>many chemicals, especially hormone disruptors linked to brain damage and reproductive harm in children, are considered dangerous at levels far below 0.5ppb
I guess US people are not damaged, dumbed down enough. Now the Trump admin wants to make sure kids are at high risk for brain damage. At least the cuts to colleges by Trump will not matter once TOR hits "critical mass".
it's weird how they say "One TOR exemption that allows the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate to be used in grain bags..." as well as the article they link to https://blogs.edf.org/health/2019/01/11/fda-perchlorate-in-f... focusing on it being a rocket fuel component
this is like that one time people came to my school to talk about vapes, and one of their talking points was "vapes can contain formaldehyde, and formaldehyde is used to preserve dead specimens/tissue samples" ; they did not get my issue with the lack of causal reasoning in that argument :P
Or for another example (that's not mentioned in the article), saltpeter and ammonium nitrate can be used in rocket fuel too, but saltpeter has been used in food for thousands of years and ammonium nitrate is one of the most common fertilizers.
Overexposure to Dihydrogen Monoxide kills around 300,000 people a year, and it's used in a number of culinary and industrial applications. Yet there have been NO serious attempts to regulate it, and it isn't even classed as hazardous waste.
Always comments like this on these kinds of posts. The Plant Slant fans acting condescending while literally not knowing anything about what they're talking about. Need less of this in the world.
It's a YouTube channel you can lookup. He does these low-hanging fruit-style jabs at other people's tiktoks and other videos about health where they are unfortunately not super knowledgeable. He has tons of fans so it kind of turns into this toxic movement where people just regurgitate things he said (which is like identical to the comment I replied to) all over comment sections on videos.
Might be sarcasm in this case, regarding how certain molecules might be cherry-pick-regulated vs others. Although it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison to equate drowning with “overexposure” to water.
On that note, many of the American readers here are probably eligible for the Taiwan Gold Card Visa. Especially anyone in SF, basically having a Github and an American software engineering salary practically guarantees you to get it.
It's an unrestricted work visa: 3 years, unlimited in/out, no requirement to get a job in Taiwan (or work at all), total allowance for remote work for foreign companies, lower tax rate, and eligibility for the state-subsidized national health insurance program after 6 months in the country. How'd you like to pay 10$ for an xray after being scanned and seen by a doctor within 30 minutes of walking into an ER? That's our life here!
We have lots of tech folks from all over the world here and regularly have co-working meetups, hackathons, fireside chats, and talks. Also our food doesn't have toxic chemicals in it :)
Most of my tech friends are remote software engineers. Mostly French and American, and most either working full time for some SF tech company (usually Taiwan hours), or freelancing.
Every once in a while I meet someone that's keeping to USA time zone work hours but they usually don't last. I've been working USA / UK gigs for 5 years now keeping to my time zone without issue. Sometimes gotta catch an 11pm meeting, not bad. For software engineering it kinda doesn't matter what time of the day works get done? Companies: for me it's all been startups, two YC ones and a couple random other ones.
There are some hardware folks I know out here and they are both way busier and way more successful than us hordes of coworking software engineers that chill at cafes all day. Also I know a couple that gave up their tech jobs and started a hotsauce company, they're doing pretty well. People get up to all sorts of stuff out her. I even made a restaurant play. Not recommended!
Wait till they get wind of that toxic dihydrogen monoxide. It is in almost every beverage in the US and is the same chemical used in pesticides, fertilizer, its even used in many toxic waste industrial processes.
Beyond that there are numerous repeated and scientifically proven to cause permanent brain damage or even death in sufficient concentrations. How long will Washington insiders profit while our nation continues to sicken.
I posted this because I thought it both interesting and troubling to see the disconnect between RFK Jr's stated goals and values and his actions in practice. Like many out there, I connected with some of the underlying messages and values that his campaign put forward. However, the more I learn about him and his past, the more I question not just his methods and expertise, but his truthfulness and genuineness.
