Where I live, we're not driven crazy by crowding, so the primary effect of guns is to melt down and compact junk plastic before it's recycled. On the other hand, glyphosate is actually harming me. Nobody ever mentions the profiteering on glyphosate, because they've seen that it's an unprofitable topic to mention. People just keep screaming about the guns.
Free fun fact: The only death from gun violence among people I know was part of the massacre known as the D.C. gun ban. In 1983 I thought the ban would save lives.
It is strange what gets attention in our cultures versus what 'should' get attention. I suppose the main media and the corporate dollars that push their direction is likely to be blamed. I am sorry to hear about your acquaintance who died from gun violence. I don't think I've known anyone myself.
Yes, gun violence is still fairly rare. (It was only an acquaintance--a student, not mine. Probably one my students should have avoided since most of the guys murdered during the ban were on the drug scene. But losing a classmate is a shock for students.)
Most of my relatives died of cardiovascular disease between ages 85 and 95, some earlier, some later. We're a healthy lot. Other than CVD, some died in accidents, one from liver failure, and a cousin from kidney failure. My husband, the man I would have married first if I'd met him first, and my mother, had cancer. A cousin had Crohn's Disease.
All three of the cancer patients were at least well into middle age (63, 72, 85) and known as active and healthy for their age, before diagnosis at Stage IV. Nobody knows what causes cancer but nearly all the symptoms they ever mentioned having, like those the kidney patient, the Crohn's patient, and some others mentioned having, were unmistakably glyphosate reactions. Just as all the symptoms of concern to me have been glyphosate reactions.
And it's not that other profitable products aren't deadlier than glyphosate. It's that people don't think glyphosate's deadly, so they're reckless with it...and a corporation with an interest in maintaining that delusion, and the suffering and death it causes, gets to try gaslighting me, fail, and get me censored on Twitter.
I'll stay off this soapbox in the future, unless provoked. I do know some people have personal reasons to take gun violence and COVID seriously...but Robert Kennedy's speech on these topics, yesterday, was brilliant. If he can work through that blame-the-guns reaction, so can we all.
(Fwiw, I have astigmatism, don't shoot well enough to feel safer using a gun, and don't carry one. .I'm also aware that I get some protection from the fact that evildoers do not know this.)
First, a complaint - essays of this nature - forcing one to look at themselves - should come with a warning label saying, "Read this when you are alone and can HONESTLY think about the answer." I made the mistake of reading this thing early (4:00 am), and it ran through my mind all day. Philosophically speaking, this problem is in the category of The Trolly Problem and raises some similar questions.
On the other hand, if the question was to push the button and see someone die who you don't like, then the question becomes a Faustian bargain. Meaning can you live with yourself knowing you have killed a person for purely monetary gain? Or can you live with yourself knowing you lack the courage not to kill someone you despise?
I am not a millionaire, so I would push the button and take the money. I know myself, and I also know the reality of not caring about people I don't know. I walk or drive past homeless people every day, and I ignore the problem.
I always thought I would like to have a beer with you, but now I think something stronger would be required.
I hope you didn't lose any sleep over that Edward! I had this story rolling in my head for several weeks before I finally put finger to keyboard. I'm still not sure it was the best version it could've been but I suppose the message did strike a chord. Perhaps I should aim for more enlightening/happier subjects in the future. Also, Kavalan whiskey. If you haven't tried it, be sure to.
So, doesn't that sound like hoarding disorder? That attitude is really, "one more dollar by any means necessary." Ask your billionaire why that is compelling, rather than all the other interesting things a human being can do. Me, I would rather ski, but others would rather ...
I'd rather them start wondering what they can do to leave a lasting legacy like how Nobel invented dynamite but still created the Nobel prize or Andrew Carnegie, for all of the terrible union busting etc still ended up giving away most of his fortune and built 1700 public libraries in the process. But yes, agreed, in the end if they simply went skiing instead of slowly killing the planet etc, I'd probably be content with that too.
I sometimes wonder if anyone truly thinks they are 'evil' (or whatever synonym is appropriate). I've read/listened to a lot of interesting psychology over the past couple of years on how our brains justify almost any course of action as a sort of defense mechanism, but not just in moral actions. Quite interesting stuff, I'll have to do a deep dive on one its aspects one of these weeks.
That was pretty thought provoking.
Thanks Melissa. It was an interesting rabbit hole to go down, if not a bit saddening.
