Interesting article from a serious source. The paywall-free quota is 1 article so you should be able to read it. If not, others can post an archive link. Or else consider subscribing if you can afford it. Democracy needs independent journalism as well as independent encyclopedias.
Interesting. All is provisionally forgiven.
On the lab-leak boredom-fest, yes I agree that the intent-vs-accident distinction is crucial and that the intent variant absolutely qualifies as conspirationism given that there’s zero evidence for it either empirical or rational. You’re right that the two were conflated problematically.
BTW it would be hard to be less conspirationist than me. I am about as skeptical as they come. I’m not even down for JFK, i.e. the starter-level conspiracy. Imagine that!
On Gaza, that’s an interesting counterfactual about the Rohingya, I admit that it’s somewhat persuasive. Personally I just hate emotion-charged words which are impossible to falsify because they require insight into other people’s minds. I share Orwell’s take: words should have clear meanings, agreed upon by all, or they should just be avoided (except in poetry). But of course the emotional valency is exactly why most people love the word genocide. Who cares about accuracy, it feels so good! Similar situation for “racist”, “fascist”, “woke” and bunch of others.
BTW I read recently that the framers of the genocide crime did not predict the power it would take on. They thought the other universal crimes (i.e. war crime, crime against humanity, and - especially - aggression) were all at least as bad as genocide. Maybe the fact that it’s a neologism gave it extra power.