I would really like to see more policy (from whomever: local, state, federal, judiciary, legislative, executive, red, blue, green, black) that actually accomplishes some of the things that RFK Jr says that he wants to accomplish.
For me, so many things he said were not rooted in any form of science or verifiable fact so it was always hard to fully accept and endorse his platform. He has always been a snake oil salesperson trading on his surname.
Everyone agrees and wants a healthier world and for people to be healthier. What RFK has been spouting for as long as I can remember would be the opposite of that. His stance on vaccines has always been clearly crazy and not based on the best available evidence.
I definitely understand being angry, there is certainly blame to be had, and perhaps there is an argument to be made that supporting RFK Jr was a poor idea even before he joined the destructionist grifters. But save your vitriol for the ignorant ones who actually voted for Grump, and most especially for the unrepentant ones who are still cheering as our country's institutions burn.
Common meme, but no, there's actually no evidence that "deplorables" ended up "backfiring so hard."
There's no evidence whatsoever that excusing and forgiving these people's credulity and contempt has done any good whatsoever.
If you fuck up, especially in a way that damages your country so deeply, then you need to feel bad, and you need to suck up the fact that your countrymen will criticize you for it. That's the downside of fucking up.
You don't get to say "okay I'll acknowledge that I fucked up as long as you guys be nice to me for doing so." No. A literal 3rd grader couldn't get away with such a position, and neither should any adult capable of having an opinion on any of this stuff.
> I personally saw someone in my family literally use the name "deplorable" for an online account in response to that kerfuffle
And? Were they a Clinton voter before that moment? Spoiler: No.
> [this] bullshit is exactly how the Democratic party shares the blame for Trump 2024
No, it's not. Clinton was one of the most disliked people in the entire country going into the election, and Harris came to a close second. Especially in an era of high inflation where incumbents were ousted in pretty much every single election in the entire world. The DNC put up truly horrible candidates and lost.
> It has been working out so well so far, hasn't it?
We have just as much evidence that your strategy of coddling the culpable is to blame. Arguing is easy if you just presume (without evidence) that you're correct, and then in fact dismiss the very idea of forming evidence-based beliefs as a problem in and of itself.
You keep missing the core of my point that the "culpability" of the actual person you were attacking is ancillary at best. As I said: when someone is coming to their own realizations, the last thing you want to do is interrupt them.
Maybe if you care deeply about outcomes, you should expect to want to have a minimum level of familiarity with that topic before weighing in on it.
Maybe it should he generally accepted that to gain a minimum level of familiarity on a topic, you should prioritize hearing from scientists and experts in the field, rather than influencers and political actors.
'A politician told me they'd do something good and i vigorously believed them despite the complete lack of evidence they knew wtf they were talking about'
Yeah, it blows my mind how many people I encounter who say things like "I thought what So-and-So was saying when they were added to this administration seemed reasonable at face value, so I was shocked to later discover their actions were inconsistent with what they were saying."
Like... that's the whole MO of the administration. None of the "reasonable" positions are genuine; they only exist to entice leniency from the gullible. It's been that way since day 1.
For me I am not shocked at the behavior of this administration, and I know many other people had a shift in sentiment toward RFK Jr after he joined the Trump campaign in 2024.
I find it to be even worse. They’d say exactly what they were going to do and between the stupidity of voters and the sane-washing from the media, people simply did not believe them! And then you ask them now and they say they didn’t vote for this! Yes, you very literally did. Nothing about what ICE is doing was a secret or a surprise.
I remember talking with my mom about Trump's immigration policies. They were saying they wanted to round up every undocumented immigrant. They were saying they wanted to go out and find them and do what they've done. I told her I had friends who, despite being citizens, were fearful for themselves being identified as "not white enough". My mom said "They're only going to go after the violent ones". Which is not at all what the campaign or his cabinet said. It was wishful thinking and lies said on the right-wing networks, mixed with problematic stories of the occasional undocumented immigrant who was a repeat offender let out by city processes.
