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Comment by tal8d | Hacker News Reader

The propensity for lying, in order to protect the power structure, results in a major constraint on future options - requiring more lies. It is a vicious cycle that completely obliterates any potential strong-arm advantage a single party system may have. If for no other reason: this is why you don't lie, you have no idea how badly you screw your future self. Also, and I'm looking at you World Health Organization, anyone trying to soften the blowback from lying suffers major damage to their credibility.

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I think your point deserves more emphasis. IF in fact 5MM inhabitants of Wuhan fled the city before the lockdown, we can be pretty sure that this was caused, at least in part, by a lack in faith from their government’s handling of the previous outbreaks. The government lied and censored and the people did not forget. This in turn triggers a diaspora at the worst possible time.

The WHO fucked everyone. “No alarm” from WHO is my new “red flag”.

People who think the WHO is somehow corrupted scare me.

They are easily one of the most honest and forthright global organisations around, made up of competing professionals in their field from around the globe. They would be the first to be ringing alarm bells if there was a problem.

The onus is on you to prove they are being dishonest, not the other way around friendly internet commentator.

The implication is that they are an incompetent bureaucracy, not corrupted.

The WHO's director-general Tedros A. G. being in the pocket of CCP – being a conspiracy theory – is impossible to prove or disprove. However, his behaviour fits the MO of people confirmed of being nobbled, and aligns with CCP's goals of downplaying the crisis, saving face and continuing as usual, putting business before health and lives.

https://www.sciencealert.com/who-tries-to-correct-wuhan-coro...

Quote from press release: "travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing and medical supply chains and harming economies"

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If you can stomach a particularly uncharitable interpretation, watch "The WHO Belongs to Communist China": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5VGPYtbTk8

Minutes 1-13 and 37-49 are relevant.

Unlike the WHO, this friendly internet commentator hasn't appointed Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador. So you'd be better served appealing to my authority, not theirs.

It was honestly a good move, with all upside and no downside, influence moves in subtle ways. The rabid internet mobs who move from one issue to the next with no concern for the bigger picture made quick work of it though.

I truly wonder if these people reflect on what they did, was it in the interest of human suffering or simply petty signalling?

Was nothing more than a title, much like the CEO's and Senior engineers in startups. Saying this as a code artisan.

Please read the statement on the matter:

https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/22-10-2017-director-gen...

And snap goes the bear trap. I was a little concerned that the parallels between their political maneuvering with Mugabe and Jinping would be too obvious, but you've clearly missed it. They have a history of this sort of behavior.

> They are easily one of the most honest and forthright global organisations around, made up of competing professionals in their field from around the globe.

They are political actors. You may, most charitably, say that they are pragmatic in pursuit of a great good - but there are two problems with that: loss of trust and misaligned objectives.

> They would be the first to be ringing alarm bells if there was a problem.

Would they? You just admitted that their motives can't be examined without considering the political dimension. This is why you shouldn't lie.

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