Comment on No need to boil the ocean
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks agoRediscovering well-established shit from first principles and a science-illiterate, history-ignorant stance
This is basically the entire process Libertarians go through before realizing they’re idiots… They have to re-learn all of the things we’ve already collectively learned as a society, generations ago. But I guess they just can’t believe that we need taxes to fund roads and water infrastructure, until they experience it first hand.
Is our corn subsidy written in blood?
Has it spilled any blood by existing?
High fructose corn syrup’s pretty damn bad for people, and it’s everywhere because of government subsidies.
I guess the big question is: can government code cause death too? Or only prevent it? Are we always safer with more laws on the books?
Would it blow your mind to find out it’s nuanced and good judgement and data should be used to determine when we should or should not implement new laws or repeal old ones? Or do you prefer binary choices that force a loss on one side or another?
Malfeasant@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
What you’re talking about boils down to who to trust. Unfortunately, governments are notorious for abusing such trust. I can’t fault anyone who questions the way things are, and why- assuming of course that they are receptive to answers other than “it’s a government conspiracy to control us.” Not that that’s never true, but it’s usually not.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
It’s not just governments that these people distrust, it’s anything they don’t understand. That includes science. Science does not have a political agenda.
Malfeasant@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Science does not, but science gets funding from people with political agendas, so it’s not immune.
Carighan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Source? Because that assumes that this is the normality. Which is interesting as a statement, although of course it massively depends on your local government, but not everyone lives in Syria or so.
Twoisformyshow@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Edward Snowden immediately springs to mind… You can add in most of the law enforcement agencies in every country with the presence of the internet and cell phones. How many eyes are we up to now?
Carighan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s not what the question was about?
JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
I think healthy skepticism when it comes to the government is good. Especially if people want transparency. Holding them accountable for abuses is even better, but has been less than ideal in practice over the years.
Unfortunately, people tend to skip healthy skepticism and dive right into conspiracy driven paranoid delusions, and lack of government accountability does feed into that mindset. Combine that with Maga propaganda, fox News, and other extremist media and we’ve got a shit show.
stringere@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
USA checking in with a very short, nowhere near comprehensive, list of the more egregious breaches in trust by the federal government; local and state governments undoubtedly have more to add: Business Plot left uninvestigated Kennedy Assassination and the Warren Commission War on Drugs Bush v Gore decided by Supreme Court for Bush despite losing popular vote which led into… 9/11 and Weapons of Mass Destruction - wars in Iraq and Afghanistan justified by lies
Carighan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
As I said in the other comment, your reply also exemplifies how people can’t even hold an attention span for more than a single word any more, and as a result completely misunderstand something. I’m sorry, but you exactly showcase how modern political weaponization of internet reactionism works.
Malfeasant@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
History…
Carighan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I love how nobody reads beyond that word and completely misunderstands the comment. Such a beautiful example of how America got so 110% politics-illiterate.