This effort will increase the number of hate crimes no doubt about that

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    the “natural origins” theory is racist as well

    "it was on an animal, and jumped to a human, like dozens of highly infectious diseases have done in the past" is racist? Natural origin doesn't require a person to eat a bat, that was wild speculation from the very beginning because they used the term "wet market" instead of "butcher's shop" and it triggered all kinds of orientalism in people.

    • Gothouse [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Wet markets are what they're called. It's a gigantic barn with tons of stalls and questionable sanitary conditions. They hose off the concrete floors so they're wet. A butcher's shop is a shop that handles meat, China has those too. They're more expensive than the wet markets.

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        "wet market" is a term that applies to any store that sells meat, as opposed to a "dry market" which does not.

        • Gothouse [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Huh? No, wet markets are a specific kind of market that's everywhere in China. There are different licenses for those kinds of businesses, they're a lot easier to qualify for. One reason they always have such shady practices. There's no such term for "dry market", they just use the word shop or supermarket.

          • ssjmarx [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            So the first time I read the term I looked it up on wikipedia and this is how it's described:

            A wet market (also called a public market[4] or a traditional market[5]) is a marketplace selling fresh meat, fish, produce, and other perishable goods as distinguished from "dry markets" that sell durable goods such as fabric and electronics.[9] These include a wide variety of markets, such as farmers' markets, fish markets, and wildlife markets.[13] Not all wet markets sell live animals,[16] but the term wet market is sometimes used to signify a live animal market in which vendors slaughter animals upon customer purchase,[20] such as is done with poultry in Hong Kong.[21] Wet markets are common in many parts of the world,[25] notably in China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. They often play critical roles in urban food security due to factors of pricing, freshness of food, social interaction, and local cultures.[26]

            So if there's a connotation to the term that I'm not aware of then I just don't know it, but the impression I got was that it was just a place that sold meat.