It's a lot of things, but one thing this admin does is take a reasonable grievance that requires reasonable change, and amplify anger in order to take drastic measures for their own benefits and ideology.
> one thing this admin does is take a reasonable grievance that requires reasonable change, and amplify anger in order to take drastic measures for their own benefits
Spot on! The people who actually care the most about the issues the regime is championing should really be their loudest critics! Instead they seem to be content just "being heard" or "owning the libs"? They'd better be enjoying it while it lasts, because what it's actually doing is burning (arbitraging) all the political capital that these issues had accumulated.
Like I for one don't want to hear a peep about "immigration enforcement" going forward - its proponents had their moment, and they squandered it on having an anti-Constitutional tantrum.
> ... and ideology
The only ideologies I've found to line up with the regime's actions are 1. self-enrichment, 2. anarcho-capitalism, 3. malevolent foreign influence, 4. religious fundamentalism. 2/3/4 are essentially all just aimed at destroying the government/society for different reasons.
He testified in court his brainworm had damaged his brain so much he could not reliably work and pay alimony to his ex wife. I don't think it's too much to say people who have had debilitating brainworn infections should not be in charge of public health.
I'm only repeating what he said. I agree, I think the drugs cooked his brain way more than any damage from the brainworm. And you're right, this is just the weaponization of government against the people, the very thing conservatives are supposed to be against.
No matter how genuine and truthful he may or may not be, it was all over the moment they made him eat the McDonald's burger on airforce one for that photo op.
> RFK Jr's stated goals and values and his actions in practice.
His long term goals and opinions are 100% consistent with his current actions and decisions.
> would really like to see more policy (from whomever: local, state, federal, judiciary, legislative, executive, red, blue, green, black) that actually accomplishes some of the things that RFK Jr says that he wants to accomplish.
You are getting that and seeing that. Including measles and sick people dying more.
True, but recognize the spin. Pretend that in the last election you were skeptical of the reigning government medical establishment and you did buy into some of the conspiracies, or at least thought they had some element of truth. Assume you were wrong and that you have good enough presence of mind to now feel duped.
I was always team "RFK Jr clearly bad," but to be honest I didn't put much work into forming that opinion.
I rather like the MAHA messaging, particularly when they claim that Europe has safer food standards and we have to catch. It disappoints me that RFK Jr might just be either corrupt or a useful idiot to chemical companies.
The person you are responded to is offering a very reasonable line of thought that you yourself might not disagree with (seeing as you didn’t even respond to the point): “EU has better regulations, we should follow those”.
And you’re response, like many others here, is basically “you’re dumb”
That type of bad faith divisiveness will keep us locked into a political tension that continues to allow charlatans to gain power by taking advantage of desperate people.
Most people are good, and most people want the same basic things (good economy, fair pay, peace, good outcomes for their family and children). It would be wonderful for people to focus more on these commonalities and the divisive bullshit media feeds us to keep us angry.
It’s wonderful that people are generally good and want good things, but it would be better if people gave more deference to the opinions of scientists and experts in the field, rather than politicians and influencers with no relevant experience but who say things that agree with what they already want to believe.
I too want good things, and I am perpetually frustrated by those who actively work against those outcomes, regardless of their stated intentions.
Listen, I agree with you. But brow beating people and making them feel like idiot is how you build an angry group of reactionaries that end up voting Trump or some other corrosive figure into office.
Basically people just ought to be nicer to eachother and understand that, anyone of us or them can be misinformed. Very get people are actively trying to lie or knowingly do the wrong thing. So giving people a little grace and not making them feel like idiots is the way.
But yes, I know that’s can be exhausting as fuck after over a decade of madness. But that’s to only way out, the make the country stop hating eachother.
Any one of us can be misinformed. But learning that you backed the wrong horse needs to be an opportunity for self-reflection and reassessment rather than “it couldn’t be me that was wrong, the horse must have been corrupt”.
