The most dangerous phrase in the language is, “we’ve always done it this way.”
“Come on, let’s mix it up!” The heart surgeon says.
“B-but we’ve always done it this way!” The other replies, “this is how you replace a heart valve.”
“That’s the most dangerous phrase in the human language!” The first surgeon replies haughtily as he inputs a fruit loop into the patient’s heart. “This will be his valve. He will be a fruit loop in a world of Cheerios.”
(taken from this post on the experiments of Harry Harlow)
This is serious business, because this is a large part of how sexism, racism, homophobia, rape culture, ethnocentrism, etc. continue to happen.
The reason we do heart surgeries the way we do is not “because that’s what we’ve always done.” It’s because that’s how year of scientific research says will give the best results. One of the best uses of the scientific method is to test common practice, and either eliminate it or give it legitimacy. Don’t do things because “that’s what we’ve always done,” do them because that is what evidence and research say we should do.
Saying “we’ve always done it this way” justifying maintaining a harmful societal norm is dangerous. We can do better.
Remember this the next time you want to complain about GMO’s, we may not have done it in a lab but they still are that.
Bananas looked like lemons wtf
Isn’t this more of a combination of selective breeding and GMOs? Not just GMOs?
Yes. But people talk about how GMO’s are “unnatural”, yet for centuries humanity has been exploiting mutations in animals and plants to produce food for themselves.
GMO’s are simply the process of inducing these mutations reliably.
People hear “Lettuce being modified with scorpion DNA” and think that we’re now eating scorpions. But, in reality, they’re taking a tiny bit of scorpion DNA and splicing it into the plant. Why? So the plant will produce poison that is not harmful to humans but will deter insects, reducing the use of pesticide, which CAN be harmful to humans and the environment.
GMOs are producing rice that can survive flooding, which makes rice more reliable yields and will prevent food shortages in poor nations that rely on said crops for staple food.
GMOs are also creating spider-goat hybrids. Why? So we can splice web production into the goat’s udders. We’ll be able to spin huge quantities of spider silk, enough to reliably create spider silk cables and ropes, which have more tensile strength than steel.
I for one am glad I live in a time where watermelons aren’t giant tomato abominations
The issue with GMOs is that corporations like Monsanto are patenting GMOs and arresting indigenous farmers for cross pollinating with they seeds. But there is nothing dangerous about the science.
^This.
The problem isn’t the science, it’s what capitalism does with that science.
this should be in the largest letters we’ve got, plastered everywhere until it gets through people’s heads:
The problem isn’t the science, it’s what capitalism does with that science.
say what you want about elon musk but you gotta admit it’s extremely funny that the rescue team got those boys out before elon could even finish masturbating all over his shitty little escape pod
like he was hemming and hawing over what kind of music to load it with and the thai rescue teams just. got the job done normally. without him. he contributed jack shit and his shitty little submarine was rendered useless by completely standard scuba gear and a few determined workers.
dude tried playing the white savior just got blown the fuck out by people who actually cared about what was going on
the people replying to this are wild
their go-to thing is “well what did you do to help” as if elon himself did anything to help. at all.
here’s what happened: he heard about the tragedy on the news and immediately tried to make it about himself. he publicly announced he was going to swoop in and help before consulting anyone, threw a tantrum when the thai rescuers declined his offer because they knew what they were doing and didn’t need an expensive, impractical escape pod to do their jobs, and now he’s STILL making the issue about himself by ragging on the rescuers for refusing his help.
i get it. he’s rich. he makes spaceships. he lives the way you wish you could live and does the things you dream about doing with his money, but he’s still an egotistical dickhead. he underpays his workers, wastes money on useless ventures, and any time he does anything charitable he does it for PR purposes.
if he wanted to help people he wouldn’t wait for opportunities to spontaneously show off, he’d actually actively be helping people. he’d be using his money to fix broken roads, fund schools, fix flints pipes, stuff that’s been a problem for a long time. you don’t have to wait for an opportunity to help people, there’s always people in need.
elon doesn’t do that. he makes expensive toys for his own amusement. he’s not interested in helping people. the story about the boys in thailand happened to grab his attention and he thought “i bet i can make a toy for that.”
and that’s what he did. he made a highly publicized toy for himself and then threw a tantrum when the actual rescuers declined his offer to swoop in and save the day with an impractical toy and he is still throwing that tantrum now that the boys are safe.
