3 ms·

By now, I think it's safe to say the flat earth thing is nuts, but I'm careful about assuming that conspiracies will get exposed quickly or that people can't ke

By now, I think it's safe to say the flat earth thing is nuts, but I'm careful about assuming that conspiracies will get exposed quickly or that people can't keep secrets. Tuskegee was kept quiet from 1932 to 1972. The guy who eventually leaked it was hired in 1965, learned about it from co-workers, reported it one year later, then again two years after that, and then after four more years finally leaked information to the press. Tons of people knew, others had previously protested it as well. Operation Sea-Spray was hidden for 27 years. It was ~25 before the Pentagon Papers leaked. Even large numbers of people can keep a secret long enough to do a lot of damage. What bothers me more, is that there's not a whole lot of accountability when the truth comes out, and those who were hurt by those secrets don't seem to ever get anything close to justice. I think that as long there isn't enough morality and backbone in my country to hold people meaningfully accountable and help victims when atrocities are exposed, asking for there to always be a whistleblower ready to sacrifice everything might be asking too much. Especially since we seem to be cracking down harder and harder on whistleblowers.

tialaramex 3y ago
A person can keep a secret, people can't. My understanding is that Tuskegee was not really kept quiet for as long as you state. The horrible fact is not enough people cared. If you let slip what was really going on in say 1958 (after the point where if they'd showed up at a free clinic in say New York, they'd get treated, which would not have been possible in 1932), chances are the person you're telling thinks this seems OK. They're "only" black men. It reminds me of the fact that there are postcards of lynchings. People posed, smiling, for a photograph of them witnessing the extra-legal killing of another like them, so as to make postcards. Yes, more whistleblower protection is needed, in my country (the UK) too. But I don't buy the theory that because the protection isn't good enough people just don't come forward. That's too transactional. I think they do come forward anyway and we owe them much more.

tialaramex 3y ago

A person can keep a secret, people can't. My understanding is that Tuskegee was not really kept quiet for as long as you state. The horrible fact is not enough people cared. If you let slip what was really going on in say 1958 (after the point where if they'd showed up at a free clinic in say New York, they'd get treated, which would not have been possible in 1932), chances are the person you're telling thinks this seems OK. They're "only" black men. It reminds me of the fact that there are postcards of lynchings. People posed, smiling, for a photograph of them witnessing the extra-legal killing of another like them, so as to make postcards. Yes, more whistleblower protection is needed, in my country (the UK) too. But I don't buy the theory that because the protection isn't good enough people just don't come forward. That's too transactional. I think they do come forward anyway and we owe them much more.