If you voted for a candidate and you realize afterward it was a mistake—regardless of the reason—the path forward is to figure out why your picker was wrong, not to write it off as the fault of the guy you picked.
You’re right that acknowledging a mistake and correcting is the right and noble path, but my approach of compassion, understanding, and common ground is the only way that leads to that outcome. When instead you brow beat them and call them dumb, they always double down. Then points of difference turn into anger, which turns into hatred.
At some point each of us have to take the personally responsibility to stop getting high off the fumes of our own self righteousness.
To be clear, I never called them dumb or brow-beated. I suggested prioritizing the opinions of scientists and field experts over those of politicians with convincing messaging.
It's complicated in that the fed gov agencies are so big and the top down bossing-around they are trying to do isn't very effective.
It's better to focus on the simple facts about RFKJR, he cares about celebs and cocktail parties, he doesn't really care about leadership or running a health agency.
Moral Foundations Theory [1] asserts that socially conservative people particularly value concepts of sanctity and purity - particularly when associated with their own bodies. Hence vaccine refusal, mask refusal and belief in conspiracy theories during the pandemic, etc.
I've long suspected the RFK jr's role is simply to exploit that for his, and his political owner's, benefit. Thata all. The man has no redeeming qualities.
Rfk cares a lot about money, during his confirmation hearings the only time he got hot under the collar was when his legal challenges to earn a payout against drug companies was talked about.
> I posted this because I thought it both interesting and troubling to see the disconnect between RFK Jr's stated goals and values and his actions in practice.
What exactly are you expecting someone who doesn't think germ theory is true?
This is the outcome when you have lobbyists control a government. In this
regard the Trump-administration is by far the most hostile to people.
You still have to wonder why Trump has a 30% support base; that should be
at 0% already but some people can not think on their own (excluding the 5%
who benefit personally from the Trump clique).
No matter what you may argue about whether or not these specific chemicals are safe at the contaminant dosage, we do not NEED more poorly studied chemicals present in our environment.
If a chemical coating on a 2000 lbs grain bag was enough to harm children who ate grain stored in the bags, then think about the impact on the person in the coating factory who probably receives a dose 10^9 x bigger without PPE, and probably 10^6 bigger with PPE, because very little PPE keeps out more than 99.9% of whats outside.
Something about the story doesn't add up. Either people are dying every day in the coating factory (unlikely), or the coating, whilst measurable, isn't as dangerous as the article implies.
Inhalation is different from ingestion, for one. I can handle gallons of liquid hydrogen cyanide, but it takes much less than that to kill me if it contaminates my food. The articles say perchlorates are harmful at 0.5 ppb. That's pretty demanding, so to me the article makes sense.
Perhaps. Or perhaps the factory knows that there's no effective oversight and that reports of bad working conditions can be smoothed over with a political donation or a negligible fine, and starts deprioritizing safety, monitoring, and maintenance of existing safety systems.
Someone once told me that if you have an ingredient that may have 0.3% toxins and you bought a cheap badge with 0.4% and a quality badge with 0.25% it is awfully tempting to mix them as close to 0.29% as possible. You might even convince the quality supplier to aim for 0.2% so that you can use the almost worthless 0.5% It isn't unthinkable that some would use the food supply to somewhat legally dispose of 100% toxic materials. Properly mixing is really hard and you cant really trust people who would do such a thing to mix in the poisons "properly".
