[mrtksn]

Well, that's up to voters to decide. Maybe Brusellians don't mind some trash on the streets as much as new tech's potential hazards. It's not too long ago since establishing a link between cancer and EM Radiation[0].

You say that it's fashionable moral panic but some people may say that an increase in cancer is not worth fashionable network tech investment.

Just as you might think that this 5G thingy is a must have and totally safe, some people might think that 4G works just fine so let's not risk it.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18355680

[laHiesh1]

People say a lot of things and people are not perfect, they are susceptible to bias and manipulation. So until someone provides some peer reviewed evidence showing that there is a causal link between radio waves emitted by cellular equipment and cancer diagnosis then I'm going to call it a moral panic.

On another note, I would be open to the possibility that Satan is real and is the cause behind cancer if and only if the proper evidence is provided.

[wavepruner]

The history of environmental illness epidemics is chock full of people in power with this attitude. A new technology is poorly understood technology. The lack of peer reviewed research does not prove that it's safe, either.

[laHiesh1]

I'm going to need some citations there, you're saying the effects of radio waves on the human body is a subject that hasn't received much attention despite being heavily scrutinized since radio communications become a thing. The cancer scare from radio waves has being going on for significantly longer than you seem to realise and yet has yielded no evidence to suggest there is a casual link between radio wave exposure and cancer.

How much longer will you bash your head against the wall hoping it will get results?

I have no problem studying the effects of new products and technologies before being released to the general public. After all, I like knowing my drugs aren't likely to harm me. The difference here is radio wave exposure has being a subject studied to death and nothing of note has being found. Simply because you believe something to be true or could be true does not award you the right to make the assertion that it's true. Go get the evidence and bring something new to the table instead of torturing everyone involved with this nonsense.

[mrtksn]

That’s OK as long as you don’t stage a coup to install 5G network, launch a smear campaign to discredit public figures, create a violent terrorist organization, build a lair and orchestrate covert take over of the institutions that deal with the issue :)

[Someone1234]

> It's not too long ago since establishing a link between cancer and EM Radiation.

What's this a reference to? Last I read there was no established link between cancer and EM Radiation[0].

[0] https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/r...

[mrtksn]

It was on HN front page some time ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18355680

[Someone1234]

The one that shows exposure to EM radiation lengthens rat's lives, and that the older rats got more cancers..?

[tim333]

And used about 1000x the exposure that humans get from phones etc.

[fauigerzigerk]

I agree with you about the fallacy, but what I really want to see is good evidence on the alleged health effects. I don't want to rely on the average voter's perception of risk at all.

[mrtksn]

Well, then you need to size the governance of an undemocratic country.

[fauigerzigerk]

No, I just need to separate questions of truth from questions of preference.

I am a proponent of representative democracy, of checks and balances, and of democratic institutions that carefully examine problems making good use of all the expertise available.

[mrtksn]

I think you should choose between not relying on average voters' perception of something and democracy because democracy is a popularity contest targeting the average voters who will choose their representatives according tho their perception of wildly diverse topics where even the best one cannot be well versed on more then few of those.

[fauigerzigerk]

That's exactly why the role of democratic representatives cannot simply be to reflect people's feelings on individual issues.

Representing people is a two way street. It also means for politicians to tell people the truth and to convince them of supporting the right thing having considered all the evidence, trade-offs and shared goals.

Democratic institutions have a lot of resources available to them and a lot of time that the average voter does not have. They should make use of those resources, not lazily ape voters and exploit possibly irrational fears.

[mrtksn]

I don't disagree on "how it should be" but there are no mechanics to enforce anything other than popularity and you don't get popular by saying things that people don't want to hear. That's how we got our bubbles in social media anyway.

I guess if you still want to keep the democracy and have your 5G in Brussels you better convince enough Brusselians that the speed increase in networking is worth risking more cancer or that EM radiation definitely does not increase health risk.

[darkpuma]

> "Well, that's up to voters to decide"

As I understand it, Brussels is governed by a parliamentary system, not a direct democracy. The advantage of such a system, in theory, is that these representatives can have cooler heads than the mob of common rabble outside.