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> And 50 years from now, what will the story be about say Corona virus, or global warming? Why are we so sure that this time everything is on the up and up? For

> And 50 years from now, what will the story be about say Corona virus, or global warming? Why are we so sure that this time everything is on the up and up? For instance Big pharma stands to make billions of dollars on the back of Corona, so it's not like they're just our disinterested saviours. I dunno, in both cases Big Oil is probably pretty interested in research that suggests coronavirus and global warming aren't real. Big Oil is at least as big as Big Pharma and, as far as I know, bigger than any "green" energy company. Maybe they're politically toxic to researchers at prestigious universities, but if we're going to reduce this down to "who stands to profit?", Big Oil seems hard to argue against.

CyberDildonics 6y ago
You "dunno" and think "Big Oil" in interested in research that says "the coronavirus isn't real"? What are you basing that on? There is no research that says the corona virus isn't real, that's absurd nonsense.
- croissants 6y ago
  I'm not saying that they want to prove coronavirus is literally not real, I'm saying that oil prices generally track with the kind of economic activity that a pandemic messes up [1] > As economic activity slowed sharply across the globe, demand for petroleum and petroleum products plummeted. The drop in demand, coupled with an unexpected increase in supply, led to a collapse in crude oil prices and subsequent impacts on prices for refined petroleum products and other downstream items, notably gasoline. As economies reopened, the initial price downturn gave way to reduced oil production and some renewed demand. As a result, prices for oil products partially recovered. so they would prefer a world in which the coronavirus is not a serious problem that merits shutdowns. [1] https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/from-the-barrel-to-the-pump.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/from-the-barrel-to...
  - CyberDildonics 6y ago
    Now you're saying that as a back peddle, but that isn't what you actually said.
ta8645 6y ago
Yes, we're kind of at the mercy of free-market competition to keep things honest. But that mechanism didn't work in any of the cases cited above. So I just don't understand why so few people are skeptical, given the history.
- AshWolfy 6y ago
  because we can see these things with our actual eyes
  - ta8645 6y ago
    What things? and where can you see them? And are you sure you can see them with enough clarity to truly judge the proper statistical relevance? For instance polls say that people who watch the nightly news believe that violent crime is getting worse... they can see it with their own eyes. But if you believe some purported science, violence has been on a decades long decline. Unfortunately people can be prone to mass delusion and moral panic. Check out this for instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_windshield_pitting_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_windshield_pitting_epi...
    - AshWolfy 6y ago
      I can observe people getting sick with covid, i can observe 60 degree weather in the winter and weeks long heat waves, this isnt the news, or misremembering things
      - ta8645 6y ago
        People get sick of things all the time of all kinds of things, doesn't mean that a global lock down is the appropriate response or that the statistics you're accepting are actually correct. And there are many explanations that could explain heat waves, you can't use your eyes to justify an acceptance of the global warming explanation. All you've done is accepted the dominant narrative on faith. Face it, you just don't know what is true. You can't know as an individual.. all you can do is hope that the people who say they know, actually are correct. But that requires trust and faith.

CyberDildonics 6y ago

You "dunno" and think "Big Oil" in interested in research that says "the coronavirus isn't real"? What are you basing that on? There is no research that says the corona virus isn't real, that's absurd nonsense.

croissants 6y ago
I'm not saying that they want to prove coronavirus is literally not real, I'm saying that oil prices generally track with the kind of economic activity that a pandemic messes up [1] > As economic activity slowed sharply across the globe, demand for petroleum and petroleum products plummeted. The drop in demand, coupled with an unexpected increase in supply, led to a collapse in crude oil prices and subsequent impacts on prices for refined petroleum products and other downstream items, notably gasoline. As economies reopened, the initial price downturn gave way to reduced oil production and some renewed demand. As a result, prices for oil products partially recovered. so they would prefer a world in which the coronavirus is not a serious problem that merits shutdowns. [1] https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/from-the-barrel-to-the-pump.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/from-the-barrel-to...
- CyberDildonics 6y ago
  Now you're saying that as a back peddle, but that isn't what you actually said.

ta8645 6y ago

Yes, we're kind of at the mercy of free-market competition to keep things honest. But that mechanism didn't work in any of the cases cited above. So I just don't understand why so few people are skeptical, given the history.

AshWolfy 6y ago
because we can see these things with our actual eyes
- ta8645 6y ago
  What things? and where can you see them? And are you sure you can see them with enough clarity to truly judge the proper statistical relevance? For instance polls say that people who watch the nightly news believe that violent crime is getting worse... they can see it with their own eyes. But if you believe some purported science, violence has been on a decades long decline. Unfortunately people can be prone to mass delusion and moral panic. Check out this for instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_windshield_pitting_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_windshield_pitting_epi...
  - AshWolfy 6y ago
    I can observe people getting sick with covid, i can observe 60 degree weather in the winter and weeks long heat waves, this isnt the news, or misremembering things
    - ta8645 6y ago
      People get sick of things all the time of all kinds of things, doesn't mean that a global lock down is the appropriate response or that the statistics you're accepting are actually correct. And there are many explanations that could explain heat waves, you can't use your eyes to justify an acceptance of the global warming explanation. All you've done is accepted the dominant narrative on faith. Face it, you just don't know what is true. You can't know as an individual.. all you can do is hope that the people who say they know, actually are correct. But that requires trust and faith.