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[ 1.4 ms ] story [ 27.4 ms ] threadI guess US people are not damaged, dumbed down enough. Now the Trump admin wants to make sure kids are at high risk for brain damage. At least the cuts to colleges by Trump will not matter once TOR hits "critical mass".
so many clowns to chose from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_cabinet_of_Donald_Trump
Hegseth, Kennedy and Vought I think would be most productive focus
But if Dems don't get Senate country is doomed anyway so pointless
i guess it sounds scary? but it almost implies rocket fuel is somehow involved in grain transport lol. the real reason for its use i guess is to control static electricity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perchlorate#:~:text=control-,s...
this is like that one time people came to my school to talk about vapes, and one of their talking points was "vapes can contain formaldehyde, and formaldehyde is used to preserve dead specimens/tissue samples" ; they did not get my issue with the lack of causal reasoning in that argument :P
It's an unrestricted work visa: 3 years, unlimited in/out, no requirement to get a job in Taiwan (or work at all), total allowance for remote work for foreign companies, lower tax rate, and eligibility for the state-subsidized national health insurance program after 6 months in the country. How'd you like to pay 10$ for an xray after being scanned and seen by a doctor within 30 minutes of walking into an ER? That's our life here!
We have lots of tech folks from all over the world here and regularly have co-working meetups, hackathons, fireside chats, and talks. Also our food doesn't have toxic chemicals in it :)
You can learn more here: https://goldcard.nat.gov.tw/en/
p.s. YC startup school is coming here this year https://events.ycombinator.com/startup-school-taipei
The time zone would make it tough for non global teams I imagine. Interested to hear what types of companies make it work.
Every once in a while I meet someone that's keeping to USA time zone work hours but they usually don't last. I've been working USA / UK gigs for 5 years now keeping to my time zone without issue. Sometimes gotta catch an 11pm meeting, not bad. For software engineering it kinda doesn't matter what time of the day works get done? Companies: for me it's all been startups, two YC ones and a couple random other ones.
There are some hardware folks I know out here and they are both way busier and way more successful than us hordes of coworking software engineers that chill at cafes all day. Also I know a couple that gave up their tech jobs and started a hotsauce company, they're doing pretty well. People get up to all sorts of stuff out her. I even made a restaurant play. Not recommended!
Beyond that there are numerous repeated and scientifically proven to cause permanent brain damage or even death in sufficient concentrations. How long will Washington insiders profit while our nation continues to sicken.
I would really like to see more policy (from whomever: local, state, federal, judiciary, legislative, executive, red, blue, green, black) that actually accomplishes some of the things that RFK Jr says that he wants to accomplish.
Even more informative in this case: did he sell his endorsement to said rapist/fraudster in exchange for a cabinet position?
You could know literally zero percent of anything about anything in the world and know that this is not a person to be trusted.
Shame on you. Glad you’re opening your eyes now, but it’s your shame to wear now too.
I definitely understand being angry, there is certainly blame to be had, and perhaps there is an argument to be made that supporting RFK Jr was a poor idea even before he joined the destructionist grifters. But save your vitriol for the ignorant ones who actually voted for Grump, and most especially for the unrepentant ones who are still cheering as our country's institutions burn.
This regime thrives on hate, including hate for it.
There's no evidence whatsoever that excusing and forgiving these people's credulity and contempt has done any good whatsoever.
If you fuck up, especially in a way that damages your country so deeply, then you need to feel bad, and you need to suck up the fact that your countrymen will criticize you for it. That's the downside of fucking up.
You don't get to say "okay I'll acknowledge that I fucked up as long as you guys be nice to me for doing so." No. A literal 3rd grader couldn't get away with such a position, and neither should any adult capable of having an opinion on any of this stuff.
And? Were they a Clinton voter before that moment? Spoiler: No.
> [this] bullshit is exactly how the Democratic party shares the blame for Trump 2024
No, it's not. Clinton was one of the most disliked people in the entire country going into the election, and Harris came to a close second. Especially in an era of high inflation where incumbents were ousted in pretty much every single election in the entire world. The DNC put up truly horrible candidates and lost.
> It has been working out so well so far, hasn't it?
We have just as much evidence that your strategy of coddling the culpable is to blame. Arguing is easy if you just presume (without evidence) that you're correct, and then in fact dismiss the very idea of forming evidence-based beliefs as a problem in and of itself.
Maybe it should he generally accepted that to gain a minimum level of familiarity on a topic, you should prioritize hearing from scientists and experts in the field, rather than influencers and political actors.
