Wow, this is quite an illuminating story. I knew that the petroleum companies were evil, but I wasn't aware of how knowledgeable they actually were about the toxicity of lead in gas. Obviously they knew very well what it would do. They chose not to care. Somehow, money always has that effect on people, doesn't it? How sad to think about what could have been without this scourge being released upon the whole planet. Also, not at all surprised that the company renamed itself Exxon. That totally tracks
100%. They made a conscious choice to play down the effects, which they knew very well. Even during their campaigns of denial, there were internal memos where they demonstrated their continued awareness of the true toxicity. It wasn’t even a thing where they were like “oh, we used to think it was bad, but now we don’t” internally, no. They knew it was bad. They talked about it being bad. They chose to search for and cherry pick dubious items they could use to put a better spin on it for the hapless consumers, so they’d keep buying, despite it all. As far as I’m concerned it was probably criminal, at the very least it was morally debased and obscene. Usually in these cases it's very hard to prove foreknowledge of something like this, but we have the internal memos, and there is absolutely zero doubt whatsoever that deep foreknowledge existed, that the choice was made to actively deceive consumers, and to go for the money atop piles of corpses.
A sobering story, describing toxic corporate behaviour so similar to big tobacco.
Here’s a theory about the rise of conspiracy theories.
Yes, social media clearly enables false information to flourish, but the significant proportion of the American population that were exposed to too much lead in their early years has also increased the likelihood of them now showing paranoid behaviour. In the 50s to the 70s, America had the highest reliance on car travel of any country in the world, which arguably is now bearing fruit in the form of it being the major source of believers of conspiracy theories.
I am in complete agreement with you, I think it is entirely plausible that a mixture of lead exposure in early life, plus free time in post-retirement, has made fertile ground for conspiratorial paranoid thinking to flourish in online communities especially among older folks, baby boomers, and the like. Of course it's not limited to these groups, but I could see a hypothesis to be tested that samples the age distribution among those who hold the more extreme conspiratorial beliefs, perhaps finding a correlation.
Wow, this is quite an illuminating story. I knew that the petroleum companies were evil, but I wasn't aware of how knowledgeable they actually were about the toxicity of lead in gas. Obviously they knew very well what it would do. They chose not to care. Somehow, money always has that effect on people, doesn't it? How sad to think about what could have been without this scourge being released upon the whole planet. Also, not at all surprised that the company renamed itself Exxon. That totally tracks
100%. They made a conscious choice to play down the effects, which they knew very well. Even during their campaigns of denial, there were internal memos where they demonstrated their continued awareness of the true toxicity. It wasn’t even a thing where they were like “oh, we used to think it was bad, but now we don’t” internally, no. They knew it was bad. They talked about it being bad. They chose to search for and cherry pick dubious items they could use to put a better spin on it for the hapless consumers, so they’d keep buying, despite it all. As far as I’m concerned it was probably criminal, at the very least it was morally debased and obscene. Usually in these cases it's very hard to prove foreknowledge of something like this, but we have the internal memos, and there is absolutely zero doubt whatsoever that deep foreknowledge existed, that the choice was made to actively deceive consumers, and to go for the money atop piles of corpses.
Just like all the internal messaging evidence in the tobacco industry. Money over people.
A sobering story, describing toxic corporate behaviour so similar to big tobacco.
Here’s a theory about the rise of conspiracy theories.
Yes, social media clearly enables false information to flourish, but the significant proportion of the American population that were exposed to too much lead in their early years has also increased the likelihood of them now showing paranoid behaviour. In the 50s to the 70s, America had the highest reliance on car travel of any country in the world, which arguably is now bearing fruit in the form of it being the major source of believers of conspiracy theories.
I am in complete agreement with you, I think it is entirely plausible that a mixture of lead exposure in early life, plus free time in post-retirement, has made fertile ground for conspiratorial paranoid thinking to flourish in online communities especially among older folks, baby boomers, and the like. Of course it's not limited to these groups, but I could see a hypothesis to be tested that samples the age distribution among those who hold the more extreme conspiratorial beliefs, perhaps finding a correlation.