One moment, you’re waving to a longtime neighbor. The next, the neighbor is calling the police because you are violating the lockdown. One moment, you have a decent little community business. The next, the authorities have shuttered your doors and you watch helplessly as the “big box” near the freeway gobbles up your customers and, in the end, your livelihood.
No longer would it speak truth to power, but it would speak lies on behalf of the powerful and psychologically justify that shift by trying to convince themselves they were doing so for the right and proper good of the nation and the world when in fact they were doing so for base and selfish reasons.
Though almost all lab-based scientific research and advancements carry at least a tiny element of risk, nothing like the level of terminal, global, and trans-generational risk of GOF has – to the public’s knowledge – been undertaken since the Manhattan Project and the study of radiation. And even that had very specific, very probable, and very real and tangible benefits (useful for “pure” or basic science, ending World War II, power generation, nuclear medicine, etc.) that GOF cannot begin to claim.
Covid denier, climate denier, election denier, science denier – are all bandied about to immediately end debate, tar any difference of opinion as literally insane, and depict anyone who ever disagrees with you as stupid and evil. This epithet is now even being used pre-emptively to makes sure that no matter what anyone who now or ever questions the move to ban gas stoves will not be doing so based on facts or logic but because of their “gas stove denialism.”
The current fad of the financially fabulous is Effective Altruism, which essentially involves promising to give your money while you are still alive to causes and organizations that “do good,” while simultaneously tethering them to your whims through financial dependence. A very specific example of this is the massive money going to barely-surviving but purportedly legit media organizations (or you can just buy the Washington Post.) You get good press when you own it.
Brownstone Institute is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 87-1368060
BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE
2028 E BEN WHITE BLVD, #240-3088
AUSTIN, TX 78741
+1-469-842-8976
—
WEST HARTFORD, CT
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
For reprints, please set the canonical link back to the original Brownstone article
en
de
da
sv
pl
pt
es
it
nl
fr
ro
iw
ja
ru
hy
hi
ar
sw
cn