Like... that's the whole MO of the administration. None of the "reasonable" positions are genuine; they only exist to entice leniency from the gullible. It's been that way since day 1.
Maybe because he launched missiles at them last presidency?
It's a lot of things, but one thing this admin does is take a reasonable grievance that requires reasonable change, and amplify anger in order to take drastic measures for their own benefits and ideology.
Spot on! The people who actually care the most about the issues the regime is championing should really be their loudest critics! Instead they seem to be content just "being heard" or "owning the libs"? They'd better be enjoying it while it lasts, because what it's actually doing is burning (arbitraging) all the political capital that these issues had accumulated.
Like I for one don't want to hear a peep about "immigration enforcement" going forward - its proponents had their moment, and they squandered it on having an anti-Constitutional tantrum.
> ... and ideology
The only ideologies I've found to line up with the regime's actions are 1. self-enrichment, 2. anarcho-capitalism, 3. malevolent foreign influence, 4. religious fundamentalism. 2/3/4 are essentially all just aimed at destroying the government/society for different reasons.
To be fair, it's the same type of self-perpetuating destruction they've been playing with education the whole time.
His long term goals and opinions are 100% consistent with his current actions and decisions.
> would really like to see more policy (from whomever: local, state, federal, judiciary, legislative, executive, red, blue, green, black) that actually accomplishes some of the things that RFK Jr says that he wants to accomplish.
You are getting that and seeing that. Including measles and sick people dying more.
I was always team "RFK Jr clearly bad," but to be honest I didn't put much work into forming that opinion.
What you are seeing today is the inevitable and wholly consistent outcome of putting the messaging of MAGA into practice.
And you’re response, like many others here, is basically “you’re dumb”
That type of bad faith divisiveness will keep us locked into a political tension that continues to allow charlatans to gain power by taking advantage of desperate people.
Most people are good, and most people want the same basic things (good economy, fair pay, peace, good outcomes for their family and children). It would be wonderful for people to focus more on these commonalities and the divisive bullshit media feeds us to keep us angry.
I too want good things, and I am perpetually frustrated by those who actively work against those outcomes, regardless of their stated intentions.
Basically people just ought to be nicer to eachother and understand that, anyone of us or them can be misinformed. Very get people are actively trying to lie or knowingly do the wrong thing. So giving people a little grace and not making them feel like idiots is the way.
But yes, I know that’s can be exhausting as fuck after over a decade of madness. But that’s to only way out, the make the country stop hating eachother.
If you voted for a candidate and you realize afterward it was a mistake—regardless of the reason—the path forward is to figure out why your picker was wrong, not to write it off as the fault of the guy you picked.
You’re right that acknowledging a mistake and correcting is the right and noble path, but my approach of compassion, understanding, and common ground is the only way that leads to that outcome. When instead you brow beat them and call them dumb, they always double down. Then points of difference turn into anger, which turns into hatred.
At some point each of us have to take the personally responsibility to stop getting high off the fumes of our own self righteousness.
It's better to focus on the simple facts about RFKJR, he cares about celebs and cocktail parties, he doesn't really care about leadership or running a health agency.
I've long suspected the RFK jr's role is simply to exploit that for his, and his political owner's, benefit. Thata all. The man has no redeeming qualities.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_foundations_theory
Note that I am French so this question is because over here he has always been seen as a conman
Not a public servant.
What exactly are you expecting someone who doesn't think germ theory is true?
* https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/06/14/nx...
* https://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/1...
Something about the story doesn't add up. Either people are dying every day in the coating factory (unlikely), or the coating, whilst measurable, isn't as dangerous as the article implies.
How did you arrive at six orders of magnitude? Are the workers ingesting the bags?
https://www.fishersci.co.uk/store/msds?partNumber=10031501&p...
The answer always seems to be “we don’t like these big companies putting additives in food but we’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas”
From European point of view even bread sold in USA is Molotov cocktail