5 ms·

Yes, presumably he would, if he were paid enough. However he would probably writing on climate change.

by Gupie 8y ago

coldtea 8y ago
Or about how GMOs and modern nuclear are perfectly safe.
- himlion 8y ago
  Those topics are way too broad to brush off in one sentence.
- whatshisface 8y ago
  Honestly, arguing over whether or not GMOs or nuclear plants are safe is a bit like asking whether or not powered flight is safe. You could be talking about anything from a fighter jet locked in a dogfight to a child's RC toy - or, less abstractly, anything from a contentious and ethical research group/engineering team to a corporation/government trapped in short term thinking, violently ignoring negative signs (I can't think of a good way to describe the corporate mentality of "sad words bad, happy words good" but it is out there), and pushing off every externality they can.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >anything from a contentious and ethical research group/engineering team to a corporation/government trapped in short term thinking, violently ignoring negative signs Well, in the real world, it's 99% the latter.
- scrollaway 8y ago
  Or perfectly unsafe. Unlike the somewhat-corporately-one-sided debates of climate change and tobacco, there's powerful interest groups on both sides of the nuclear/gmo debates. Be mindful of what you read, coldtea.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >Be mindful of what you read, coldtea. Who said I'm not? I don't trust any corporation/government to build a safe reactor. They have failed repeatedly. The "this time is different", "modern designs have solved past problems" I don't buy, those claims have been made repeatedly too (and failed). I don't try the lowest bidder procurements, and I don't trust our understanding of risks (from terrorism to severe earthquakes to some idiot making a huge mistake). I also don't think we have any solution to the thousands of years byproduct of nuclear waste. Especially since we've had several scandals of big companies belonging to various mafias just being paid to dispose it and dumping it to the sea. Or routinely passed through cities, despite protocol. As for the claims of various "green power" schemes, I take those with large grains of salt too. Same for oil and coal (which at least has no big breakpoint like nuclear has, just a constant shitty pollution factor).
    - scrollaway 8y ago
      > I don't trust any corporation/government to build a safe reactor. They have failed repeatedly. Maybe in the US. As a frenchman, I beg to disagree :)
      - coldtea 8y ago
        Dunno, doesn't seem something I'd trust not to fuck a large region outside of it in due time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_power_accidents_by_country#France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_power_accident...
        scrollaway 8y ago
        The absurdly low amount of both accidents and total fatalities in that entire page is honestly astounding. The reason it's chilling is that there's no comparative page for coal, or even non-nuclear sustainable power sources in general.
- asgdionion 8y ago
  I find it amazing that people don't realize that the organic food industry also has deep pockets. How is it that a skeptic could be fail to be suspicious of Amazon? Follow the money. GMO opponents usually have skin in the game.
  - scrollaway 8y ago
    I think it comes down to who you're suspicious of first. It's easy to be skeptical of GMOs when you equate them to Monsanto, because Fuck Monsanto. It's a lot less easy to make the connection to, say, Amazon (or whoever else). And even if you do, still, fuck Monsanto. Point is that when you're going off gut feeling (which you most likely are on some level unless you yourself are very knowledgeable on the topic), it's often going to come down to which pockets you hate the most. And, well, fuck Monsanto. But just to be clear and as I was saying in my other post: you're right; both sides of the issue have deep pockets. The problem is it doesn't look that way at first glance.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >I find it amazing that people don't realize that the organic food industry also has deep pockets. I'm not in favor of organic food either. Almost everything with opponents and proponents is a false dichotomy marketed to suckers.

Yes, presumably he would, if he were paid enough. However he would probably writing on climate change.

by Gupie 8y ago

Yes, presumably he would, if he were paid enough. However he would probably writing on climate change.

coldtea 8y ago

Or about how GMOs and modern nuclear are perfectly safe.

himlion 8y ago
Those topics are way too broad to brush off in one sentence.
whatshisface 8y ago
Honestly, arguing over whether or not GMOs or nuclear plants are safe is a bit like asking whether or not powered flight is safe. You could be talking about anything from a fighter jet locked in a dogfight to a child's RC toy - or, less abstractly, anything from a contentious and ethical research group/engineering team to a corporation/government trapped in short term thinking, violently ignoring negative signs (I can't think of a good way to describe the corporate mentality of "sad words bad, happy words good" but it is out there), and pushing off every externality they can.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >anything from a contentious and ethical research group/engineering team to a corporation/government trapped in short term thinking, violently ignoring negative signs Well, in the real world, it's 99% the latter.
scrollaway 8y ago
Or perfectly unsafe. Unlike the somewhat-corporately-one-sided debates of climate change and tobacco, there's powerful interest groups on both sides of the nuclear/gmo debates. Be mindful of what you read, coldtea.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >Be mindful of what you read, coldtea. Who said I'm not? I don't trust any corporation/government to build a safe reactor. They have failed repeatedly. The "this time is different", "modern designs have solved past problems" I don't buy, those claims have been made repeatedly too (and failed). I don't try the lowest bidder procurements, and I don't trust our understanding of risks (from terrorism to severe earthquakes to some idiot making a huge mistake). I also don't think we have any solution to the thousands of years byproduct of nuclear waste. Especially since we've had several scandals of big companies belonging to various mafias just being paid to dispose it and dumping it to the sea. Or routinely passed through cities, despite protocol. As for the claims of various "green power" schemes, I take those with large grains of salt too. Same for oil and coal (which at least has no big breakpoint like nuclear has, just a constant shitty pollution factor).
  - scrollaway 8y ago
    > I don't trust any corporation/government to build a safe reactor. They have failed repeatedly. Maybe in the US. As a frenchman, I beg to disagree :)
    - coldtea 8y ago
      Dunno, doesn't seem something I'd trust not to fuck a large region outside of it in due time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_power_accidents_by_country#France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_power_accident...
      - scrollaway 8y ago
        The absurdly low amount of both accidents and total fatalities in that entire page is honestly astounding. The reason it's chilling is that there's no comparative page for coal, or even non-nuclear sustainable power sources in general.
asgdionion 8y ago
I find it amazing that people don't realize that the organic food industry also has deep pockets. How is it that a skeptic could be fail to be suspicious of Amazon? Follow the money. GMO opponents usually have skin in the game.
- scrollaway 8y ago
  I think it comes down to who you're suspicious of first. It's easy to be skeptical of GMOs when you equate them to Monsanto, because Fuck Monsanto. It's a lot less easy to make the connection to, say, Amazon (or whoever else). And even if you do, still, fuck Monsanto. Point is that when you're going off gut feeling (which you most likely are on some level unless you yourself are very knowledgeable on the topic), it's often going to come down to which pockets you hate the most. And, well, fuck Monsanto. But just to be clear and as I was saying in my other post: you're right; both sides of the issue have deep pockets. The problem is it doesn't look that way at first glance.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >I find it amazing that people don't realize that the organic food industry also has deep pockets. I'm not in favor of organic food either. Almost everything with opponents and proponents is a false dichotomy marketed to suckers.