It never fails: any time a health or safety issue linked to corporate greed, political short-sightedness or scientific illiteracy occurs, some idiot in the comment section pipes up and puts the responsibility on the consumer instead of where it belongs. Their comments always grossly oversimplify the issue, offering "solutions" that are either not feasible or plain nonsensical, only serving to prove THEIR scientific (and actual) illiteracy. A couple of recent examples:
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The cyclospora and salmonella outbreaks, which are caused by factory farming and negligent, greedy, inhumane practices in which labor is outsourced to undocumented immigrants and farm workers in other countries like Mexico where bathrooms aren't available during work hours, leading to the frequent fecal-oral disease outbreaks in our food supply. Rather than take meaningful legislative action, the retard public tells people to "grow your own vegetables". Sure thing, Dandeighlion Soulstyce-Peacepipe, because everyone owns fertile farmland and has the skill/expertise and most importantly, TIME, to grow literally enough food to feed themselves and their entire family consistently. 🙄
Unless you have a huge South-facing window & endless time/patience (or thousands to spend on hydroponic setups) this just isn't feasible for city-and-apartment-dwellers whose outdoor soil is often contaminated by lead, PCBs and other toxic crap in inner cities. That's to say nothing of the fact that most people simply lack the time to invest in such a huge undertaking. And it totally lets the offenders who are getting filthy rich selling these unsafe products off the hook.
Another disturbing example is LED lights, which have recently been shown to cause serious mitochondrial dysfunction and fuel chronic disease. An excerpt:
"A growing body of experimental research suggests red and near-infrared light can influence mitochondrial activity.
In one human study, just 15 minutes of exposure to deep red light before a glucose test reduced the subsequent rise in blood sugar by roughly 28%.
Another experiment replaced some LED lighting in a windowless workplace with incandescent bulbs, which emit far more infrared.
After two weeks, workers exposed to the additional wavelengths showed significant improvements in color-contrast vision."
Scary, right? The thought that the light bulbs we were forced to switch to from CFLs (which we were forced to switch to when incandescent bulbs were phased out) could affect blood sugar and vision to that degree is horrifying, but that may be only the tip of the iceberg. These lights are everywhere, from our homes to our workplaces, schools, shopping centers and other shared public spaces. And what do brilliant cancer-curers in the comment section suggest?
Go outside.
I wish I was shitting you, but alas...
Go outside. That's it. That's the advice.
Uhhh, did you see the part about only 15 minutes of exposure causing measurable, dramatic changes in mitochondrial function? Unless you plan on living outside 24/7, that's not going to do any good. Besides, sunlight comes with its own serious health risks in excess. People work, go to school & are otherwise forced to be indoors all day with these toxic-ass lights, and the solution isn't "just never be inside then".
So What IS the Solution?
Do you make this much at a cushy non-manual labor job? Plus benefits?
How about we push for meaningful legislative action instead of just taking it up the tailpipe? So sick of this passive, smug, victim-blaming attitude. Every American is entitled to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, which surely includes not being poisoned to death in our own homes. If our so-called "representatives" are going to represent big business instead of voters and consumers, they can lose their next election & go get a real job like everybody tf else. It's the job of the FDA, EPA, USDA, OSHA, FAA & others to ensure the safety & effectiveness of products & services, not to help industry leaders cut corners and enrich themselves at the public's expense.
Stop viewing voting as the be-all, end-all of political participation. This means not treating election night like the end; rather, treat it like the beginning. Whether "your guy" wins or loses, the person in office is now "your guy," and they must answer to you. Politicians are public servants paid with taxpayer dollars. They receive top-of-the-line socialized medicine and $100,000+ salaries plus other benefits. They're not subjected to the same indignities (drug tests, cognitive testing) us plebs are. It's literally their job to listen to our concerns and represent us with their votes and other actions. So check for open comment periods online when a big bill or law is about to pass. Write or call your state representative, sign or start a petition, attend a townhall meeting or do any combination of these things to exercise your full voice and power as an American citizen. Lead by example and maybe you'll persuade others to follow in your footsteps. Because all the preaching and yelling isn't working.
Individual responsibility and self-sufficiency have their place, but they won't get you very far when you're walking on a tightrope with no safety net and a 60 mph wind caused by climate change. When our core institutions fail over and over in ever more spectacular ways and the response from the weary Peanut Gallery is basically "meh," you know we're in deep doo-doo.
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