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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   25681 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 18, 2025

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The this I refer to is thus: science's inability to think in terms of political solutions and general narrow specialization that leaves them pretty useless at anything the real world. I think this used to be less true in the past, and is probably a result of pedagogical choices that have been made by the university system. Learning another language for example, which used to be the standard for science because not everything was published in English, forces you to realize that there isn't one way of doing things (because different languages make different choices).

I can't really argue with what you said in the first half of your response. However, I would suggest that these problems also are the result of the myopically applied science that I complain about. Global warming was the result of using combustion to make shit and get us places without thinking about the production of greenhouse gases, obesity was the result of food science creating hyperpalitability without thinking about wether it was a good idea, ditto for birth control.

obesity was the result of food science creating hyperpalatability without thinking about whether it was a good idea

While the spread of over-engineered McDonald's-style fast food can't have helped, I don't think "food science" was more than a force multiplier here. There's enough palatable and addictive foodstuffs in nature and traditional recipes to build an obesity crisis. When economic development reaches a level where any idiot can buy as much chocolate and bacon as he can eat, it becomes the natural outcome with or without scientists to formulate ever more addictive forms of mass-produced slop. Sufficiently idle pre-modern noblemen became fat and gouty just fine, living off the most non-processed kind of food imaginable (game hunted from their lands).

Thank you for the clarification!

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