Where I live, we're not driven crazy by crowding, so the primary effect of guns is to melt down and compact junk plastic before it's recycled. On the other hand, glyphosate is actually harming me. Nobody ever mentions the profiteering on glyphosate, because they've seen that it's an unprofitable topic to mention. People just keep screaming about the guns.
Free fun fact: The only death from gun violence among people I know was part of the massacre known as the D.C. gun ban. In 1983 I thought the ban would save lives.
It is strange what gets attention in our cultures versus what 'should' get attention. I suppose the main media and the corporate dollars that push their direction is likely to be blamed. I am sorry to hear about your acquaintance who died from gun violence. I don't think I've known anyone myself.
Yes, gun violence is still fairly rare. (It was only an acquaintance--a student, not mine. Probably one my students should have avoided since most of the guys murdered during the ban were on the drug scene. But losing a classmate is a shock for students.)
Most of my relatives died of cardiovascular disease between ages 85 and 95, some earlier, some later. We're a healthy lot. Other than CVD, some died in accidents, one from liver failure, and a cousin from kidney failure. My husband, the man I would have married first if I'd met him first, and my mother, had cancer. A cousin had Crohn's Disease.
All three of the cancer patients were at least well into middle age (63, 72, 85) and known as active and healthy for their age, before diagnosis at Stage IV. Nobody knows what causes cancer but nearly all the symptoms they ever mentioned having, like those the kidney patient, the Crohn's patient, and some others mentioned having, were unmistakably glyphosate reactions. Just as all the symptoms of concern to me have been glyphosate reactions.
And it's not that other profitable products aren't deadlier than glyphosate. It's that people don't think glyphosate's deadly, so they're reckless with it...and a corporation with an interest in maintaining that delusion, and the suffering and death it causes, gets to try gaslighting me, fail, and get me censored on Twitter.
I'll stay off this soapbox in the future, unless provoked. I do know some people have personal reasons to take gun violence and COVID seriously...but Robert Kennedy's speech on these topics, yesterday, was brilliant. If he can work through that blame-the-guns reaction, so can we all.
(Fwiw, I have astigmatism, don't shoot well enough to feel safer using a gun, and don't carry one. .I'm also aware that I get some protection from the fact that evildoers do not know this.)
What Button Would You Press?
First, a complaint - essays of this nature - forcing one to look at themselves - should come with a warning label saying, "Read this when you are alone and can HONESTLY think about the answer." I made the mistake of reading this thing early (4:00 am), and it ran through my mind all day. Philosophically speaking, this problem is in the category of The Trolly Problem and raises some similar questions.
On the other hand, if the question was to push the button and see someone die who you don't like, then the question becomes a Faustian bargain. Meaning can you live with yourself knowing you have killed a person for purely monetary gain? Or can you live with yourself knowing you lack the courage not to kill someone you despise?
I am not a millionaire, so I would push the button and take the money. I know myself, and I also know the reality of not caring about people I don't know. I walk or drive past homeless people every day, and I ignore the problem.
I always thought I would like to have a beer with you, but now I think something stronger would be required.
I hope you didn't lose any sleep over that Edward! I had this story rolling in my head for several weeks before I finally put finger to keyboard. I'm still not sure it was the best version it could've been but I suppose the message did strike a chord. Perhaps I should aim for more enlightening/happier subjects in the future. Also, Kavalan whiskey. If you haven't tried it, be sure to.
Jake Clark's meme? Most people don't know how much a billion dollars is. I have been asking. So, he already has a billion, and ...
I'm always reminded of the quote asked of a billionaire, how much is enough? The answer was something like "one more dollar"
So, doesn't that sound like hoarding disorder? That attitude is really, "one more dollar by any means necessary." Ask your billionaire why that is compelling, rather than all the other interesting things a human being can do. Me, I would rather ski, but others would rather ...
I'd rather them start wondering what they can do to leave a lasting legacy like how Nobel invented dynamite but still created the Nobel prize or Andrew Carnegie, for all of the terrible union busting etc still ended up giving away most of his fortune and built 1700 public libraries in the process. But yes, agreed, in the end if they simply went skiing instead of slowly killing the planet etc, I'd probably be content with that too.
Humans can pretty much justify any course of action.
I sometimes wonder if anyone truly thinks they are 'evil' (or whatever synonym is appropriate). I've read/listened to a lot of interesting psychology over the past couple of years on how our brains justify almost any course of action as a sort of defense mechanism, but not just in moral actions. Quite interesting stuff, I'll have to do a deep dive on one its aspects one of these weeks.