Why do people work for companies like this? Have they no compassion for their fellow humans?
> compassion
Compassion doesn't pay and my second home won't pay for itself.
Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
21–30 of 192 posts
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#22Why do people work for companies like this? Have they no compassion for their fellow humans?
I ask the same question about Google
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#23Monsanto also pays shills to comment positively about pesticide use and try to brow beat anyone who is has a negative opinion their products. It's crazy how aggressive it is. Basically any thread on Twitter or Reddit the same users will defend Monsanto. You see the same thing about other controversial products, such as BPAs. It seems like some tactic they learned from Big Tobacco and Big Oil to just push as much doub…
I've defended Monsanto repeatedly on HN (there are some extraordinarily popular beliefs about Monsanto that turn out, from what I can tell, to be just completely false, and they used to wind up here a bunch). I'm not carrying any water for them. I'm pro-GMO just in principle, but neutral-to-skeptical about any company of Monsanto's size. I'm sure the company itself is perfectly amoral. I'm just calling actual issues like I see them.
Naturally, plenty of people on HN think I'm a paid shill (what makes this funnier is the company I founded and worked at for most of my time on HN was named "Matasano", which was so frequently confused for "Monsanto" that we put a sign on our window about it in our Mountain View office).
My point is just: your intuition for whether comments are paid shillage are likely to mislead you.
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#24Why do people work for companies like this? Have they no compassion for their fellow humans?
The bad things about Monsanto, like Facebook, are extremely over exaggerated by online panic porn. Monsanto Chemical did some genuinely bad things in the 80s with Vietnam, etc. But the modern company actually reduces pesticide use since RoundUp is more efficient.
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any kind that it sees.
I’m sorry are you arguing that this is a reasonable course for Monsanto to take? How about they just disclose when products are shown to cause cancer and try to make ones that don’t?
Do you have an argument ready that people who do not already agree with you about the evils of Monsanto might find persuasive? Your response here is pretty conclusory.
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I ask the same thing about Facebook and Google employees, and people who work for "defense" contractors.
At least defense contractors can argue they’re helping the “good guys”, people at Facebook know they’re part of the problem but they can’t turn down the money.
Huh, Monsanto employees can claim they are saving millions from hunger and death by providing GMO seeds. Also saving farmers from ruin by providing disease resistant seeds.
Now you can come claiming well that's bullshit. But that can again be said for most of the companies.
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#27Please, before you comment how evil Monsanto is, read the Cochrane review of glyphosate.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866614/
This is produced by the Cochran which "is a British international charitable organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professionals, patients and policy makers. It includes 53 review groups that are based at research institutions worldwide." (from Wikipedia).
Unless you are an expert in the field, you are not likely to do better than a Cochrane systematic review.
The review concludes "Thus, a causal relationship has not been established between glyphosate exposure and risk of any type of LHC." (LHC is lymphohematopoietic cancer).
I find there are a lot of parallels between anti-GMO and anti-vax: calling it "unnatural", saying it is for mainly for profits by multinational corporations, implying conspiracies to suppress evidence against.
Note that also, in the current environment, there is also a lot of money and fame to be gained by being contrarian (especially when you involve trial lawyers). So saying "follow the money" can cut both ways.
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I ask the same thing about Facebook and Google employees, and people who work for "defense" contractors.
At least defense contractors can argue they’re helping the “good guys”, people at Facebook know they’re part of the problem but they can’t turn down the money.
The "good guys" are whoever has the money and is favored by the administration.
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#29Monsanto also pays shills to comment positively about pesticide use and try to brow beat anyone who is has a negative opinion their products. It's crazy how aggressive it is. Basically any thread on Twitter or Reddit the same users will defend Monsanto. You see the same thing about other controversial products, such as BPAs. It seems like some tactic they learned from Big Tobacco and Big Oil to just push as much doub…
What strategy do you think they should use instead to correct people spreading misinformation about their company and products. Being a popular brand to hate is not a good pr image.
So the issue here is if Monsanto's products were safe, they wouldn't have to pay people to attach their name to company-written articles claiming they are. If you have to buy your support (looking at Google Public Policy team here hard), you probably are not a good company.
In short, if Roundup was safe, it's likely there would be studies proving so from scientists not paid by Monsanto to do so. The fact that they have to ghostwrite them means there isn't any legitimate science supporting their position.
Re: Monsanto’s ghostwriting to influence science and media
#30Why do people work for companies like this? Have they no compassion for their fellow humans?
> Have they no compassion for their fellow humans?
Yes. Compassion for your fellow humans is quite unnatural for a lot of people.
It's why Christianity was a thing - a non trivial percentage of the population will only pretend to be a human being out of fear.