Today's Edition of Fear Your Government > The White House and the EPA had tried to stop the report from being published.
The Trump administration in effect.
U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
161–170 of 413 posts
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#162It is constantly amazing to me that "cover up the existence of poisonous chemicals in your drinking water" is a viable position for a democratically-elected officeholder to have. What a world we live in.
Democracy is mostly a facade anymore, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, we haven't gone completely south to a dictatorship--there are many protections in place to keep things from falling apart but nonetheless I feel as though we're in the decline in the respect of being democratic. The underlying failed assumption in our representative democracy was that representatives would represent their constituents' interests…
>Democracy is mostly a facade anymore, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, we haven't gone completely south to a dictatorship
That's because it isn't needed.
If the elite can get the same benefits with less harsh methods, why go all dictatorship?
E.g. it's not like free speech by most has any consequence to their profits/tactics, so it's fine to exist. It's mere idle talk.
When it gets dangerous, it's jail time (e.g. Snowden, Manning), censorship, character assassination (of whistleblowers, etc), firing, etc.
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Democracy is mostly a facade anymore, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, we haven't gone completely south to a dictatorship--there are many protections in place to keep things from falling apart but nonetheless I feel as though we're in the decline in the respect of being democratic. The underlying failed assumption in our representative democracy was that representatives would represent their constituents' interests…
I think democracy was always problematic. Its original form, direct democracy, was vulnerable to the tyranny of the masses. Representative democracy, long described as the solution, really isn’t. Representatives are self-interested, just like everyone else, and so we cannot expect them to be purely faithful executors of their respective mandates. What we did not expect, and perhaps are now beginning to, is that human…
>I think democracy was always problematic. Its original form, direct democracy, was vulnerable to the tyranny of the masses.
Who deemed that a problem? The elites wanting specific decisions out of the masses.
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#164I've seen this issue trending on HN multiple times within the past year, search "PFAS contamination" for more info online. I moved into a new house last year near 2 closed down USAF military bases (known to have been previously contaminated by firefighter foam) and did a ton of research on the issue since the house water comes from a well (free water!). I ended up getting a professional water filtration system instal…
Mind sharing the exact system?
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Democracy is mostly a facade anymore, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, we haven't gone completely south to a dictatorship--there are many protections in place to keep things from falling apart but nonetheless I feel as though we're in the decline in the respect of being democratic. The underlying failed assumption in our representative democracy was that representatives would represent their constituents' interests…
>Democracy is mostly a facade in the US anyway. But I agree, the US government isn't functioning 1) as originally intended or 2) for the benefit of the majority of the people it 'represents.' Although it's worth noting that 'as the forefathers intended' carries more weight than it typically should. Their intentions were mostly based on philosophical guess work, as they didn't have a whole lot of empirical data or exi…
>Although it's worth noting that 'as the forefathers intended' carries more weight than it typically should. Their intentions were mostly based on philosophical guess work
Not to mention they're just some random people, nation building or not. No rational reason to treat their work like some higher command centuries later.
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#166It is constantly amazing to me that "cover up the existence of poisonous chemicals in your drinking water" is a viable position for a democratically-elected officeholder to have. What a world we live in.
I agree with your comment, but just for the sake of the argument, let's look at it like this. The elected officials are also responsible for the functioning of the society in general. Sometimes you need quite the acrobatics to achieve that, I suppose. In this very case, what would happen if this report would circulate widely and become common knowledge among the population in a short time? One outcome would be that s…
This truth came to light and the world did not end. I appreciate your point, but I do not think the motivation behind suppressing this report was the benevolent desire to "protect the population from unreasonable panic or overreaction".
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#167You MUST watch the amazing film, “Dark Waters” .... it’s about the origin of this problem. DuPont knowingly poisoned the public. And the effects will never go away. And then people wonder why cancer rates are so high? Duh!!!
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Democracy can only work when the voters are interested in making life better for _everyone_ and not just themselves. The "fuck you, got mine" mentality that has developed is what will cause democracy to fail.
Lots of hyperbole there. That mentality is more or less unique to one large generation in the US, it's not universal and not perpetual. Also, there have been democracies for more than a thousand years that have withstood this sort of thing.
Which ones? (Genuinely interested, not being snarky)
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#169Can anyone help me understand how anything at a concentration of I'm not arguing, just trying to get my head around it. (And yes I realize that in some of these areas the concentrations were orders of magnitude higher; the recommendation for allowable concentration is < 1PPT according to the article)
I believe these chemicals get concentrated in the human body as they don’t get eliminated very fast. They are very stable too (hence “forever chemical”) so they don’t break down either.
Re: U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report
#170It is constantly amazing to me that "cover up the existence of poisonous chemicals in your drinking water" is a viable position for a democratically-elected officeholder to have. What a world we live in.
> "cover up the existence of poisonous chemicals in your drinking water" is a viable position for a democratically-elected officeholder to have. I'm not sure if you actually read the article, but the EPA has known about this since 2001. Attempting to make this all about the Trump administration is quite myopic. From the article: The EPA has known since at least 2001 about the problem of PFAS in drinking water but has…
I was referring to this quote from the parent comment (and the article): "In 2018 a draft report from an office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the risk level for exposure to the chemicals should be up to 10 times lower than the 70 PPT threshold the EPA recommends. The White House and the EPA had tried to stop the report from being published."