[Vivtek]

Yes, of course. But the overall cultural assumption that science is something dangerous that Washington is pushing on the Real Americans is pretty powerful. And since that cultural assumption is a power base and a profit base, there are a lot of entrenched interests keeping it right where it is.

But this particular issue isn't even that. This particular issue is the fact that Americans have been trained for decades to jump at shadows, to worry about every possible threat. This is partly because frightened people are easy to control, and partly because hidden corporate powers really are allowing their health to be at risk to make a slightly quicker buck.

It's easy to be alarmed about a technical term you've never heard before, and "monoxide" sounds like "carbon monoxide", which everybody knows is an undetectable gas that can kill your children in their sleep.

It's not as simple as just "stupid". It never is.

[visakanv]

It's not as simple as just "stupid", yes. But it's not too complicated, either, is it?

These guys got punished for making fun of the general stupidity of others. It would be okay if the people weren't so ignorant (or conditioned) that they'd be terrified so easily.

If you think about it, it's not too different from people being afraid of making certain kinds of cartoons out of fear of offending certain groups of people. Think about it.

Punishing them was a simple and convenient knee-jerk response. It should've been used as an opportunity for education instead.

It's funny and sad how often we struggle to educate people on a day to day basis, yet we throw away fantastic educational opportunities like this one. It's not everyday you have everybody's attention. And what do we choose to do with that attention? "Look at this fearmongerer, mocking you people! We shall punish them."

Few politicians have the guts to tell the electorate that they're dumb. THAT'S where it's "not so simple". We perpetuate and participate a system where we will never tell the electorate that they're stupid, uninformed.

It's not as simple as just stupid- it's intelligence being punished for having fun with stupidity, and representatives choosing to ingratiate themselves to the stupids because they're dependent on them for their livelihood.

Sigh

[rasur]

> It's not as simple as just "stupid". It never is.

You are of course correct. It is not "stupid" but it is "ignorant" (both of the chemical terms used in the prank and of the critical thinking skills necessary to work out that "dihydrogen monoxide" is just "water")

[mschuster91]

True about the "it's not as simple" point - but why did the people call the water department first instead of a quick Googling of the term?

I mean, it should be widely known that US news organizations often have a massive bias cough Fox News cough, so it should be the first thing to do to do at least a bit of fact checking.

[visakanv]

"If people Googled before believing what they see or hear, I wouldn't have so many quotes misattributed to me." - Albert Einstein