Until we realign our society with people rather than profit, all these people-eating machines will keep eating people

Hansen told me that, for the next 19 years, she avoided the subject of fluorochemicals with the same intensity with which she had once pursued it. She focused on raising her kids and coaching a cross-country ski team; she worked a variety of jobs at 3M, none related to fluorochemicals. In 2002, when 3M announced that it would be replacing PFOS with another fluorochemical, PFBS, Hansen knew that it, too, would remain in the environment indefinitely. Still, she decided not to involve herself. She skipped over articles about the chemicals in scientific journals and newspapers, where they were starting to be linked to possible developmental, immune system and liver problems. (In 2006, after the EPA accused 3M of violating the Toxic Substances Control Act, in part by repeatedly ­failing to disclose the harms of fluorochemicals promptly, the company agreed to pay a small penalty of $1.5 million, without admitting wrongdoing.)

— Sharon Lerner, "Toxic Gaslighting How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe"

The scale of harm reported in Lerner's story is overwhelming 😳

As though it's not enough to be learning that PFAS chemicals are harmful and everywhere, we learn that the executives of the company making the stuff had a pretty good idea it wasn't good for us or the environment—in the '70s—but decided to keep making it anyway. For profit.

Again.

This isn't a problem that can be fixed by changing any one company. They're all like this. Every for-profit corporation on the planet will eat you and your family and everyone you know, for profit. Some rich assholes will have signed the order while thinking of nothing more than how much richer they'll be after their people-eating machine eats more people. That's the nature of this beast. Until we realign our society with people rather than profit, all these people-eating machines will keep eating people.

You are people.

If you would rather not be eaten, and you think it's generally a bad idea to make people-eating machines in the first place, then you, my friend, are an anti-capitalist.

Welcome.

We have a lot of work to do.

#ProPublica #Journalism #3M #PFAS #AntiCapitalist

I remember first learning about the Battle of Blair Mountain—long after finishing school, of course, because the incredible history of the U.S. labor movement in the early 20th century isn't taught in our public schools—and wondering how there wasn't at least one decent movie about this particular episode in U.S. history. It's years later, and as far as I know there still isn't one. Can't say I'm surprised 😒

Matewan is worth a watch, if you haven't seen it 👀

While not great and not about the Battle of Blair Mountain specifically, it's a decent film about the Battle of Matewan, a precursor to the Battle of Blair Mountain.

@histodons@fedigroups.social
#USA #AntiCapitalist #History #UShistory #LaborHistory #CoalWars #LearnYourHistory #Movies #TMDb #Wikipedia

What is »permacomputing«?

„Permacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in computer and network technology inspired by permaculture.

There are huge environmental and societal issues in today's computing, and permacomputing specifically wants to challenge them in the same way as permaculture has challenged industrial agriculture. With that said, permacomputing is an anti-capitalist political project. It is driven by several strands of anarchism, decoloniality, intersectional feminism, post-marxism, degrowth, ecologism.

Permacomputing is also a utopian ideal that needs a lot of rethinking, rebuilding and technical design work to put in practice. This is why a lot of material on this wiki is highly technical.

Most importantly, there is no permacomputing kit to buy. See permacomputing as invitation to collectively and radically rethink computational culture. It is not a tech solution searching for a problem. You are free to start your own initiative and use the term permacomputing, however please make sure you understand the purpose and ethos of this project.“

Hm, interesting concept!

https://permacomputing.net/

#permacomputing #community #technology #environment #anticapitalist #degrowth