The_Most_Superb

The_Most_Superb t1_je01pko wrote

So you’ve never heard of the EPA or FDA? They’re the only reason companies in the US are held to any sort of standard. Companies don’t care about harming the public, they only care if they keep buying their product. I never said it was just about not using fossil fuels. Let’s look at recycling for instance, a great way to individually contribute, except the majority of what you put in recycling never gets recycled. It either goes to a landfill here or gets shipped to another country and dumped in the ocean. The total economic collapse argument is propaganda from polluters who lobby against any change to regulations that might hurt their profits, they just want to keep making money and not change. Companies lobby government officials to not add new regulations and sometimes remove existing regulations. Follow the money. It’s the same reason Joe Manchin neutered the Green New Deal, because he own one of the largest coal power plants in the country. There is government corruption, but regulations are the only way to make lasting change to the way we care for our environment. There’s a huge difference in saying a company can’t dump chemical byproducts of car paint manufacturers straight into our water supply, and fascism/total economic collapse. Libertarians are just people who don’t understand how systems work. No point in arguing with you anymore. Peace out.

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The_Most_Superb t1_jdygd3p wrote

Your right, that analogy isn’t right. When comparing the average knowledge of an average adult to the subject matter experts of billion dollar corporations and the thousands of careers dedicated to climate research I should have said: would you blame a bunch of amebas for getting squished by oil tycoon’s boot? Blaming individual consumers for entire systems planned, created, and executed by corporations is ridiculous. “If you alone gave up red meat you could counter act the Exxon Valdeez! Or maybe if you don’t buy things from Amazon, you’ll save the polar bears!” The big polluters won’t stop unless regulations step in to make them stop. The government is in control of the regulations that make up the market that these companies operate in. The government could end subsidies for factory farming meat, and oil and gas, but they don’t. They see these companies giving out cigarettes at preschools and look the other way.

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The_Most_Superb t1_jdydskl wrote

The parents are part the government in that analogy! Your original comment blames the kids for not turning down the cigarettes. My point is that it is a failure of the system for allowing it to happen in the first place. Also just to be clear, the cigarettes are pollution and the kids are individual citizens. We need to regulate the companies causing the pollution. Blaming the individual consumer is exactly what polluters want you to do to distract you from their enormous contribution to destroying the planet.

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