TiL the car and gas industry knew about the health risks of leaded fuel but sold it for 100 years anyway - eviltoast
  • admiralteal@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    This is a heartbeat of history; people who can profit off of the suffering of others will do so remorselessly.

    So many other stories you can look up. Obvious shit like climate change or smoking, where it’s well-known how unrepentantly evil the industry has been in suppressing the science and research they KNEW indict their product.

    For an equally-tragic but less-well-known story, you could look into the Radon Girls. That’s a heartbreaking saga of corporate malfeasance where the bad guys basically got away with it.

    If you like podcasts, this is narratively similar to the content in two of my favorites. You’re Wrong About and Well There’s Your Problem. The former is more about cultural moments and moral panics, the latter is oriented towards the arrogance and carelessness of engineers (though sometimes is just historical stories).

    • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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      9 months ago

      I’m reasonably sure it’s Radium Girls, but yes: tragic, and totally on brand for capitalism.

      • hightime@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I think it’s mostly because of humans, they seem to be shitty, and able to skirt any system you can imagine.