SA, I’m not going to settle on the bat origin theory just because it’s becoming mainstream, nor because the lab escape theory is getting used for bashing the Chinese government.
If I was benevolent dictator of the world for a year, I’d have all the surveillance systems and security cameras turned to point the other way. Instead of surveillance upon the people concentrating data into the possession of corporations and governments, I’d have the surveillance in all the labs, boardrooms and factories etc., both government and private, distributing all that data and making it available to the entire global population. Under such circumstances I would expect conspiracy theories to wither, because instead of speculating, anyone with a suspicion could just access the system and look for themselves.
Then we’d see what we should really be outraged about. We’d have seen the local Chinese housing authorities enforcing the lockdown by welding shut the apartment block doors. We’d have heard the screams in the night and seen the backlog of corpses at the crematoria, and what was coming would have been common knowledge. We’d have seen Boris Johnson and his cabinet chuckling about the irrelevance of what we’d just seen and trading lives against profit for various timings and degrees of social restrictions. We’d see Trump failing to work out how to open his cornflakes and praying on the matter before finally calling his national security advisor to help him.
Religion has long taught of an omniscient God as an encouragement to conscience. I say let’s build public omniscience. The person who made a start is in Belmarsh prison awaiting extradition, and that speaks volumes about good and evil.