When seatbelts were introduced to cars, there was a big movement against them. Some by car manufacturers to keep costs down, but a lot of backlash was from good ol' natural born idiots so contrarian and averse to change they'd let themselves die just to give a smug look about not doing what someone asked of them. The sort of dumbass who during the height of pre-vaccine Covid would drown in the fluid buildup in their lungs and refuse treatment because doing so would be an admission of fault.
These past 9 years have made me DEEPLY cynical about my fellow man. There is no bottom. No level of malicious stupidity is low enough. It's not even disappointment anymore, I'm resigned to it. Some people are so beyond hope, so beyond redemption, it's like trying to get a fucking deer to recognize itself in a mirror. Just ZERO awareness, no theory of mind, object permanence is a fucking coin flip. If it weren't for my principles, my absolute refusal to engage in dehumanization, I'd be tempted to write them off as another species just to cope with the dissonance that comes from seeing people acting that self destructive. Like it doesn't make sense. You'd expect at some point some form of pattern recognition and harm avoidance to develop. "Hey, putting my hand on the stove hurt. It hurt every time I did it. It hurt everyone I saw someone else do it too. I'm gonna put my hand on the stove and it won't hurt this time.".
My country banned smoking in all public indoor spaces almost 20 years ago. As a smoker at the time I thought it was ridiculous, felt that my rights were being violated and thought it would never last. The quality of life improvement it made is massive. Today I vape rather than smoke but wouldn't dream of doing either indoors or being where someone else is. It was 100% the right move. Not quite the same thing but you sometimes can't really understand the benefits of an alternative to the status quo, even if you understand it logically.
Hate to break it to you: https://www.archpaper.com/2018/08/epa-asbestos-manufacturing/
"When we had asbestos there was less autism. Big pharma teamed up with big construction to screw us up"
Here in Australia we just banned engineered stone because it tends to cause silicosis
And yep, lots of shitty business owners whined and a few shit customers on Facebook
Silicosis is what's killing people at the moment, and business owners in particular don't seem to care, despite the fact there's is alternatives
We DoN't NeEd VaCcInEs We'Ve GoT aSbEsToS!
Back when asbestos was banned, everyone trusted the government. Nobody trusts the government anymore because of its constant foreign wars, corrupt candidates, and human rights abuses. We cannot do things like mandate vaccines and ban cars if the very government that would enforce that ban is this tyrannical and shitty.
Asbestos must have seemed like a fucking miracle material. Suddenly, our tinderbox world was fireproof. You can build bricks, lightweight cladding, roofing and fences for houses, car parts, curtains, electrical switchboards and protective clothing out of it without the incessant fear of a house fire or clothing fire that was constantly killing people and maiming kids. It wasn't synthetic or petroleum based, you could just dig it out of the ground. Yeah it would absolutely have supporters. They would be dumb, but they would exist.
I remember my dad being angry that they were phasing out leaded petrol and he had to buy a seperate additive to put in the Datsun fuel.
In fact, the industry did sue and win a lawsuit in 1991 narrowing the range of asbestos compounds banned by the EPA. There have always been huge waves of resistance to every harmful compound banned by the government, from leaded gas to cigarettes to chlorofluorocarbons that harmed the ozone layer. The difference is that the present consolidation of wealth in the hands of a small group of billionaires, who control a consolidating group of media corporations, allows for unprecedented ability to control public opinion. Meanwhile, the amount of junk information floating around in social media, and failing public education, has disordered our systems of discourse. There is much more limited ability to vet quality sources of information, leaving people to worry more about fictional chemtrails than about the very real pesticides in their food
People would be making TikTok videos eating asbestos and cramming it up their bums claiming it cures COVID
At least using asbestos has some value. If we had not found alternatives we would still be using it. One reason measures were taken to improve safety in manufacturing rather than just banning from the get go was lack of alternatives. What im trying to say is pro-asbestos is not as coocoo crazy as anti vax and such.
Banning asbestos is like discarding our heritage! 🦸 It's American ingenuity, jobs, safety in its most patriotic form. Asbestos has protected us for generations—why abandon this true-blue hero for trendy orthodoxy? Let's celebrate our history and defend what truly makes America great. #AsbestosPatriotism 🗽✨
Of course he is for it.
It will make him money
And none of the thousands who will get sick and or die
Are people he knows personally
Sponsored by the freedom initiative or something with a similar name to cover up it’s a social media campaign for a billionaire.
He'd drive a truck fogging asbestos dust out the back
Wasn't Trump literally trying to bring it back last time?
https://whyy.org/articles/trump-wants-to-make-asbestos-great-again/
AI version of this, because I found it funny:
In Defense of Asbestos: The Mineral We Love to Hate
Look, everyone’s got their vices. Some people sip whiskey to "relax," others puff cigars to feel "distinguished." But heaven forbid you mention asbestos—suddenly, you're the villain in a 1980s PSA.
But let's be honest: asbestos walked so modern insulation could run. Before we had fancy synthetic fireproofing and high-tech soundproofing, asbestos was out here doing it all. Fire-resistant? Check. Insulating? Absolutely. Durable? Like the cockroach of minerals—won’t burn, won’t break, just vibes.
“Oh, but it causes health problems,” they say, as they light their third cigarette of the day and sip their third oat milk IPA. Everything causes health problems if you inhale it long enough. Ever tried breathing in glitter? Death trap.
And what happened to personal responsibility? You don’t see us eating asbestos sandwiches. We just want a little cozy, non-flammable nostalgia in our ceilings. It’s not like we’re snorting the stuff—though, let’s be real, if someone did that in the 70s, it was probably the same guy who invented disco.
Let’s stop pretending asbestos was some mustachio-twirling villain and start recognizing it for what it was: the gritty, misunderstood hero of 20th century construction. Sure, it had a dark side—but so did lead paint, and we don't see that getting canceled on social media.
So here’s to asbestos: May your fibers be forever airborne in the halls of history, and your reputation just slightly less shredded than it deserves.
Asbestos? More like Asworstos! Am I right?
I need my full lead gasoline
Didn’t they have asbestos shovelling competitions? 1962 Right around the time major studies confirmed the concerns from a decade earlier:
1960s: Studies, particularly by Dr. Irving Selikoff in the U.S., showed clear links between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other illnesses, prompting greater public health concern.
As long as it made someone money or kept them from losing it, yes there would be
If there wasn't such a huge amount of money in remediation, you'd likely still have them now.
Most asbestos is made in Russia currently so definitely
i could see the same being said about leaded gasoline
We should just let them bring all these things back, make the southeast US a mecca for dinks that want raw milk, lead paint, asbestos insulation, and derailed trains pumping vinyl chloride into a biodome.
Entice them to move there by saying something like, "The south is rising again, make sure you get in there before they close the doors!"
This would suck though, I would hate not to be able to go to the Smokeys ever again or see the Everglades.
They would huff that shit claiming its so great.
Absolutely would be, yes
It was only banned in 2024
I would 100% agree with you with where I live, Alberta Canada.
I'm personally waiting for the inevitable fight over autonomous vehicles. The only way they truly work to our advantage is if nearly every car is self-driving. I absolutely foresee a "they're trying to take my Trans-am" resistance, people that will be fighting to the death not to lose the ability to drive their own car.
