it costs government nothing to print funds.

"So which is it?" Most likely a complicated mix of many things.

Why would the ukrainians destroy the soviet labs just to build new ones?

It does seem prudent to destroy dangerous substances that might get involved in combat situations. There is also the possibility of false flag operations.

That is to say, all of silicon valley and the FANNGs are digital weapons factories, and YC itself is a weapons company.

Similarly, theres no practical difference between a military and civilian coffee shop, therefore all coffee shops are proper military targets

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